Hardware Chosen in March 2000

This was my first home-built system, and my first Linux machine.

My systems can be classified as a blend of ``high end'' and ``midrange'' components, as defined by the helpful example systems described at Hardware Central. I wanted systems with at least 256MB of fast memory and the fastest cost-effective processors. Everything else could be ``last year's news'' in order to keep the price down. Here is what I chose:

• ASUS P3V4X motherboard ($120)

• Intel Pentium III-EB CPU (Coppermine, 133MHz Front Side Bus) ($330)

• Pentium III Cooling Fan¹⁵ ($5)

• 256MB PC100 SDRAM ($256)

• Iwing ATC Med-tower case with 230 Watt power supply ($55)

• Matrox Millennium G400 32MB video card ($175)

• Teac 1.44MB floppy drive ($20)

• 56X obscure-brand CD-ROM drive ($35 at Fry's)

• Western Digital 27GB ATA/66 hard drive ($295).

• (later in August) IBM Desk Star 75GXP 30GB ATA-100 7200 RPM 9.5 ms hard drive ($146 from Neutronet.com).

• Netgear 10/100MHz ethernet card ($30).

I didn't really need such a large hard drive, but the cost per gigabyte made it a compelling choice. Besides, I've never met a disk I couldn't fill up eventually without even trying. I have since moved to a mirroring-based backup system.

The greatest thing to me was having an actual manual for the motherboard for the first time in my life.¹⁶