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

[Steve Petrie, P.Eng.]

Hello Russell,

Thanks for your message.

My comments are inline below.

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Russell Reiter" <rreiter91 at gmail.com>
To: "GTALUG Talk" <talk at gtalug.org>; "Steve Petrie, P.Eng." 
<apetrie at aspetrie.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: [GTALUG] Advice -- Building Debian 8 PC To Replace Win XP 
PC;


> On Jul 28, 2016 1:48 PM, "Steve Petrie, P.Eng. via talk" 
> <talk at gtalug.org>
> wrote:
>
> <snip>

<snip>

>> However, I received (26 July 2016) a very disappointing quotation 
>> from
>> NCIX. Hugely expensive, with substitutions (and omissions). So be
>> assured, I am still open to building myself.
>
> Just out of curiosity, do you mind if I ask what dollar amount hugely
> expensive represents? While the business model has changed to single
> purchase with full Windows integration, there are other options 
> depending
> on the budget.
>

It was hugely expensive because I missed the fact that it included 
Windows 7 (OEM) at $187.99.

Here's the pricing analysis repeated from a summary email I sent to the 
thread, before I fetched your email:

-----------------   NCIX*   PC PartPicker**
----------------- --------  -------------
CPU                $269.99    $249.25
CPU Cooler          $92.98     $79.95
Motherboard        $289.99    $228.98
Memory              $44.99     $75.98
-----------------
Case               $144.99    $129.99
Power Supply       $214.98    $159.99
-----------------
Solid State Drive  $135.70    $156.99
Hard Drive          $67.99     $81.95
Optical Drive       $92.98     $86.98
-----------------
Video Monitor      $167.98    $167.92
Keyboard            $15.98     $40.00
Mouse              (incl.)     $10.00
-----------------
Dialup Modem        $54.58     $50.00
-----------------
-----------------

TOTAL1:           $1593.13   $1517.98
-----------------
-----------------

MS Windows 7       $187.99
Assemble & Test     $49.98
Environ. Fees       $16.65
-----------------
-----------------

TOTAL2:           $1897.73
-----------------
-----------------

My point is, if NCIX can match the component pricing I can get, as 
reported by PCPartPicker (and NCIX does match that pricing), and if the 
NCIX price for assembly and test is reasonable (I consider $49.98 very 
reasonable). Then why would an old guy like me, with already too many 
projects ongoing, want to build my own PC? Where is there any 
significant money to be saved? Certainly there's no time to be saved.

By using NCIX, I'm not going to have to shop all over the place to 
source every component, order it, pay for it. I'm not going to have to 
enjoy the dubious pleasure of hair-pulling "logistics" receiving 
multiple separate deliveries by a variety of couriers from a variety of 
suppliers.

> An off the shelf white box, given the times, is most usually able to 
> run
> Linux quite well. It is the bleeding edge, with the fastest newest
> chipsets, and largest capacites where stumbling blocks arise, as some 
> of
> the others who respond to this thread have indicated.
>

Yes, I expect that I could maybe shave some cost by buying something on 
sale (because being discontinued) from the latest Dell flyer, with 
Windows 7 pre-installed. I ball-parked it once at a 10% saving with a 
plausible Dell desktop PC comparable to my proposed configuration.

But what then? The disk drive partitioning and boot setup very probably 
won't suit my partitioning needs or provide multi-boot capability for 
adding Linux. When I ordered the existing Dell Windows XP desktop in 
2004, the Dell sales agent cheerfully received and acknowledged my email 
specifying the disk drive partitioning. But of course the Dell build 
assembly line grunts thought that was a joke, and I had to do a lot of 
messing around to re-work the partitioning).

So, if I buy a white box (e.g. Dell) I'll have to wipe the HDD and start 
again, including a Windows 7 install. Way too much fussing around with 
Win 7 for me. I don't intend to get that involved with Win 7. It's just 
there in case I need some Win XP compatibility from a bare-metal boot of 
Win 7 (in case of problems with the Win 7 under KVM virtualization under 
Linux). Or maybe I will want to use Win 7 to play some DRM music or 
videos that Linux can't handle.

If I wipe the Dell-installed Win 7, Dell could possibly decline to 
support my Dell PC with it's wierd install of Windows 7. Even the Dell 
hardware warranty could be dishonoured.

If I can't get the white box vendor's ironclad assurance of hardware 
compatibility with Linux, I could wind up stuck with a PC I can't use. I 
agree it's a small risk. But the advent of "secure boot" and UEFI make 
me nervous, I understand that these are not yet supported under Linux.

So my compromise is to specify precisely the components I want (having 
carefully researched their compatibility with Linux) and then decide how 
to get the PC built from those components.

> Russell
> Sent from mobile.
>