[nmglug] a new home computer -- tips?

[Brendan]

Mark Galassi wrote:
>> What's your budget?
> 
> I'd like to keep it under $1000, in fact much under that, but
> I'm really just trying to get info like "Dell's new line has
> good disk controllers and is quiet", or "HP has leapfrogged
> Dell in features/price ratio", or "the Dell xyz line has a crap
> motherboard".

How much power do you actually need?  Would an atom-based system be 
useful?  Consider the MSI Wind Nettop ($150 at newegg).  Dual core 1.6 
CPUs, plus *useful* hyperthreading, room for a 2 3.5" SATA drives (Even 
the monster 2TB drives from WD work) or 1 3.5" drive and 1 5.25" CD 
drive.  They're $150 for a barebone system at Newegg (You add the 
drives, memory, OS) or $300 with XP Home and some basic memroy/disk.

One of my coworkers is picking up the Shuffle X27D for his wife's 
desktop computer.  It's smaller than the MSI system, but has both DVI 
and VGA ports on the back.

I'm using the single core version ($94 as an open box) with Fedora 10 as 
a file server for my home office.  It's surprisingly fast and nearly silent.

If you're looking for a more conventional desktop system, you should be 
able to get a complete Dell desktop with quad core processor, 1-3GB 
memory and monitor for under $1k.  Follow this site for a week and 
you'll find what you want (Can't vouch for quietness, though):

http://www.xpbargains.com/st_deals.php/Dell_deals.htm

-Brendan