first computer

[pepzsoduh]

just got a computer that is "officialy" mine. i got it from the property disposition center. thats the place where all michigan colleges old computer goes to get sold. it's a dell optiplex gx270 mid tower that came with a pentium 4 processor (3 GHs, single core, 800 MHz system bus) 1 gig of ram (DDR2 400), 80 gig hdd, cd-dvd burner, cd reader,but no graphics card or operating system (which is no problem since i know a guy who has like a billion copies of every operating system on the planet (not really)). i got it all for 100$ + a 15" lcd monitor, keybaord, and mouse. i got a graphics cardd to (4$) it looked like it was agp, but when i went to plug it in it was agp, but reversed so if i turned it around it could plug in but not forward, its a 1998 ati 128 (i think), made by rage. i'll post a picture of it soon as well as the system.
feel free to comment.

 

[01001010]

Seems like a decent find. Looking forward to the pictures.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

The ATI card may be a PCI interface. You should try it in an open PCI slot..

 

[Joel~]

Not bad. We have some of the GX260s and GX280s at work and they're not terrible machines. We managed to get a bunch of them from one of the local colleges and kit out a full computer suite with them at the cost of only some memory modules for each one.

As for getting hold of an operating system, here's a place that will link you to downloads of hundreds of them:

http://distrowatch.com/

 

[foothead]

Sounds good. Are you going to put windows or something else?
It would be an excellent linux box.

And yes PICS!!

 

[pepzsoduh]

alrite as soon as my laptop finishes installing empire earth i'll post pics, i tried the Graphics card in a PCI, didnt fit, weirdly, it fits perfectly in the AGP slot but only if you put it in backwards. i was planning on putting windows xp proffesional on it, cuz i've never used linux, but i'm willing to try. where can i get linux and how do i install it? is it easy to use?

i also wanted to do some gaming on it, how is linux with games?

 

[Joel~]

It can range from easy to difficult, depending on which distribution you choose. For a first-timer, something like Linux Mint would be good as it uses the Ubuntu installer which is really simple, but comes with multimedia support (for proprietary codices) right out of the box

http://www.linuxmint.com/

If you decide to install it, you can get plenty of help. I'm always willing to answer any questions you might have

The great thing is that you don't lose anything by trying Linux, because you generally don't have to pay for it (in fact, I only know of a few distributions where you do have to pay). If you like it and it does what you want, stick with it. If not, put Windows on

 

[foothead]

Yes it is very easy to use with the GUI versions.

Go to Debian.org and download the newest version. All you need is the first disc, then burn the ISO, put it in your drive, reboot and select to boot from thr CD in your bios, then follow the instructions.

I suggest Active@ iso burner for a good piece of freeware.

 

[pepzsoduh]

ddoes multimedia support mean it can run games?

pretty much all i would have to do is order linux (or is there something i could just dowload off the internet) pics in a sec

 

[foothead]

No thats the beauty of linux. It's free.

Debian has multimedia support too. IMO its the best linux distro out there, but a lot of people would argue with me on that.

http://www.debian.org

It will run open source and pay linux games. Wine will help with a few windows ones, but really, you won't do too well with newer games on that computer.

Open source is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!