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(some prices) Re: Desperately Seeking...

by mwp (Hermit)
on Dec 31, 2000 at 02:53 UTC ( [id://49029]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Desperately Seeking Perla<BR>(Practical Ecumenical Real Life Advice)

Hi Adam,

My advice will be less all-encompassing than footpad's but hopefully will help none the less.

First of all, Perl doesn't require much of a computer to run well. Throw Linux on a 486 and you've got yourself a Perl server. Similar things can be said for C/C++, Python, PHP, FORTRAN, whatever floats your boat. I think people lose sight of the fact that you only need a fast computer if you're running Windows. ;) Or another GUI, of course, and if you're doing 3D rendering, or huge amounts of databasing, that kind of thing.

That being said, you have a couple options. As footpad mentioned, AMD computers are hella-cheap these days, and the new Thunderbird line outperforms Intel's Coppermine in the majority of benchmarks and real world applications. You can pick up the economy model for even cheaper. An AMD Duron 800 runs about $70 if you purchase it online*. Add a cheap Socket-A motherboard with integrated sound for $100, an ATI Rage or GeForce2 MX for $50-$80, 128MB of RAM for $50, and a 10GB hard drive for $110 and you've got yourself a cheap workstation. Networking... contrary to what coreolyn recommended, LinkSys cards are cheap and work fine. I use them almost exclusively on my network at home, and have used them in the past in the workplace.

You could go back and buy an old Pentium II or Celeron, but oftentimes that will cost you more than it would to buy a newer system.

As far as putting the new computer together goes... well, that's always a good learning experience. ;) You can ask my dad about that one. Seriously though, there are tons of "build your own computer" guides online that you can read for clues. If you purchased your parts from a local store, you can usually call them up and ask them simple questions when you get stuck. If you get really frustrated or just don't want to bother, you can always pay them to do it for you, but that won't exactly save you money.

Otherwise, hitting company auctions and http://Ebay.com is your next best bet. People are practically giving away their systems on Ebay. Even if you don't want to go that route, you can often find major steals there... like a bundle of 10 network cards for $20, used motherboards, etc.

Good luck!

'kaboo

* Most of my prices are from http://pricewatch.com. I'm building new computers for four or five of my friends, happens every year, so I'm well versed on the issue. If you don't believe any of the prices I quoted, just hit pricewatch and do a few searches for yourself. I'm tellin ya, computer parts are cheap these days!

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Re: (some prices) Re: Desperately Seeking PerlaBR(Practical Ecumenical Real Life Advice)
by coreolyn (Parson) on Dec 31, 2000 at 03:04 UTC

    Keeping track of which driver goes with which linksys chipset on which OS is a pain. I'd rather pay $20-$30 more per card for a rock-solid 3com anyday, but we are definitely drifting into 'opinion' territory.

    coreolyn

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