About our boxes
Web Server
The OS on our web server is Slackware Linux.
It's an old homegrown box, slow but steady. Here are the parts, in no particular order:
- ABIT KT7A-RAID motherboard
- AMD Athlon CPU at 1200 MHz
- 512 MB RAM
- 3ware 7006-2 PATA RAID controller
- (2) Maxtor 80 GB HD as /dev/sda (RAID 1)
- Lite-On LDW-411S CD-RW/DVD+/-RW as
- ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder video/tuner card
- Creative SoundBlaster Live 5.1
- (2) RealTek 8139C 10/100 Mbps NIC
- Belkin 5-port USB card
- 3.5 inch floppy drive
- Slackware Linux 12.0
My four kids have new three computers I built back in 2003 (the two youngest have to share one):
- Chaintech 7NIF2-SUMMIT uATX motherboard w/VGA, s-video out, LAN, USB, game/MIDI, PS/2 mouse and keyboard, and 5.1 audio
- AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) processor w/333 MHz FSB
- 512 MB PC3200 RAM
- Maxtor 160 GB HD
- Lite On LTC-48161H CD-RW/DVD-ROM
- 3.5 inch floppy drive
- Belkin 7001 rev. 5100 802.11b/g PCI NIC
- 17 inch monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers
Most of the parts came from newegg.com. They all have different cases, since my two oldest didn't want
the case I picked out for the two yountest. Fairly cheap, too. The MB, CPU and RAM were about $84 each,
give or take a few bucks. The wireless cards were about $35, which was a good deal too. All together,
less than $2K for three computers. Back in the day, that would have cost .....oh, never mind.
My workhorse
I put together my box back in November 2007.
It wasn't the fastest thing available at the time, but even today it still does a decent job:
- ASRock ALiveNF7G-HDready motherboard w/VGA, DVI-D, 7.1 HD audio, fireware, USB, game/MIDI, PS/2 mouse and keyboard, GB LAN, parallel port, com port, IR, floppy, HDMI, SATA and PATA
(it's got everything except a third fan header)
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
- G.Skill 8 GB CAS 4 RAM (4x2)
- Belkin F5D7001 802.11b/g PCI NIC
- Western Digital 500 GB HD
- Seagate 500 GB HD (added later as a backup drive)
- SAMSUNG SH-S203N dual-layer DVD writer
- Scythe (Y-E Data) YD-8V07 3.5 inch floppy and 7-in-1 memory card reader
- Thrustmaster Rage3D gamepad
- Slackware 13 x86_64
The gamepad (joystick) uses the old MIDI/game port, and this motherboard was the only one that had it
available. Strangely, though, the board didn't come with the bracket, and ASRock didn't sell it.
I had to get an ASUS game/com bracket off eBay. Works fine, except for some reason Google
Earth flight simulator doesn't recognize any of the buttons. The KDE joystick utility sees all the buttons
and it works fine in SuperTuxKart and Extreme Tux Racer, so it isn't a Linux issue.