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Tizer
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22/03/2010
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11:53
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I wrote some time ago that I was intending to make my first attempt at building a computer and promised that I would relate the story here on OGFB. I bit the bullet about 10 days ago, ordered the components on-line from Dabs, received them last week and dived into action.
I ran into a problem due to being sent a faulty motherboard which Dabs replaced, so the following posts describe a lot of work sorting out what was wrong before we realised it was the motherboard. Read these posts if you want all the details. If you want just the description of how the PC was built without details of the glitch I've now written it up later in this thread. See it on page 8.
Edited by - Tizer on 06/05/2010 10:35:18
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thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
2021 Posts
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Posted - 13/04/2010 : 11:33
"Computer Shrink"? or "PC Tweaker" although the latter has more to do with altering off the shelf programmes to suit individual needs.
thomo  |
pluggy
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Posted - 13/04/2010 : 12:46
I've made some adjustments to the business card based on suggestions here and elsewhere. I like the basic design. MkII :
Need computer work ?
"http://www.stsr.co.uk" 
Pluggy's Household Monitor |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 13/04/2010 : 15:24
I was so taken with the general design I missed the 25 years experience Steve. Perhaps that says something about the layout? Overall it's a good design and I like it. By the way, whoever you aim at, the best of luck!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 13/04/2010 : 15:26
It might be worth mentioning that years ago I had the benefit of time spent with people in IBM who ran their advertising in Europe and they were quite adamant that the most productive route was direct mail shots through letter boxes. I'd add leaflets tucked under windsreen wipers in car parks as well.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 13/04/2010 : 20:08
quote:
pluggy wrote:
Tizer, I'd suggest setting the BIOS to 'Compatible' and 'AHCI' There should be no reason it won't work with Ubuntu with what you have now.
Pluggy, you're a star! I did as you say then launched the Ubuntu install. Held my breath at the partition stage and it called my bluff by making me wait but then, bingo - it whizzed away and in a total of 30 minutes I had the install finished and the computer restarted and an artistic picture of a Heron on the desktop (Ubuntu users will know from that which version I've installed). My new SATA cables and power converter arrived today and I will go ahead with them and the DVD drive tomorrow. Also I have a second hard drive to install to store my backup so I'll be doing a bit of partitioning too. Thanks for all the great advice!
Your new card looks good. I'm glad you've mentioned Linux because there are people around who would try it if they knew someone who could give them technical support. And it's a niche to get into.
Once I get the PC set up properly I'll do something about tidying up the information in this thread to give readers a more coherent record of the components and the process and with some photos too.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 07:22
Much better layout Steve. One other suggestion, how about changing 'No fix no fee' to 'No call out charge' or adding it. This is the killer with most expert visits, the £50 charge before they do anything and it frightens people who have heard of it. Most of them have because it's standard with domestic equipment repair.
Now then, 'Money where the mouth is' time! How about a quotation for installing Linux on my old IBM machine. It's time I had a play with it and found out how my old programmes perform on it.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
pluggy
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 09:21
Glad you got it going Tizer and its nice to know I occasionally get things right. Any reason you went for such an old version of Ubuntu ?, I've come to appreciate the more polished feel of the later ones. You don't get an artistic picture of a Koala on 9.10 though........
We're only a few days from 10.04, but I tend to leave it a month for them to iron the bugs out before I commit to a new version.
If your old programs are Windows Stanley they won't run on Linux at least directly, But more than likely there is software available for Linux that will do what you want. Theres a pretty good photo manager installed as default, which is something I know you're into.It will almost certainly work out of the box with all your kit.
I'll PM you with a quote. It won't be very much.
Need computer work ?
"http://www.stsr.co.uk"
Pluggy's Household Monitor |
Tizer
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 11:12
I went for the old Ubuntu version because it is the one we are using on our present computers and I want to make a direct comparison of the speed between the new and old PCs. We have stuck with the old Ubuntu version on the PCs because it is the latest Long Term Support (LTS) version (as Ubuntu users will know) and that's significant for us as we use the PCs for business and we put priority on stability. But as you mention, the next LTS version 10.04 is nearly here and I will probably try the 64-bit version of that, but after it has matured a little as you suggest. I assume that a 64-bit PC will network OK with 32-bit PCs (via cable)?
Stanley, as Steve says, your Windows programmes can't work on Linux - but then moving to Linux is a chance to get away from Windows programmes! A lot of software is installed along with the OS but there are massive repositories of free software just waiting to be used and easy to install. The standard Ubuntu has gThumb which I use for handling photos but also F-Spot Photo Manager. Also, The Gimp photo editing software which many people consider better than Photoshop. You can open and edit your Word documents in OpenOffice (OO) and also save new documents either in OO or Word. Firefox and Thunderbird will be ready installed and much more.
There are lists of Ubuntu equivalents for Windows software here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 15:42
It all sounds OK to me. I'm talking to Plggs but you may have answered the question. It looks as though I need to buy LTS 10.4 when he tells me it is OK. For a kick off I'll play with an alternative system on the IBM and if and when I'm comfortable with it, do a transfer to the FMII. Isn't funny I have just bought the latest Microsoft Office home and student version? Ah well...... At least the Linux will be able to use my 8gb of RAM! I'll get Tommy finished and then have a rest from writing and a think. To be quite honest, I think I might just bite the bullet and put it straight onto this machine and force myself to get into the real world. Only reservation I have is whether Lulu can cope with the change! I'll have to see what other formats than .doc they support. I know they can't handle .docx.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 16:01
Decision made. I've got a returns number from DABS and printed the labels out. As soon as the disk arrives I'll post it back unopened. Now then, what do I order and when? Over to you Plugs......
