[LUAU] Who's building system units?

[Jeff Mings]

    Building boxes is so commoditized that the time to assemble and the 
risk potential of fixing issues with multiple points of responsibility 
hasn't been worth it for a long time.  I've been buying dirt-cheap Dell 
boxes for my windows-using clients for a long time; they work well, 
driver and tracking support on the Dell site is good, and their 
reliability record has been excellent.

    I recently bought a shuttle k-4500 for about $230 from Newegg (it's 
not there anymore) and dropped Kubuntu onto it for use as a client's 
home server; except for an optical drive, the box had everything I 
needed for a simple server.  I just added a 2nd NIC and had a complete 
compact server for less than $300.  Buying the barebones version and 
adding cpu, RAM, drive, would not have been worth the effort.

    The cost of parts for self-assembly often turns out to be more than 
buying a cheap complete box.

    KDE 4.1 is very pretty and available in a new Kubuntu remix on the 
Ubuntu site.  Putting that on the cheap Shuttle box might be a winner 
for your friend.

Aloha,

-Jeff Mings

P.s.  The more I use Ubuntu / Kubuntu, the more I am impressed by it.  I 
still find odd things, like not having an xinetd installed by default, 
but I'm really finding more and more to like about the distro.


Karen Lofstrom wrote:
> My old Zen teacher's computer is a battered hand-me-down
> (approximately seven years old) on its last legs. The CD drive has
> failed and the HD is making unpleasant noises. He may need a new
> computer soon. I could assemble one from parts, but it might be too
> expensive to buy all the parts retail and have them shipped here. If
> you're going all new (rather than just upgrading a few failing parts)
> I gather that it's *usually* cheaper to buy from someone who gets the
> parts wholesale. So, who here in Honolulu is building PCs now? Who's
> reliable?
>
> I should add that all he does with the computer is: use Word and
> Outlook (bleaagh), listen to an Internet classical music station, and
> watch the Democracy Now vlog. He's 91 and is still confused by
> computers. He doesn't need a gamer's computer.
>
> --
> Karen Lofstrom
> _______________________________________________
> LUAU at lists.freesoftwarehawaii.org mailing list
> http://lists.freesoftwarehawaii.org/listinfo.cgi/luau-freesoftwarehawaii.org
>