The Test Environment

Since this blog is about budget computers, it is appropriate to define the environment that I am using to evaluate both the hardware, and the different Linux distributions (distros in Linux speak)  used. This post will define the four computers used for testing the software. None of them are new, and only one of them would run Windows XP. Of course, Vista, or Windows 7, are totally out of the picture. All of them are running the latest distributions of Linux. These crusty old machines are as follows:

The oldest machine was built from the scrap box of old computer parts, using an old tower cabinet that was modified for the Titan motherboard. It has an AMD-K6 3D Processor with a speed of 300 Mhz. There are  three memory slots on the mother board, which contain two 256 MB strips and a 128 MB strip. No USB ports and a serial mouse. It currently has an 8 gigabyte disk, which also came from the scrap  box. Scrappy, a good name for this machine, currently is running Debian 4.0 Release 2. As part of this series, I am going to upgrade it to Debian 5.0.

The next oldest machine is a Micron TransPort ZX laptop. It was given to a school, and they didn’t want it because it was too old, and the disk was dying. The school happily gave it to me to get it out of their storeroom. Besides the disk problem, it didn’t have an AC adapter. On the good side, it came with a spare battery and a carrying case. When I got the machine, I found that with the help of an conversion cable from eBay, I could use a Toshiba laptop AC adapter. The cost of that change was $6.95. I had a spare 30 GB Hitachi Travelstar HD as a result of a disk upgrade on the Dell. I installed the new disk and Lime Linux, and it was off and running. This laptop does have USB ports, but it is limited to a maximum of 256 MB of memory. The HD that I put in the machine died recently. I bought another, but new, 30 GB Hitachi Travelstar disk from eBay for $27. It is currently running Xubuntu. The reason for this selection will be discussed later. As a matter of record, the Micron uses a Pentium III (Coppermine) processor running at 600 Mhz.

The Dell Inspiron 8100 was my replacement to a Toshiba Satellite. I have had it for years, and have always run openSUSE Linux on it. For some reason, the battery doesn’t work, although the batter, itself, tests good. I need to replace the DVD drive, as it now only reads CDs, but not DVDs. I have one that I purchase from eBay for $32. I just need to installed it. I actually bought this machine as a refurbished machine for around $275. It has  a Mobile Intel Pentium III running at a blazing 1133 Mhz. You can stop laughing now. I upgraded the disk to a 60 GB, and upgraded the memory from 256 MB to 512 MB, which is the maximum for this machine. It currently is triple booted, with Debian 4.0, Mandriva 2008, and openSuse 10.3. It is about to be changed to Ubuntu 8.10, Mandriva 2009, and openSUSE 11.1.

The fastest, and newest machine, is an HP Pavilion ze4300 laptop. As mentioned before, this machine was given to us by our son, because he bought a brand new Mac. This was his college machine, and has only one minor problem – the power switch. I sometimes have to press the power switch 20 to 30 times to get it to power on. I suspect that I may have to send it to a HP service center to get fixed. This machine has a 30 GB disk and a Mobile AMD Athlon XP 1800+ processor. The machine has 512 MB of memory, but is upgradeable to 1 GB. It is also triple booted with Simply Mephis 7.0, CentOS 5.1, and Fedora 9. After the upgrade, it will run Simply Mephis 8.0, CentOS 5.2, and Fedora 10.

As you can see, I will never win the contest for the newest toy on the market. People laugh at my machines, but they can’t laugh at my investment. Cheap is Good. Free is Better.