New Computers

I have a budget of $6,000 to build 2 new computers for myself. I’ve paid for my new computers and am now waiting for them to be built and delivered.

In my living room I will set up a media centre with a large hard drive to hold all my music, television recordings, photos, games and movies. With a large screen for display this will be my main source of entertainment.

I’ll also have a laptop for web browsing, writing and general computing but the laptop will be able to access the media centre via my wireless network to stream movies, music, etc. I most likely will also want to play games on the laptop.

I already have a wireless router and network set up in my house. I also have a Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Dolby Digital speaker system with digital S/PDIF connection.

With your assistence I also want to develop a wireless mesh network in Naracoorte. The requirements of such a network should also play into the hardware requirements of my new computers.

To work out the specifics of my new computers I have used the following websites:

• Free Software Foundation’s list of Hardware Devices
• P2P Foundation’s list of open hardware
• Pioneer Computer’s DreamBook that I modelled my laptop specifications on
• Ubuntu’s Free Software Laptop wiki page
• Better Access Media Centres Australia’s Specifications
• Mythbuntu’s Recomended Hardware
• OzMyth’s Hardware Guide
• MythTV’s Hardware prerequisites
• Ubuntu Documentation’s list of Wireless Cards Supported
• Air-Stream Wireless’s How-To Guides

Laptop MSI GX630/AMDZM80/4G/320GB/V-HPr

Processor

• AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 Dual Core 2.1 GHz

Display

• 15.4 inch
• WXGA
• ACV (Amazing Crystal Vision)

Graphics Card

• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
• 512Mb DDR3 VRAM

Memory

• 4 GB (2×2 GB)
• DDR2 667

Hard Drive

• 320 GB SATA
• 5,400 rpm

Optical Drive

• DVD Super Multi

Extra

• VIDIA MCP77
• 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro)
• Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN & Modem Module
• Built-in 802.11 b/g WLAN (will add either 802.11n internal card or Netgear WN511 Cardbus Adapter)
• Bluetooth V2.0+EDR
• Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) x1
• USB 2.0 ports x3
• Mic-In port x1
• Headphone Output x1
• Modem port x1
• LAN port x1
• PCI Express Card x1
• eSATA x1
• HDMI x1
• Li-Ion 6 cells
• Targus carry bag
• integrated 2.0 Megapixel webcam

Operating System

• Ubuntu Linux
  

Media Centre

Processor

• AMD Athlon 64 Quad Phenom 9950 2.6 GHz 4MB cache AM2 CPU

Display

• Dell 27 inch LCD monitor

Graphics Card

• Asus EN9600GT/HTDI/512MB

Memory

• Kingston 2GB DDR2 800MHz x2

Hard Drive

• Seagate 1 Tb Barracuda ST31000340AS 32MB cache

Optical Drive

• Pioneer BDC-502BK Blue-Ray player

Case

• Antec Fusion Remote Max HTPC

Extra

• Asus M3N-H/HGMI GF8300 AM2+ GBL HD Audio Firewire, S/PDIF, PCI x3, PCI-E16 x1, PCI-E x1
• Netgear WN311B RangeMax Wireless-N PCI Adapter
• Belkin Bluetooth USB Adapter v2.0 (100m range) (mounted internally)
• Fusion DFUDVI-130 Dual 4 tuner card
• Antec EarthWatts 650W PSU

Operating System

• Mythbuntu Linux
  
• … but should be able to run gNewSense Linux without proprietry drivers

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