[PLUG] Best source for pre-configured Linux Boxen?

[Derek Loree]

On Mon, 2004-03-22 at 18:20, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> I have a San Jose client that will be jumping into Linux with both
> feet (Yay!).  They want to buy about a dozen preconfigured Linux boxes.
> Unfortunately, to be compatable with the expensive CAD software they
> will be buying, they will probably be running Redhat 7.2 on most of
> them (Boo!).  Given the driver-sensitivity of some of the older distros,
> they will need some pretty lemonade boxes with no need for fancy drivers.
> They will also want screaming speed.  What's a hacker to do?
> 
> They would rather buy pre-configured boxes from IBM, HP, Dell, or Sun,
> even if they are 2X-3X cost.  They don't want to spend a lot of time
> fiddling with BrandX boxes, and they want hardware support.

Seems like you could put together white boxes, and for less than 2x-3x,
send them extras.  If a machine goes down, they will have extras already
on site, loaded and ready to go.  

The best thing that you can do for speed is fast hard drives, either
SCSI spinning at 15,000 RPM, or SATA spinning at 10,000 RPM (like the
Western Digital Raptor).  Dual Channel DDR is nice, but in my
experience, the hard drive is the biggest bottle neck.  I just built a
machine using the ASUS P4P800-DELUXE that could run the SATA drives in
"legacy" mode, making them appear to the OS as regular IDE drives.  I
was pressed for time, so I wasn't able to try loading linux on it, but
I've never seen 2k run so fast.

I also have had to do less repair on the white boxes that I build
compared to the branded boxes that my clients bought.

Just some food for thought,

Derek Loree