[GTALUG] Advice -- Building Debian 8 PC To Replace Win XP PC;

[Howard Gibson]

On Mon, 25 Jul 2016 11:49:41 -0400
Giles Orr via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
> 
> My suggestions:
> - build it yourself.  If you're comfortable mucking around inside a
> PC, you already have the skills.  From my first build I think the only
> thing that got somewhat alarming was having to get and apply thermal
> paste to the main processor, and getting the clips on the processor in
> place.  It's a very good way to get to know the PC, and you'll do a
> better build than any paid tech because it's _yours_.
> - if you really need the dial-up modem, install it (although I suspect
> Linux support is poor - check it thoroughly).  Otherwise, don't bother
> with it.
> - you didn't mention a video card.  If the motherboard has one onboard
> and you're planning to use that, the power supply sounds like overkill
> (even given the later addition of SCSI stuff ... which I'd suggest
> avoiding if you can, it's another justifiably dying breed like the
> modem).  Buy a smaller capacity (500W?) and better power supply ...
> although I admit I'm going on years-old memories, EVGA wasn't one of
> the best suppliers "back in the day".  Something for you to research a
> bit more perhaps.
> - BluRay support on Linux is ... limited.  You can probably use it for
> backup, but you won't be able to play back commercial movies.  You
> might use it under Windows.
> - go with 16G of memory if you can afford it: it's not critical, but
> you'll probably enjoy it - and it will help a lot with running VMs.
> But it's also the easiest thing to upgrade later.

Giles,

   I have a BluRay burner here.  It did not play my Game of Thrones BluRay disk.  It does an excellent job of backups.  The BluRay disks are cheap.  When I replaced my motherboard, the new AMD processor had the thermal paste on it.  I just installed the thing as per the instructions.  

-- 
Howard Gibson 
hgibson at eol.ca
howard.gibson at teledyneoptech.com 
jhowardgibson at gmail.com
http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson