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19990426: PC platform for running RedHat Linux

>From: address@hidden
>Organization: UC Davis
>Keywords: 199904262243.QAA27331 platforms

Erick,

>On the phone, we discussed the Linux platform on PCs for classroom user
>stations.  You described a platform that you were using at the time that
>you felt was very good for the application.
>
>Could you review that configuration by e-mail for me?

The machine was bought through a company called Workstation Direct.  This
company has offices all over the country; we got ours through an office
in Denver.  The main reason we did this is that we knew one of the people
who was sorking there (he has since left) and trusted him.

The specs on the PCs we bought are:

 Qty    Description
 ---    -----------
  1     Full tower ATX enclosure w/230W power supply
  2     Intel P2-450MHz CPU w/ballbearing fan per CPU
  1     Dual CPU/dual UW SCSI motherboard w/4PCI, 3ISA, 1AGP slot
  1     104 key PC keyboard
  1     1.44 3.5 floppy drive
  1     3 button mouse
  1     32x CDrom drive
  1     32bit PCI 10/100Mb ethernet network card (3com 3C905)
  1     AGP Video card w/8MB VRAM (ATI XPERT@Work/Play)
  1     21" color monitor (KDS VS21)
  1     Assembly/configuration charge
  2     Hot swap drive kit
  2     9GB UW SCSI disk (Quantum Viking 9.1GB Ultra/Wide)
  4     128MB PC100 SDRAM (512 MB system total)

Total price for 1 unit: $5216.00

Note that these were robustly configured machines to say the least.
Also note that machines configured the same way are bound to be quite
a bit less costly right now.  We made our purchase at least 6 months
ago, and since then machines based on the newer Pentium III are available.

>I am about to purchase up to 4 units and am torn between advocates of
>brand names such as Gateway and Dell vs smaller companies I have never
>heard of.

The thing you really need to pay attention to is the support that the
operating system that you want to run has for the hardware in the
machine.  The other way to look at this is: the machine must come with
hardware that is fully supported by the OS.  In our contract with
Workstation Direct we specified that the machines had to work with
Solaris x86 2.6, RedHat Linux 5.2, and Windows NT 4.0.  You would be
wise to make sure that whoever you purchase the machine from guarantees
that it will work with the operating system that you intend to use.

>Thank you

Please let me know if the above is not what you were looking for.

Tom