How to build the 2007.12.03 standard workstation

buy the components of the standard workstation,

assemble them into a working computer, and

install enough software to make the computer useful.

Collecting accessories

To install the operating system you will need a CD with ``ISO image'' ubuntu-7.10-desktop-amd64.iso (MD5 checksum 61c87943a92bc7bf519da4e2555d6e86). You can order this CD from Ubuntu for free; or you can create the CD using a computer that has an Internet connection (to download the ISO image), a CD burner, and a blank CD.

To configure and use the standard workstation you will need a keyboard, a touchpad/trackball/mouse, a monitor, and an Ethernet cable attached to the Internet. Collect this equipment for later use.

If you have only one keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and you need those to operate an older computer, you have two options:

Buy a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch to attach both computers to the same keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

Buy a new keyboard, touchpad/trackball/mouse, and monitor. Main features to look for in a monitor: LCD; both VGA and DVI inputs (DVI allowing sharper displays); resolution. You can, for example, buy the Westinghouse L2046NV and a DVI-D cable for $230 including shipping. The L2046NV is a 20'' VGA/DVI LCD monitor with 1400x1050 resolution.

Buying the components

Prices can change at any moment. Use Price Grabber to find the latest and greatest prices. Price Grabber takes a search term such as BX80562Q6600 and gives you prices of the BX80562Q6600 from various warehouses; you can then click on a warehouse link to buy the BX80562Q6600. Warning: Price Grabber labels some items as refurbished; don't buy those.

Most of the components of the 2007.12.03 standard workstation are available from ZipZoomFly:

Price Component Warranty Watts $279 Intel BX80562Q6600: 2400MHz Socket-775 1066FSB L2-8MB Core 2 Quad CPU with a fan 3 years from Intel 108? (105 CPU; 3? fan) at +12V2 $184 Asus P5WDHDELUXEWIFIAPGREEN: Socket-775 1066FSB motherboard with audio and dual Ethernet 3 years from Asus 20? at +3.3V, 20? at +5V, 10? at +12V1 $159 Western Digital WD7500AAKS: 750GB SATA hard drive with NCQ 3 years from Western Digital 40? at +12V1 (max for spinup, normally 6.5), 4 at +5V $28 Asus EN6200LE TC256/TD/64M: 64MB PCI Express x16 video card using nVidia GeForce MX 6200 chip with VGA, DVI, TV outputs 3 years from Asus 10? at +3.3V $35 Sony NEC Optiarc AWG170S-B2: SATA DVD-ROM CD-ROM DVD+-R DVD+-RW DVD-RAM CD-R CD-RW drive (black) 1 year from Sony 20? at +12V1, 10? at +5V $88 Antec NSK6580: 12.2kg 465mmx210mmx472mm case (silver/black); one 1200RPM 39CFM 25dB case fan; 1.6kg EarthWatts 430 power supply (max output watts: 430 at +5V, +3.3V, +12V1, +12V2 combined; 360 for +12V1, +12V2 combined; 130 at +5V, +3.3V combined; 100 at +5V; 204 at +12V1; 204 at +12V2; 66 at +3.3V) 3 years from Antec 10? for fans at +12V1 $6 Antec TRICOOL 92: 92mm 1200RPM 21CFM 15dB fan, adjustable to higher speed 3 years from Antec 2? at +12V1 $27 7-day shipping

The following components are available from techonweb:

Price Component Warranty Watts $60 Kingston KVR667D2E52G: 2GB DDR667 unbuffered ECC memory in one DIMM lifetime from Kingston 5 at +3.3V $60 Kingston KVR667D2E52G: 2GB DDR667 unbuffered ECC memory in one DIMM lifetime from Kingston 5 at +3.3V $60 Kingston KVR667D2E52G: 2GB DDR667 unbuffered ECC memory in one DIMM lifetime from Kingston 5 at +3.3V $60 Kingston KVR667D2E52G: 2GB DDR667 unbuffered ECC memory in one DIMM lifetime from Kingston 5 at +3.3V $5 7-day shipping

Variant: dual-core CPU. The Core 2 Quad has four processing cores, like a 4-CPU computer. Switching to a two-core computer means spending less money on the CPU (currently $233 instead of $279). Of course, this also reduces the computer's speed for parallelizable operations.

Variant: less memory. The standard workstation has 8GB of RAM; you can save $180 by reducing 8GB to 2GB.

Non-recommended variant: non-ECC memory. Make sure to buy ECC DIMMs. I have a separate page discussing the importance of ECC memory.

Variant: more disk space. If you have more money to spend, the hard drive is one of the most obvious places to spend it. For example, you can buy several drives, and store data with parity using software RAID level 5. (Parity is an easy-to-use automatic backup mechanism: your latest data is still accessible even if a drive dies. Three disks with parity can store as much data as two disks without parity.) Make sure you have enough connectors, cables, and space for your drives.

Non-recommended variant: tape drive. Extra disks are a much better choice than tapes for backups. Disks used to be substantially more expensive than tapes, but they're now less expensive per gigabyte than almost all tapes. The only exceptions (160GB Super DLT II tapes, about $0.18/gigabyte; 200GB LTO Ultrium 2 tapes, about $0.13/gigabyte) require tape drives that cost over $1000. Even if you have so much data that you don't mind the cost of a tape drive, investing in tapes is silly: tapes wear out much more quickly than disks (a heavy-duty tape is rated for, at best, writing a few million gigabytes, which is equivalent to only about two years of disk use), and the replacement cost of disks is dropping much more quickly than the replacement cost of tapes. Of course, disks are also much faster than tapes.

Assembling the components into a working computer

Configuring the BIOS

Installing the operating system

Configuring the operating system

Reporting success