Oh, sorry. I make you guys confusing.... Let's ask you again...
I am going to build AMD Athlon 64 bit dual core system with 8GB ram,
400GB hard drive...
Is that easy to build my own system by buying each component? I don't
have any experience to build the customized computer,,, so I am looking
for some informations to build my own system like what is the mother
board,,, where can I buy the components cheaply... where can I get the
instruction to build
the customized system... so on...
Or if you think buying the pc from the vendor like HP is much easier,
which one is
the most powerful with 8GB ram capability?
Appreciate your understanding this stupid questions from the beginner...
Regards,
You can't put 8G on an Athlon 64. The problem is that no one makes 2G
unbuffered DDR DIMMs so the most memory that you can put on an A64 is 4G.
If you need more than that you'll have to build a 940 pin Opteron system.
The 940 pin Opterons use registered DIMMs which are available in 2G sizes
(although they are pricey). An Opteron 2xx motherboard will generally have
4 DIMM sockets per Opteron chip so you can put 16G on the board using 2G
DIMMs or 8G using 1G. A pair of dual core Opteron's will give you 4
processors. Note: there are 939 pin 1xx Opterons, these are really just
Athlon 64s, they go on the same motherboards as the A64 and have the same
memory restrictions. If 8G is just a wish list item you'll find that a
dual core A64 X2 (or a dual core 939 pin Opteron 1xx) will give you the
most bang for the buck.
For motherboards you'll want to choose an Nvidia Nforce 4 Ultra for an
Athlon 64/A64 X2 system. For an Opteron pick an Nforce 4 Pro card. Any
name brand will do. I have the MSI K8N Neo 4 with an X2 4400+ and 4G, it
works perfectly with FC4 and a 2.6.15 kernel. An ASUS or a Tyan or an Abit
should all work just as well. For an Opteron system you might consider a
SuperMicro board as well.
For a graphics card you'll want to pick something from Nvidia. Nvidia has
much better Linux support then ATI.
Configuring a system on the MonarchComputer site is very easy and they
have a wide range of choices for Athlon 64 and Opteron system components.
They do a good job of building the systems and the prices are reasonable,
they tend to be slow to deliver. Monarch will sell you a system with no OS
on it which is the best choice if you like to do your own Linux installs,
you can also buy one with Linux installed but that costs more. HP offers a
more limited set of choices. They have both A64 and Opteron systems. You
can get an HP workstation with Redhat on it, there also seems to be a way
to buy them with no OS (actually FreeDOS which is how the big guys get
around Microsoft's contract which prohibits them from shipping a system
with no OS). In Europe they offer desktop systems with Linux as well, but
in the US Linux is only an option on workstations.
