$250 Diskless MD

[bmk789]

Just out of curiosity, how many of you would buy or consider buying a thin client MD with the following specs:

Intel Celeron 420 Conroe-L 1.6GHz LGA 775 Processor
512MB DDR400 RAM
Geforce 6200 GPU (DVI, VGA, and S-video outputs)
20X DVD+-RW DL
MicroATX case Picture

For $250 this machine would cost $249 less than Fiire's cheapest MD, making it appealing to more users.

How many of you would purchase one of these?

[totallymaxed]

Just out of curiosity, how many of you would buy or consider buying a thin client MD with the following specs:

Intel Celeron 420 Conroe-L 1.6GHz LGA 775 Processor
512MB DDR400 RAM
Geforce 6200 GPU (DVI, VGA, and S-video outputs)
20X DVD+-RW DL
MicroATX case Picture

For $250 this machine would cost $249 less than Fiire's cheapest MD, making it appealing to more users.

How many of you would purchase one of these?

I would suggest going for a socket AM2 + onboard 6150 mobo for reduced heat and better performance for I would think a similar price.

[bmk789]

Just out of curiosity, how many of you would buy or consider buying a thin client MD with the following specs:

Intel Celeron 420 Conroe-L 1.6GHz LGA 775 Processor
512MB DDR400 RAM
Geforce 6200 GPU (DVI, VGA, and S-video outputs)
20X DVD+-RW DL
MicroATX case Picture

For $250 this machine would cost $249 less than Fiire's cheapest MD, making it appealing to more users.

How many of you would purchase one of these?

I would suggest going for a socket AM2 + onboard 6150 mobo for reduced heat and better performance for I would think a similar price.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I shopped around and came up with this setup for the same price +/- $1.
Gigabyte AM2 MB (DVI, VGA, HDMI, SPDIF) More details
AMD Sempron 1.9GHz Socket AM2 45W Processor
1GB DDR2-800 RAM
Same case and DVD drive

Any takers for $250?

[DeadPenguin]

I think you might have missed part of what totallymaxed said.
He said:

I would suggest going for a socket AM2 + onboard 6150 mobo for reduced heat and better performance for I would think a similar price.

Read the two comments about the mobo you selected in reviews on Newegg. One says it has problems with onboard audio to the point the guy wants to RMA it. The next post say the onboard video is horrible.

I have been looking for a AM2 Geforce 6150 mobo with HDMI and have not been successful. I bought a MSI Media Live since it's the only way to get a Geforce 6150 board with HDMI in the US. Please somebody correct me if I am wrong.

Here is the link to the case you selected:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811145004
Did you read any of the reviews of it?

Why not:
Case and Mobo and PSU:(ASUS P1-AH2)  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856110057
CPU: (AMD X2 4000+) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103774
RAM: (Patriot 512MB) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220089
DVD: (LG 20x DVD/RW) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220089
$165+$65+$20+$26 = $276
You can save a couple bucks going with a lesser X2 CPU but for the price it isn't worth it for me.
Just something I threw together. You probably also could shave a couple dollars with the open box ASUS M2NPV-VM and a cheaper case PSU setup.

If you are going to go through the trouble of posting how about some links to the products you are considering? It will help the people reading evaluate your ideas.
My .02

Regards,
Blair

*had to edit since apparently I can't add without a calculator.

[rrambo]

I'm actually using the Asus Pundit listed above and bought it from newegg..  I'm using it as my hybrid though, not a diskless md...  one thing though, the onboard 6150 does not have hdmi out..  it has dvi..  which is fine and how I'm using it..  I'm running into a lot of problems though with Xorg though and haven't figured it out yet... (when I reboot the device, the keyboard/mouse doesn't respond and I'm getting 95% cpu usage all coming from the Orbiter and Xorg)..  usually, but not always, I can kill the x server, restart x and it starts working.....  but it's really a nuisance right now....  also, I turned on the tv this morning and noticed there were no flickr images in the background..  I then tried to play a video and got audio only..  no video...  I'm going nothing out of the ordinary and letting linuxmce install the nvidia drivers for the 6150..  I'm stumped..  I had no other problems with the Asus before the install of linuxmce..

Have been hoping the totallymaxed might jump in and give me some help on this...

[tkmedia]

Not totallmaxed but I may have a suggestion.

