Subject: Re: Thoughts on a possible new BSD system appriciated.
To: Ben Bogart - FMPM/F1999 <bbogart@acs.ryerson.ca>
From: Bill Squier <groo@old-ones.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 01/05/2001 12:31:00
On Wed, Dec 27, 2000 at 05:42:06PM -0500, Ben Bogart - FMPM/F1999 wrote:
> Hello all,
> I'm planning a new NetBSD machine and would like any feedback possible. 
> Here are the components currently on my list:

Since I just finished building one of these...

> 
> Abit Kt7 mainboard

KT7-RAID.  Worth the $20.

> AMD Duron 800 CPU

Thunderbird 1.1GHz here.

> Antec KS 188+pp303x ATX tower case

I *HATE* this case.  The motherboard tray took super-human force to slide out,
the lower 3.5" drive bays are SO close to the ATX motherboard edge that I
was forced to put my HDD in the upper 3.5" bay (although the upper has
much better ventilation), the front of the case is rounded at the top so
placing a floppy flush to the case is an uneccessary challenge...

> Quantum Fireball plus LM 20GB HDD

Maxtor 80GB.

> Adaptec 2930 SCSI-2 Adapter

No SCSI for now.

> ATI Xpert 2000 32M Rage 128 Pro*
> *Apparently this card does have problems under Xfree 3.3.6 anyone tried 
> it under 4.0? For that matter how difficult is the Xfree86 4.0 build 
> under netbsd to replace 3.3.6?

Oxygen VX1-16 (for SGI 1600SW flat-panel).  Currently using 4.0.x driving a
regular monitor until LCD support for the card is completed.  4.0.x snapshots
on ftp.xfree86.org work just fine; building from xf-current works fine as
well.

> I'd appriciate any pointers suggestions anyone may have. So if have 
> praise for, or dislike, any of the above products please let me know.

Extra fans.

IMPORTANT:  Update your BIOS to at least WZ beta 01 (CAREFUL with revision
WW!!)  I have a 256MB DIMM which intermittently locked up the system until
I installed WZ.  (Somewhere previous to WZ they fixed a problem with certain
256MB modules).

-- 
Bill Squier (groo@old-ones.com)                          http://www.netbsd.org
  I know I don't deserve a second chance; but as an American,
  aren't I entitled to one?  --Sideshow Bob.