Chosing cheap desktop: recommendation?

[S P Arif Sahari Wibowo]

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008, S P Arif Sahari Wibowo wrote:
> - Serenity T1150, AMD Sempron LE-1150 2GHz, nVidia nForce 630a / GeForce 
> 7050 chipset.
> - Serenity T1100, AMD Athlon 64 3200+, apparently some Via chipset (S3 
> UniChrome Graphics).
> - Shuttle K45PC, Intel Celeron Dual-Core E1200, Intel 945GC / ICH7 chipset.
> - Serenity T1080, Intel Celeron Dual-Core E1200. Intel 945GC / ICH7 Chipset.
> (from 
> http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=cpl&id=170.45&sort=3)

Just an update (and caveat): I ended up with Serenity T1080. 
However there are several issue:

  - Canada Computer information page is not accurate: instead of 
Intel 945GC, it actually has Biostar G31-M7 TE with Intel G31 
chipset, which apparently newer.

  - Regardless, I failed to noticed that ICH7 chipset is not 
all-in chipset; specifically, it does not include ethernet 
controller. So it happened that Biostar G31-M7 TE come with 
Realtek RTL8102EL ethernet controller, for which kernel support 
is limited, if any, and definitely not in Fedora 9 kernel let 
alone CentOS.

I tried to exchange the system but Canada Computer people don't 
think it is their fault. I have no time to argue too much so I 
just drop in additional network card, which works so far.

Yeah, in restrospect I should get some old systems from Factory 
Direct instead. :-]

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                              (stephan paul) Arif Sahari Wibowo
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