Ubuntu 10.8 (IntrepidIbex) went on a treat, straight from the C.D. Ellie and I are well chuffed
all systems go!
Now we have to get a Speedtouch ADSL 330 modem going for internet access; not easy!!!! any help appreciated.
We downloaded the latest Ubuntu operating system here did a checksum on a mac. This varifies that the data has downloaded correctly. It’s getting exciting now!
Whilst In Computer Exchange I bought a tested Pentium 4 3.2Ghz CPU. All the stuff there has a year warranty, It needed to be LGA775 compatible for our motherboard. This is the socket connection. The heatsink and fan we bought on e-bay: £3.99. Had to scrape off some paste with a credit card and add a dab of fresh (95p) before adding heatsink unit. Many how to’s on line
Brand New RAM. We had to be careful here, we needed DDR2 RAM, and we need it to be reliable. Kingston seems to have a good name, again Amazon came up trumps at £8.95 for 1GB (free postage!). We also bought an anti static wristband from Maplins for handling this component: £5:95.
IDE was the connection choice here. Our choice was a brand new LG DVD/CD rewriter, again from Amazon.co.uk. price: £22
Brand New LG DVD/CD rewriter (IDE)
Compatibility is the major consideration when putting a computer together. I had a number of rescued hard drives around, but they were all IDE (ATA) connections. for our motherboard We needed SATA. Computer Exchange (Tottenham Court Road, near Goodge Street) was a good place to go as I wanted to see what I was buying.
There is also a computer fair in the same area on Saturdays where you can make bigger savings
Make: Western Digital, SATA connection, Capacity:80GB, price £23
80 GB space should be ok for a twelve year old?
In the next few posts I will be constructing the above with my 12 year old daughter. Our aim was to get a decent computer for her to use without having to turn her (and me) into a criminal (cracking software). It is also a good project for us both, never having built a computer before.
First component: We chose an Asus Barebones kit (Box, motherboard and power supply), £109, from Amazon.co.uk. Not the cheapest option, but Asus Kits were recommended here.
You could buy a box and motherboard cheaper (here for quick guide), but we wanted small. We chose the Intel over AMD as the fans are apparently quieter in these models. Shuttle also offer good barebones kits, but are more expensive and the cheapest kit seemed to have no space for an internal optical drive.