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 16:12
Er, I think I may have stepped into a parallel universe. Am I reading things right? Is Ubuntu free for God's sake!!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
catgate
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 16:31
quote:
Stanley wrote:
Er, I think I may have stepped into a parallel universe. Am I reading things right? Is Ubuntu free for God's sake!!
It certainly is Stanley, as are thousands of other programmes and utilities that will go with it.
However, as was said somewhere above, pretty nearly all you will need is included in the free downloadable CD.
Also mentioned above was the matter of the imminent issue of Ubuntu 10.04 which will be a Long Term Support issue and which is what I would recommend. I am running the last LTS issue 8.04 and have been since it came out about a couple of years ago. I will switch a few weeks after the new 10.04 comes out (29th? April) when the last few (if any) issues have been ironed out.
Edited by - catgate on 14/04/2010 4:34:54 PM
Every silver lining has a cloud.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 17:14
Catty, by that time I will have done and dusted Tommy's book and we can have a bit of a play out.
It's been a fun-filled half hour! While I was going on at you about Linux three parcels arrived at the door. Five copies of Father's Memoir so a good read in store. One fomatting mistake but not serious. Two volumes of Norman Davies' 'God's Playground', his history of Poland so that takes care of afternoon reading for a couple of weeks, a good 1100 page read! And the other parcel was the Dabs delivery of the Microsoft Office, so return labels stuck on the original packaging and off in the post tomorrow morning.
I have decided that in my 75th year I should be looking for new challenges so I'm going to bite the bullet and go cold turkey off Msoft and onto Linux. It will mean completely new programmes to learn but what's the use of having a brain the size of a planet if you can't accept change! I shall get Tommy's book finished, clear the decks and get my IT Consultants in to do all the hard work for me. That's right Pluggy, I shall be one of your first customers. Your price sounds too cheap to me but we'll argue about that on the day.
What I need to do now is work out what programmes I need.I see from a cursory read of the blurb on 10.4 that it offeres some built-in conversions to old progs but I'll take advice as to whether these are worth bothering with.
Peter, What programmes do you use for 1) Image editing. 2.) Image store and retrieval (IE. Something like ACDSee which I use now) and 3.) OCR? All suggestions gratefully accepted. Will McAfee work on Ubuntu? Or don't I need it?
I'll post progress when we do it on Flying Machine and then it can be a roadmap for anyone else wanting to take the plunge.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
pluggy
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 20:01
Ahh, LTS, Stable, but old. I found it a pain having old versions of applications and utilities when you're trying to do something new.
Image editing - GIMP
Image Store and retreival = F-spot
OCR, less clear cut but several are available, its very much an old technology that gets used less and less as time goes by.
You won't need anti virus, Windows has seen several hundred thousand viruses over the past 20 years. Linux has seen a small handful, the chances of coming across one in the wild are nil.
Edited by - pluggy on 14/04/2010 20:04:53
Need computer work ?
"http://www.stsr.co.uk"
Pluggy's Household Monitor |
Tizer
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Posted - 14/04/2010 : 20:42
Stanley, slow down! Otherwise you'll rush off at all sorts of tangents and simply waste a lot of your time. Linux is so different to Windows that you really need to get an overview first of all. Talk to pluggy first, face to face, and he'll set you straight on some major aspects you need to know. Don't worry about choosing programmes now, wait and see what's available. Besides the programmes on the install, there are literally thousands more for free in the Ubuntu repositories (we call the repositories`repos' because we refer to them so often). Downloading and installing these is just a few clicks - they are tailor-made for Ubuntu - and you can have as many as you want! You can install a programme, try it, then uninstall it all in minutes if you wish.
Pluggy can introduce you to the wonders of the Terminal. It frightens most Windows people but it's not essential for normal use of Ubuntu, yet it's very useful when you get used to it (and you might find it OK if you ever used the command line in earlier days).
If the computer on which you install Ubuntu already has Windows installed then Pluggy can set up Ubuntu on a separate disk partition and you can keep your Windows too. Then you boot into which ever you want. That gives you the `legacy' advantage of still having Windows for any operations that are Windows specific. In my case I need Windows now and then to access some old files in Pagemaker which can't be used, of course, on Linux, but I kept an old Windows PC instead of having a Windows partition and you may be in that lucky position too.
With all this excitement I almost forgot to say - I'm writing this from the new high-speed PC with Ubuntu installed. I put in the new SATA cables, attached the DVD drive and took out the old CDROM. Then I changed the BIOS settings back to the original IDE and `Enabled', put the Ubuntu disk in the DVD and away we went - until it got stuck and churned out error messages. I put the BIOS back to Pluggy's `AHCI' and `Compatible', tried again and it worked like a dream. Up and going in half an hour!
I did the automatic `guided' partitioning of the hard drive because I wasn't sure about the method for dealing with my two drives and making separate Home and Backup partitions during installation. Tomorrow I'll open the Partition Editor and have a go there, it seems more friendly. But I'm very pleased with the results and very grateful for everyone on OGFB who has helped and supported me.
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Building my own computer
