IDE Cards et al

(Be sure to read the previous entry before this one; otherwise this might not make much sense)

Last I wrote about my Plextor drive, I was about to head off to Fry’s to pick up a new IDE controller card. I went to Fry’s and, sure enough, they had a couple IDE cards to choose from.

One that looked promising was an IO Flex card that actually included RAID capabilities as well. It was $40 and I was about to bring it to the cash registers and pay for it. I was concerned about its Linux-compatibility, so I asked one of the sales-droids.

He looked over the box, just as I had done, noticing that the card advertised its compatibility with just about any Windows OS (though no mention of Linux, one way or the other). He then remarked, “Well, Linux has a Windows-emulation mode, right? That should allow it to work”. I muttered something along the lines of “Erm, sure…” and quietly put the card back on the shelf.

At that point, I began thinking more and more about my “other avenue” (that I could just upgrade my box instead of buying a replacement IDE card). Strictly speaking, I could just buy a new motherboard (such as from Jason) and a processor to go with it, and then use the rest of the existing components from my current box.

However, it occured to me that I could just build a whole new box for a bit more. I already have a brand new hard drive, the Plextor CDR drive, and 768 MB spare RAM. So, were I to build a new box, I’d just need the aforementioned motherboard and processor, plus a case and a video card. I would also probably need a KVM to make life easier.

And, that’s kinda tempting. My original upgrade plan for this box was to get a dual processor Athlon MP solution. But, then Hammer started appearing on the horizon and that caught my eye. So, I was going to wait for Hammer. But, Hammer has recently been delayed to 1Q 2003, so maybe a 1.2 GHz Athlon wouldn’t be so bad in the meantime.

So, I’m about 90% decided on building this new box. As a side advantage of having a second box, I’d be able to install Linux on it without worry as Win2k would still be around on my old box as a just-in-case measure.

As far as new box-bits, I’d need to choose a KVM, a case, a video card, and a cooling fan for the new Athlon chip (even if I were to buy a retail-box chip that came with a fan, I’m not sure if I would trust that).

The video card is easy enough: NVidia’s GeForce 4600 is the king of video cards at the moment. So, that’s one decision I don’t have to make.

Choosing a KVM is not so easy, as I haven’t bought one before. I suppose they’re all fairly similar, but there are still so many to choose from. One that caught my attention at Fry’s was the Miniview Micro KVM from IO Gear. It’s a minimalist solution, as the KVM electronics are built right into the (included) KVM cables. So, for $50, it does switching for PS/2 mice and keyboards, and even includes support for hotkey-based switching. As KVMs go, that one may be at the top of my list so far.

That leaves the CPU-fan and the case. I haven’t bought a fan in years, so I’m open to suggestions on this one (or links to fan-reviews). On the other hand I see that Anand has a couple Socket A cooling comparisons, so I’ll be sure to check those out.

That leaves the case. Ah, I see that AnandTech has case reviews as well. Howerver, unlike the Socket A cooling articles, the case reviews are all one-by-one reviews (not comparisons). So, with what looks to be 80 case reviews at Anand (yikes), I’m open to suggestions that might narrow down the list.

Fry’s had some nifty TurboServer Aluminum cases. For an after-rebate price of $144 (at Fry’s), they included a glass window and came in 5 different colors. They also included tool-free releases on the drive bays, which impressed me (just pull a lever on the drive bay, and it’s released from the case). But, that’s just one possibility; I’m open to others as well.