Athalon 3000+

[fos]

I finally assembled my new comp. It has a 200 Gb Seagate HD, 1 Gb DDR memory, a Sony DVD +- R DL in an Aspire box. I have been burning it in with GRML all afternoon. The CPU & HD stay about 2 degrees C above ambient so it must be doing ok. I'm going to add another HD and another Gb of memory when I get back from another trip to Florida next week. This thing is about 3X as fast as anything I have had.

I'm going to install WinXP Pro and CentOS 4.3 either this evening or tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to playing. This will be the first time I have had a Windows box since the end of last semester. I have to have the Win partition for a couple of proprietary grading programs the school requires.

I can't wait to play!

fos....

PS. The Aspire box is pretty cramped. The CPU with the cooler and fan installed just wouldn't slide in with the tray as advertised. I had to remove the fan and then place it back on after the mobo was in. Even with that, I had to clip off two plactic guides for the fan on the heat sink so it would slide under a bracket. The bracket was held in place by rivets not screws. :( I had to remove the power supply to visually locate some of the cable sockets. What a PITA! Two nicks and a few four letter words. Someone on the DSL-N forum even warned me about the sharp edges on the Aspire. Not bad for a blind guy. :)

[fos]

I sure don't like windows! I have it installed and running but it seems sluggish after using linux almost entirely.

This board has nvidia chips. Everything in CentOS is working pretty well except the internet connection. I can't get ethernet setup. Knoppix and grml both recognize the hardware so I'm thinking it must be a kernel problem.

I may just install a nic and leave the kernel alone. Good option?

fos....

[danieldk]

What onboard NIC does it have? At any rate, with Realtek NICs far below $10, it probably isn't worth the hassle ;).

[fos]

It appears to be an nvidia nforce (Via Southbridge) interface. According to the CentOS forum, it isn't real reliable once you get it working. I'm heading up to the shop for a realtek.

Thank you

[fos]

The Realtek NIC solved the problem. The system not only connects reliably, it seems to be faster.

Unfortunately, WalMart no longer carries NICs since just about every computer comes with one built in. I purchased one at the local repair shop for $20. I could have purchased it for half that at my usual supplier but they are accross town and its not worth the drive for a small item.

fos....

[bhobjj]

. Knoppix and grml both recognize the hardware so I'm thinking it must be a kernel problem.

I may just install a nic and leave the kernel alone. Good option?

fos....

I'd do a grml2hd. It only takes 8 to 10 minutes.
Install bootloader to root partition.
and apt-get install favorite desktop
Easiest Sid (or Etch) install there is.


Grml has all the tools you need.

-BoB

[fos]

I really like grml. It has over 2500 command line tools! I use it all the time.

I'm trying to learn my way around RHEL. CentOS is the best way to do that. I'm going to put another disk drive in my new computer when I return from my next trip to Florida and install grml and a couple of other distros.

Probably LFS and Slackware. I still have fond memories of Slack in the post SLS days.

fos...

[jpaulb]

It appears to be an nvidia nforce (Via Southbridge) interface. According to the CentOS forum, it isn't real reliable once you get it working. I'm heading up to the shop for a realtek.

Thank you

I am using a MSI K8N Neo4 with with a AMS3200+ (939 pin) this has the Nvidia nForce 4 Ultra chipset. absolutely no problem with the chip set.
I running Debian etch 32 bit, untill openoffice is 64 bit.
As a LTSP server it is Faaaast. Openoffice 2.x loads in less than 5 seconds on a thin client!!!!

[fos]

Pure Debian is about the only thing I haven't tried on my new box. Can you believe that? I have to go back to Florida for a few days. I'm going to take my Mini-ITX system. I'll load Debian on the 3000+ as soon as I get back to Texas. :)

Thanks, fos....

[jpaulb]

It appears to be an nvidia nforce (Via Southbridge) interface. According to the CentOS forum, it isn't real reliable once you get it working. I'm heading up to the shop for a realtek.

Thank you

I think the driver you need is delft for the nvidia nic

[Red_FoX]

ive got a system with an amd athlon 3000 it works fine to me, it can be sluggish sometimes tho. but its all i need. fos if the case u bought came wih a psu, buy another 1 cuz asire doesnt have any good power supplies, ive bought 3 so far ana all have burnt out. ive contacted aspire for replacement instructions but they never reply to my e-mails. aspire as well as ati could use some quality control.

[fos]

The this old curmudgeon the Athalon 3000+ is a screamer. I like some of the features of the Aspire case but I doubt that I will buy another. It isn't as robust as their advertising leads one to believe. I don't use mine much since it has Windoze on it. It is mainly for grading and experimentation.

ATI was just purchased by AMD so maybe their quality control will improve.

fos....

[Red_FoX]

ive got a big aluminum aspire case a year ago, so far..the front door has broken off, but i still love the case. its soo big and roomy and my mobo looks great in it. w/ the uv led's and black sleeved psu it looks great. i plan on watercooling with some uv-recative liquid, thatd loook sweet. i mainly bought my case because it has the appropiate amount of room between the top of the psu and the top of the case (2.3 inches) just enough for a watercooling radiator.. i always plan ahead when i buy something like a case.

link to my case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144090

i might put some non-uv reactive black fans with uv led's jsut to make it look good. the blue light is really powerful when trying to sleep. i made a switch in one of the 3.5 floppy drive bays for the lights n the front of the case. the fan control burnt out on the front of the case also. but the old psu that burnt out (also made by aspire) uses the same kindof fan control so ill just scrap the old psu that burnt out.