MEPIS Community Forum

Thanks for the feedback.. The processor Saist proposed looked OK but the feedback on the motherboard was iffy. We were trying to stay with full ATX motherboards. Also I have noticed that my costs have gone up $46 in a week to $518. The combo that JimC found puts me back at $500. I need to look at that combo better. Wish we had a better budget.

Topher: reason I pointed to that motherboard rather than another FM1 board is that I had actually used that particular motherboard for a client. There probably are better FM1 motherboard choices if you are looking at regular ATX boards.

I sure feel outside my comfort zone trying to pull together a good budget system that will be used by the community lab. They mostly do mundane stuff teaching people how to use their computers, organize their computers, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, organizing pictures, genealogy (the program they have runs on XP and they don't have the funds to upgrade to Win7 version), how to e-mail, how to protect yourself on the internet, just a bunch of different mostly simple things. Plus I want to make sure it will run Linux. But hardware is really outside my comfort zone - I know enough to be dangerous and I don't want to mess this up. It is one thing to build for myself and quite another to offer a system for a bunch of others. There isn't anyone of us in the lab that keep things going that knows all that much about hardware.

I'll tell you what I told Fargo -- you made good choices originally, and have been offered good suggestions afterwards. Just do it and don't look back. You've not chosen anything you'll regret, and for your pedestrian needs, you'll be fine for a long time.

Just do it.

I think you guys need a hard lesson in businesses sense, you are not buying the components for 1 computer, but for 12, and 12 means extra discounts on the price, contact the sales dept, and ask what extra they are going to give, and if they say none, go else where and I assure you the price will come down, or the spec will go up.

Danum, you are correct, and I haven't forgotten that part. But I need to feel comfortable with the parts I am recommending and I am certainly not a hardware guy. I have only assembled one computer in my life and that was for me. If I made a mistake, it only affected me. But this this is another level and a goof-up or an "I didn't realize that" affects 12 systems. They already know me as that crazy Linux guy and grudgingly let me have an occasional workshop to promote Linux. My goal was to be able to install Mepis and be able to show dual booting and Linux in workshops instead of a dog & pony show without hands on. And if I mess up with my recommendation on parts and they go with it and I miss something, they might still fight me on dual booting. These computers have to be able to last for five or six years. I think probably 98% of what we do in the lab is just easy basic stuff and would run just fine on the parts we have talked about but I am not familiar with the demands of Win7 running virtual. I suspect the need for us to run virtual XP will diminish as time goes on. The others keep pushing people to upgrade to Win7 and that gives me the opportunity to talk about saving their old equipment and try Linux.

Enough rambling on
If I read the specs correctly, I will need a graphics card with the mobo that Saist recommended. So choice one is:
AMD - A-Series APU - AD3870WNGXBOX
ASUS - F1A75-M PRO
plus grapics card

And choice two is:
AMD - FX Series FD4100WMGUSBX
ASUS M5A88-V EVO

Which one would be a better choice?

No matter which one you pick, buy one first and test that everything is working as intended. Then buy parts for the other computers.
Henry

Huh? I think you must be looking at a different model or something.

The F1A75-M PRO that Saist suggested has DVI, D-Sub (a.k.a, VGA) and HDMI connections. Click on the Details tab and you'll see them:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131764

You'll see more detailed specs (resolutions supported, etc.) on the manufacturer's product page for it (just click on the specifications tab and you'll see a Graphics Section):

http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_So ... 1A75M_PRO/

The AMD A8-3870K CPU (or APU as AMD likes to call them) that Raist suggested for use with it has HD 6550D integrated graphics:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819106001

It tests nicely compared to most integrated graphics, and also outperforms the lower cost entry level video cards like the Radeon HD 5450, Nvidia GT 210 and Nvidia GT 520. See the passmark tests for it here:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video ... n+HD+6550D

Here's a 17 page review of that motherboard I found with a quick google search:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1644/1/

You can get both that MB and CPU in a combo for $219.98 from newegg.com right now (as mentioned in previous posts):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.835839

I said I was not a hardware guy.
I saw that the mobo had no onboard video chipset and assumed that we needed a graphics card. I like the idea of doing one system for testing before committing and actually thought of that sometime around 4 this morning when I woke up thinking about this project. Thank you for your support and help.