Building a replacement for my Dell Ubuntu System

It is time to retire Ursa-Major. She is overheating and so it is not even worth a $20 case fan. I have dropped my 6 inch fan in front of the box to try to cool it down. I still have to occasionally simply shut it down and cool it off.

The Dell Box with Dell Factory Ubuntu installed is an Inspirion 530n- A 530 with no Microsoft Software like Windows Office or Works.

Inspiron 530 specs-

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E4600 (2MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,800 FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
20 inch E207WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs
500GB1 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
​

Mated with a 19 inch flat screen monitor and discounted to $599

Inspiron 530n Specs-

Intel®Pentium® dual-core processor E2180 (1MB L2 Cache,2.00GHz,80
Ubuntu Linux version 7.10 with DVD Playback
19 inch S199WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor with TrueLife*
16x DVD+/-RW Drive
1GB1 Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
250GB2 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
nVidia GeForce 8300GS 128MB
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
​

With "$50 savings" priced at $509

Note the differences-

1 MB instead of 2 MB cache
1 Gig memory instead of 3
250 MB instead of 500 MB Hard Drive
There is a Nvidia GeForce 8300 on the 530n.

I could not build one as barebones, and a Sales Consultant “had to check with tech support” to offer a 3.5 bay media reader. My Inspiron 530n price without a monitor and a media reader was $357.24 plus taxes and shipping.

 

Later today I will post the Tiger Direct and NewEgg systems I have looked at.

 

According to this post on the Ubuntu Forums, the motherboard is a Foxconn GM33-S

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/picture.php?albumid=1&pictureid=1

# Intel® Core™2 Quad, Core™2 Duo, Pentium® Dual-Core, Pentium® D, Pentium® 4, Celeron® processors, Socket T (LGA775)
# Supports Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-Core processors , Socket T (LGA775)
# 1333 / 1066 / 800 MHz (FSB)
# Dual Channel DDR2 800 / 667 x 4 DIMMs, Max 8GB
# 1 x PCIe x16, 1 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI
# ATA x1, SATAII x 4
# 7.1 channel HD Audio
# GbE LAN
# 12 x USB 2.0 ports
# 2 x 1394a

 

Newegg-
Sunbeam Quarterback IC-QB-US-SVBK Silver/ Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply - Retail Item #: N82E16811166035

Foxconn G33M-S LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Item #: N82E16813186123

Intel Pentium E2200 Allendale 2.2GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E2200 - Retail Item #: N82E16819116063

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail Item #: N82E16820146565

ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T - Retail Item #: N82E16827135156

Western Digital 250 GB Hard Drive Sold out
Item#:N82E16822144701

I added a 360 GB for same price.
​

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM Item #: N82E16822136074

Also I did not see a 128 GeForce card still offered. I added a 256
EVGA 256-P2-N733-LR GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130316

The case is $69.99, and there are $19.99 boxes available as the Dell box is nothing exotic. The cooling of this box rocked and it has 450 W power included for $70

Also the memory is double what the base Dell has, but with a $30 rebate is $30.99 total.

Total price this above configuration-

434.03 and there are $40.00 in rebates.
Shipping is $29.54 which is compared to Dell at $29.00

I know there are AMD chipsets available at a lower price. I was trying to best match the Dellubuntu box here.

 

Tiger has a EVGA box for $299.99 after rebate ending 05/04/08.

E145-2026 H :: EVGA nForce 650i Ultra Socket 775 Barebone Kit - Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 2.20GHz OEM, 512MB Video Card, 160GB SATA HD, 20x DVD±RW, 2GB DDR2 PC4200, ATX Mid-Tower Case, 450 Watt Power Supply (23.4 lbs)

I don't want to wait a week for this,and I liked the other box for cooling.

This is very close to the Dell box and I would guess the same plant made both motherboards looking a the photos.

 

I recently bought a Samsung SATA dvd burner and haven't been able to to get it to boot any install discs in my Linux box. My mother board is an older ECS socket 754. I don't think my mb will allow me to boot from a sata dvd. The burner works great otherwise-- I just had to leave an ide burner in the box to install from.

The dvd burner is a Lightscribe model and I downloaded the system software and the simple labeling software from lightscribe.com and it really works well in Ubuntu 8.04 (the only linux that I have installed that software in so far).

 

This sounds like a issue with either your ECS board or the Samsung forums.

If "you just bought it" - can you send it back as it will not work in your box?