Making my own PC -- hardware notes

This is a page where I scribble notes on my hardware. I am hoping that this page might be of help to Linux users trying to build a new PC.

My first Athlon machine

This is my first athlon machine, which I have created on March 2001. I've continued to maintain this machine, and I have spent almost 200,000 yen on this machne.

Increased memory to 512MB on 19 May 2001, added a ymfpci soundcard on 20 May 2001. On 4 July 2001 Changed the mouse and keyboard to USB, and added a second video card on 31 July 2001 to make it into a dual-display system.

Many of the parts were broken in April 2002. It seems like I tried to play with the machine too much.

Things started to break again on end of 2002. It's rather scary. I've now switched over to Happy Hacking Keyboard.

I've replaced the harddisk on November 2004. The machine has been stable as long as I care enough about heat.

This machine retired on September 2005, replaced by amd64 architecture machine.

parts	name	price	comment
motherboard	MSI K7T Pro 2-A	12000 yen	via686(sound) : died 19 Apr 2002
motherboard	Gigabyte GA-7VRX (KT333)	15000 yen	acquired 21 Apr 2002
CPU	AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) 900MHz	15000 yen	died 19 Apr 2002
CPU	AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1539MHz)	20000 yen	acquired 21 Apr 2002
CPU fan	???	4000 yen	died 19 Apr 2002
memory	256MB PC100 CL2	7000 yen	died 19 Apr 2002
memory	256MB PC100 CL2	6950 yen	bought on 19 May 2001, died 19 Apr 2002
memory	512MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM	15000 yen	acquired on 21 April 2002
graphics card	ATI Xpert@Play 98	5000 yen	ati64: Broken on 8 Apr 2002
graphics card	S3 Virge (PCI)	0	s3virge, acquired on 31 July 2001
graphics card	NVidia GeForce (AGP)	8000	acquired 15 Apr 2002
soundcard	A-Open XWave	2980 yen	ymfpci: bought on 20 May 2001
USB Sound	ONKYO WAVIO SE-U33G	10000 yen	USB-Audio: bought 30 June 2004
NIC	Planex FW-100TX	1200 yen	rtl8139too
HDD	NEC 30GB 7200rpm ATA100	15000 yen	broke down 3 Apr 2002
HDD	IBM 40GB 5000rpm ATA100	13000 yen	4 Apr 2002, broke 4 Dec 2002
HDD	IBM 80GB 7500rpm ATA100	13500 yen	6 Dec 2002, dangerous state as of 25 Jun 2003
HDD	Seagate 80GB 7500rpm ATA100	13500 yen	6 Dec 2002-25 Jun 2003
HDD	Maxtor 80GB 7500rpm ATA133	15800 yen	25 Jun 2003-14 Nov 2004
HDD	Seagate Barracuda 160GB 7200rpm ATA100 8MB cache	10500 yen	14 Nov 2004 ST3160023A
HDD	BUFFALO DUB2-B160G, 160GB USB2.0	17000 yen	15 Nov 2003
HDD	IO-Data HDA-iU120, 120GB USB2.0	14000 yen	23 Mar 2004
IDE cable	Acro's Slender Cable ADF254	1000 yen	6 Dec 2002
CDRW	MELCO 32x 12x 4x	12000 yen	bought 4 Apr 2002, broke 2 Nov 2002.
DVD-RW	TOSHIBA	20000 yen	10 May 2003
keyboard	Justy Internet Keyboard	approx 3000 yen	USB-HID: 4 July 2001: [ORTEK USB Hub/Keyboard]
keyboard	Justy Internet Keyboard	approx 3000 yen	USB-HID: 2 Jun 2002: [ORTEK USB Hub/Keyboard], broke 29 Nov 2002
keyboard	Arvel DPK707US-MT	approx 1700 yen	30 Nov 2002, does not work
keyboard	Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite USB Black	5000 yen	1 Dec 2002: [Chicony PFU-65 USB Keyboard]
mouse	unknown	800 yen	USB-HID: 4 July 2001: [Cypress Sem. Cypress USB Mouse]
mouse	SANWA SUPPLY Comfort Cable in	750 yen	USB-HID: 8 Oct 2002: [0461:4d03]
mouse	Microsoft Intellimouse	1000 yen?	USB-HID:2003: [Microsoft Corp. IntelliMouse Optical]
power supply	Justy (Manpower) DPX-400A	4000 yen	acquired 15 Apr 2002
Digital Camera	Casio Exilim EX-S1	25000 yen	16 Jan 2003: USB mass-storage
CF/SM reader/writer	Buffalo MCR-2UX	2800 yen	16 Jan 2003: USB mass-storage
TV capture card	GV-BCTV5E	8800	11 May 2003: tuner type=2 bttv card=49

I've renewed my harddisks on 6 Dec 2002, because my old harddisks seemed to have died completely. They look like the following:

# hdparm -tT /dev/hda  (IBM)

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.43 seconds =297.67 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  1.41 seconds = 45.39 MB/sec
# hdparm -tT /dev/hdb  (Seagate)

/dev/hdb:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.43 seconds =297.67 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  1.62 seconds = 39.51 MB/sec


/dev/sda1:   USB 2.0
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.46 seconds =275.31 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  4.04 seconds = 15.84 MB/sec
 
/dev/hda1:   Maxtor
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.45 seconds =285.12 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  1.27 seconds = 50.28 MB/sec

/dev/hda1:   Maxtor (kernel 2.6.3)
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   892 MB in  2.01 seconds = 443.19 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  150 MB in  3.04 seconds =  49.38 MB/sec

/dev/sda1:   I/O data 120GB USB 2.0 disk (kernel 2.6.3)
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   812 MB in  2.00 seconds = 405.25 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   56 MB in  3.10 seconds =  18.08 MB/sec

ST3160023A: kernel 2.6.9
/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   1040 MB in  2.01 seconds = 517.75 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  166 MB in  3.02 seconds =  54.94 MB/sec

    

My other custom hardware modified from stock hardware

I will note down some machines which I have bought as completed computer, and modified parts of.

A desktop computer from Dell

My first intel compatible, which used to have Windows 3.1 installed. I used to play with Debian GNU/Linux potato on it and used icewm, but I have removed all X related things now. This machine features a blazingly-fast i486SX 33MHz CPU.

This machine has had a HDD failure on 25 Sep 2001. I wonder if I should construct a diskless system.

SOTEC machine

My machine from Summer 1999. I'd say a CPU of Pentium III 500MHz is quite good still. Running Debian GNU Linux 3.0 It's retired as of year 2003.

libretto L2

Bought on 28 Dec 2001. Running Debian GNU Linux 3.0 Being used as a router since August 2003. It was my main notebook PC for Debian Conference in June 2004. Stolen in April 2005.

Apple iBook G4 1GHz

Bought on Aug 2004. Running Debian GNU/Linux unstable (3.1)

Handheld

Sharp Zaurus C700

Acquired second-hand on 30 May 2003. Running some version of Linux. It is running Debian GNU/Linux unstable inside a chroot.

$Id: makepc.html.en,v 1.55 2006/01/07 05:25:59 dancer Exp $