On Tue, Aug 04, 2009 at 12:29:22AM +0100, steveydoteu wrote:

Chris G wrote:

...

I'm considering a new Linux box for my wife to use so I can more easily tidy up and upgrade here existing one. I'll go for 'bare bones', i.e. no mouse, keyboard or display as she'll carry on using the existing ones.

I'll almost certainly go for integrated graphics on motherboard as it's mostly business use so no real need for a whizzy graphics card.

So, what's a good motherboard to go for at the moment that will 'just work' with a (say) Ubuntu 9.04 installation?

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904#System%20Requirements

So there you have it, a board that can handle 256MB of RAM, and of course has integrated graphics. I'm sure you can work out the rest for yourself.

... but it's *not* that straightforward. The last system I built had Intel graphics in board which I selected because they are supposed to be very Linux friendly/compatible. In reality it turned out that bugs in the current Intel X drivers meant that I had all sorts of problems getting it to work. *That's* the sort of issue I want to avoid if I can. -- Chris Green

On Tue, Aug 04, 2009 at 01:14:32AM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:

Chris G wrote:

...

So, what's a good motherboard to go for at the moment that will 'just work' with a (say) Ubuntu 9.04 installation?

The quick answer is just about anything.

Personally I would go for something with an Intel chipset if you are looking at core2 CPU's as mine is perfectly supported here (even down to ACPI sleep/suspend if it wasn't for the damn nvidia gfx card) but we are only talking about chipset/storage/sound/network support here and in my experience you would be unlucky to find any generic mainboard where those don't work at least mostly out of the box.

Well that's what I did last time (choose Intel that is) but as I said in my response to the other reply it didn't actually work. Bugs in the Intel X drivers meant that I had all sorts of hassle gettig the X GUI to work properly.

It's hard to recommend a specific model of board unless we know more about the machine (i.e what CPU, what interfaces you care about, integrated gfx or not, mATX or not etc)

Nothing particular except almost certainly socket 775.

The other option is that I have used a few of the ebuyer own brand (zoostorm ?) budget machines and for the money they are pretty reasonable and come sans OS, Although I note at the moment the very cheapest ones have vanished from the site so you are looking at circa £200 albeit for a more than reasonable and complete machine.

Building machines from scratch just isn't as fun as it used to be..memory compatibility lists from board manufacturers, horrible intel heat-sinks which are confusing to fit properly, indeterminate post errors etc.

Caveat, there is/was an issue with the current ubuntu and intel video chipsets, I can't remember the specifics and if it was unique to ubuntu or even if it would affect people not needing 3D support, but I'd google a bit first on whatever chipset you chose (the cheapest zoostorm machine is intel G31)

Exactly my problem last time around and that's what I'm trying to avoid. -- Chris Green

Mark Rogers wrote:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164667 Looking at the reviews, I found this one:

--- Ordered this last evening, and it arrived at 9:45 am today. By 10:30am had Ubuntu linux OS (free!)up and running and was surfing the internet.At this price it is unbeatable for use as a kids machine, for surfing and homework. True, the fan is not silent, but would recommend this as a second PC for anyone --- My experience is that the fan noise issue is somewhat overstated..also not helped by the auto fan speed control in the bios being turned off by default. It's not silent but no hairdryer either.

There are of-course other suppliers than eBuyer, and indeed eBuyer are not the cheapest for most things any more. But the principle of buying a box without an O/S (or pre-installed Linux) makes a lot of sense in my experience, and it's rare that I subject myself to building a PC from scratch any more.

Yes as a business we only build from components when the requested specification is either hard to come by or very expensive (things like ruggedised rack mount machines to be flight cased or something else exotic) Otherwise we find it uneconomic to deal with the build time + potential warranty headaches when it won't POST. That said I think it is a good healthy thing for any self respecting geek to assemble their own machine at least once. :)

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 08:48:15AM +0100, Chris G wrote:

install Ubuntu 'out of the box', thanks all! (I also quite like ebuyer, I've bought several bits and pieces from them and so far have never had any problems).

The problem with ebuyer is when you need to return things under warranty. Expect a minor scuffle to break out. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 10:21:29AM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:

I've not had any problems with returns (not in the last year or so anyway, they used to be terrible a few years ago).

You can deal with my returns for me in future then ;) Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 10:47:49AM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:

You should try not to break so much stuff first!

Meh, ebuyer sent some of it pre-broken. The old shipping hard disks in just a cardboard box with 2 bits of polystyrene to protect it isn't a great idea tbh :/ Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 12:09:56PM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:

They usually send disks to us in nice little boxes with foam cutouts and a plastic case, I only get badly packed disks from other people (like Amazon: a box big enough to live in with a hard disk rattling around the bottom).

They /used/ to do that but all the disks I've had in the past year are badly packed. Thankfully most of them have been inside a bigger box with other items so haven't had too much of a chance to be bashed about OTOH I've bought 3 disks from amazon in the past year and they have packed them in jiffy bags, then a small box and then stuck them to a bit of card with plastic wrap and then put that inside a bigger box :) Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li

Adam Bower wrote:

They /used/ to do that but all the disks I've had in the past year are badly packed. Thankfully most of them have been inside a bigger box with other items so haven't had too much of a chance to be bashed about OTOH I've bought 3 disks from amazon in the past year and they have packed them in jiffy bags, then a small box and then stuck them to a bit of card with plastic wrap and then put that inside a bigger box :)

Just this morning I have received a 2.5" SATA drive from Ebuyer, in an anti static bag and double boxed (the inner one being the proper drive box style with the 3 bits of foam) Although I do find with ebuyer that quality of packing and reliability of actually getting it next day depends on which warehouse it is coming from (the coloured dots in the checkout) Warehouse 1 consistently seems to be the quickest to dispatch and the best packed.