When you just get audio from tv and no flickr, check to see if they are running on kde desktop ( It happens to me periodically).
If they are run the avwizard, change - resolution or ui let it build the screens and it should be fine. If you want you can rerun the avwizard and set it back to the original settings ---- works for me anyway.. hoping it goes away with 0710.


good luck

[DeadPenguin]

Is that related to the sleep problem mentioned in the newegg comments about the barebones?

[rrambo]

no, not related to a sleep problem....  for some reason, x is blowing up the cpu usage and the keyboard/mouse is unresponsive.

[totallymaxed]

I'm actually using the Asus Pundit listed above and bought it from newegg..  I'm using it as my hybrid though, not a diskless md...  one thing though, the onboard 6150 does not have hdmi out..  it has dvi..  which is fine and how I'm using it..  I'm running into a lot of problems though with Xorg though and haven't figured it out yet... (when I reboot the device, the keyboard/mouse doesn't respond and I'm getting 95% cpu usage all coming from the Orbiter and Xorg)..  usually, but not always, I can kill the x server, restart x and it starts working.....  but it's really a nuisance right now....  also, I turned on the tv this morning and noticed there were no flickr images in the background..  I then tried to play a video and got audio only..  no video...  I'm going nothing out of the ordinary and letting linuxmce install the nvidia drivers for the 6150..  I'm stumped..  I had no other problems with the Asus before the install of linuxmce..

Have been hoping the totallymaxed might jump in and give me some help on this...

Hi there... sorry only just caught up with this thread again and noticed you plea for help ;-)

Sorry to say I don't much to offer over and what has already been offered. Our 6150 based Mobo's don't exhibit that problem. A clean install is obviously one option... and from the DVD thats not to much work unless you have a load of Media ripped?

[rrambo]

totallymaxed..  I'm embarrassed to say that I've done a clean re-install now about 5 times....  this is really frustrating..  and I'm not a newbie to linux..  i've been at network engineer/system administrator for 10 years...  I was linux when linux wasn't cool..  I've tried to re-install, I've downloaded the nvidia driver and did a manual install and then reran the avwizard afterwards.. (problem is worse, screen flickers and keyboard and mouse still locks up until I kill x and then restart) killing the x server and restarting doesn't always fix the problem..  only about 75% of the time...  also, when I get it running and then have to regen the orbiters or reload the router for any reason, the screen locks up again...  I know it's x related, when it's locked up, the Orbiter and Xorg is using 95% of the cpu resources.... I've never failed to get a system up and running but I'm beginning to lose faith...

i really want to get this up and running..  I love what you're supposed to be able to do with linuxmce..  I just can't get the kinks worked out..

[totallymaxed]

totallymaxed..  I'm embarrassed to say that I've done a clean re-install now about 5 times....  this is really frustrating..  and I'm not a newbie to linux..  i've been at network engineer/system administrator for 10 years...  I was linux when linux wasn't cool..  I've tried to re-install, I've downloaded the nvidia driver and did a manual install and then reran the avwizard afterwards.. (problem is worse, screen flickers and keyboard and mouse still locks up until I kill x and then restart) killing the x server and restarting doesn't always fix the problem..  only about 75% of the time...  also, when I get it running and then have to regen the orbiters or reload the router for any reason, the screen locks up again...  I know it's x related, when it's locked up, the Orbiter and Xorg is using 95% of the cpu resources.... I've never failed to get a system up and running but I'm beginning to lose faith...

i really want to get this up and running..  I love what you're supposed to be able to do with linuxmce..  I just can't get the kinks worked out..

Hmmm... that is really strange! But I have to say now and then we hit some Mobo that just will not play ball. We know 'on paper' it should and our instinct is to 'wrestle' it into submission! But sometimes its just not worth the hassle.

All I can say is that we have lmce-0704 working on numerous Cores here and on a large number of MD's. So I can confirm that is does work (that is not to say its perfect of course ;-) )

[rrambo]

totallymaxed... I should add that UI 1 works fine..  so it's definitely an issue with opengl/x..  I know 3D acceleration works with Linux in this machine because it was working before linuxmce..  also, when I run the UI diagnostic tools, everything appears fine.. I guess for now I'll stick with UI 1..  I just completed downloading the quick install dvd and will try an install with it sometime this weekend..  or either wait for 7.10 and hope...