Hi all
I've been reading some threads on this forum in the past, and now I decided to register. I am a noob on FreeBSD, although I have played with it for some time (6.x). My old machine is getting too slow, and so I am planning to buy a new one shortly (very shortly: preferably this week). As I've had bad experiences with these 'ready to run' retail systems from the big brands I would like to configure my own one. I've been looking into AMD Phenom X4, I was enthusiastic at first but on reading more and more about it, I'm getting less and less enthusiastic (energy consumption, performance). So I am thinking of buying an Intel anyway.
I don't care too much about a little price difference, for me it's important that it's a machine that doesn't bugger me too much with typical 'hardware compatibility problems': I am a noob on FreeBSD, I want to spend my time learning the Unix way of doing things (I've bought two great books on Amazon, they are very clearly written, so I am all excited about starting to learn), not struggling with non-competing hardware.
I've seen there are quite some people here who are very knowledgeable, and so I was wondering if you could perhaps give me some advise on what to buy. I am interested in buying A-brands since they have proved to be less troublesome to me.
My typical goal will be to run a desktop, although, the further I come in studying the books I bought, the more tempting it might become to try to set up some servers as well.
It would concern advise about the - to my knowledge most important - components:
1. Mainboard (including what chipsets to look for, etcetera. I am not technical, so I am actually just typing what I have read elsewhere
)
2. Videocard. I have understood the safest bet will be Nvidia, and since I've always had Nvidia to my complete satisfaction Nvidia would be fine. But then: which one? Which components on it determine what to choose?
3. Processor. Intel, then, but: Dual core, or Quad core? 32 bits or 64 bits? (Are quad cores 64 bits? I've looked and looked but the one site says it is, the other site says it isn't, and the third site (Intel) says nothing at all about it (
)).
4. RAM (type, amount)
5. Harddisk (type)
6. PowerSupplyUnit
As I said before, both power consumption (#1) and performance (#2) are important to me, next to the A-brands (#1) and running FreeBSD (#1).
I know that this is my first post, and I hope you forgive me for my first post being a question right away
I will appreciate your advise very much,
Thanks in advance,.
Ciao,
B.
(My nick stands for: sandwich with meat and mayonaise, for those of you who might wonder
)