Building a $200 Linux PC

HardOCP ^ | Sunday July 25, 2010 | John

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Ever find yourself in need of a cheap computer? Yeah, me neither. But if you do, here’s a writeup on the building of a $200 rig and testing it against a $300 eMachines.

We weren't expecting our sub-$200 computer to be an outstanding performer. But that doesn't mean we wanted it to be slow, either—building a computer yourself that can't do what you need well is a waste of time and money. We wanted to know exactly what we had so we'd know what we could expect from it. That meant benchmarking it—and comparing it to another, similar system.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Decent article...done by ExtremeTECH...

[library user]

Ever find yourself in need of a cheap computer? Yeah, me neither.

LOL

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

If this is someone trying this for the first time...be sure and get the usual Anti Static devices ...

See this article:

Comprehensive Anti-Static methods to protect PC hardware

[mamelukesabre]

How about a free computer?

Here’s how you do it...

Get that old old 486 computer out of your basement.
wipe the hard drive
install DSL (Damn Small Linux)

Tada! free computer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damn_Small_Linux

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

My local toy store ( FRY'S) has a special this weekend for a combo AMD Athlon II X2 245 & Biostar MCP6P M2+ for $69.99 less $10 rebate .

That processor may have more power than what 80% of the Freepers out there currently have...rough estimate based on what I see in comments ...like "I have had this computer for 5 years and it still runs great"...

Now a AMD X2 245 is a pretty powerful little chip.

Newegg :

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Right....this is more interesting----from Newegg:

Phenom II X6/890GX/4GB DDR3/1.5TB Upgrade Kit

Introduction

This GIGABYTE Phenom II X6/890GX Upgrade Kit includes:

1. AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Desktop Processor (Model: HDT55TFBGRBOX)
2. GIGABYTE AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Motherboard (Model: GA-890GPA-UD3H)
3. OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (Model: OCZ3BE1600C8LV4GK)
4. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (Model: ST31500341AS)

   And under 500$.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Or you could remove the innards from the case and then...well ... see #7.

[Gun142]

Relative gave me an old computer last week. Hard drive was bad, pitched it. I saw a post a while back about Pendrive Linux so I found it and installed Lucid Puppy on a SD card in a USB adapter.

It worked slow so I cleared off my external hard drive and installed Puppy from the memory card. It works but it tends to freeze up if trying to view youtube or anything that takes memory.

Kubuntu was recommended to me, I’d like to get that on the external drive but no luck so far. Kubuntu live CD even fails. Must need a hard drive.

If I have time next weekend, might try DSL.

[dfwgator]

Yep, you can pretty much forget about YouTube or any web pages using Flash without enough memory.

[conservativehusker]

To read later.

[Brookhaven]

I’ve had good luck running vector linux on older hardware.

Slackware derivitive; comes with the divers pre-loaded to play a commercial DVD (a big PITA on most Linux systems).

[Squidpup]

bump 4 later

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

For the Lurkers...

Lucid Puppy - Linux for Legacy Computers

One of the original targets of Linux was the under-powered computer gathering dust in the closet destined for electronic disposal. While that sounds like a noble goal, it isn't reality for the majority of today's Linux distributions. Xubuntu says it's for the limited resource computer, but even it has a minimum memory requirement of 256 MB. You probably won't have a very pleasant experience running Firefox on a machine with less than 512 MB of memory.
figure 1

There are a number of distributions targeted at minimal resource computers including DSL, Puppy Linux, Slitaz and Tiny Core Linux. For this review we decided to take a focused look at the latest version of Puppy Linux called LuPu 5.0.1. This release is based on Woof and Ubuntu Lucid Lynx. The live CD is a mere 130 MB but does contain a lot of applications. As far as system requirements go, the Puppy Linux wiki says the current version will run on a 166 Mhz machine with at least 128 MB of memory.

Bring on the Puppy

We tested Puppy Linux on an old Compaq iPaq desktop computer with a 733 MHz Pentium III processor and 128 MB of memory. The original hard drive was a Western Digital 10 GB WD100AA. The built-in Intel graphics is not the best performer, but with Puppy Linux we were able to get a 1400X1050 display as the default max resolution. You, too, can own one of these screamers for a mere $60 from your favorite PC liquidator.

Puppy's live CD includes automated tools for creating a bootable USB or a local installation. Installing to a local hard drive is a little tricky but doable. Our first mistake was not initializing the hard drive beforehand. No problem as the Puppy installer includes GParted to make quick work of deleting and then partitioning your hard drive. Once this step was completed the rest of the installation went without a hitch.

The desktop uses Openbox/LXPanel. LXDE stands for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment and is specifically built with minimal resource computing in mind. If you haven't caught on by now, the common theme is "minimal resource computing". It's pretty much the same for available applications as well. All the core apps meet the requirement of running on a machine with limited performance CPU, graphics and memory.

[Gun142]

It’s my first shot at Linux. I think the computer needs a little more memory and obviously a hard drive. Should be able to pick up something cheap or check with some other people and see if they have an old computer.

Tried putting Kubuntu on my XP computer but it didn’t play well with the video card.

I can see this becoming a winter project already.....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Might look at this one...done by one of the technical developers of DSL:

Tiny Core Linux

[Gun142]

Thanks, will check that out.

I used http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ to install to USB memory. I didn’t have an empty one so I used a camera memory card in a USB adapter. It’s a very easy way to try Linux and doesn’t mess with the hard drive.

[tophat9000]

I have built so many PC's I have lost count (well then again I work on computer and computer networks for a living)...To be honest if you shop around and look for rebates and returns you can buy complete systems (then self upgrade) for less then building...I once put together a complete home office (PC, all in one Printer and Hi speed Internet connection) for someone for less then $200 up front (+ $12 a month Hi speed Internet)

I like Micro Center... find a good basic box, that been returned(go for the best CPU, MB inside you can get for the money with rebates and other offer...do not focus on memory, video, sound, hd space, cd, dvd, etc. that can be be added after for less...) always upgrade the total memory. Memory is normally the best aftermarket back for buck you can buy .. (look for the rebates on memory).

Get you bargain returned PC home, install you extra memory, and then fire up and first do a full restore of the OS to factory defaults to get it back to the new out the box state (after all it was a return so you want a fresh slate)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

RE: Flash

Location : Tiny Core Linux > Flash Player

Just dropping all of this here...never really looked at Tiny Core before:

What is Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware?

The Tiny Core Linux wiki is an implementation of TikiWiki

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Lucid Puppy - Linux for Legacy Computers
figure 1

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