Not a problem......yet.

[catgate]

Following on from my query "Setting up wireless router without wire ? "under Networking Board I have another related query.

The above installation was scheduled for yesterday afternoon. It was again thwarted. But this time it was shortly after we started, due to a silly little thing that was basically an oversight on my part when this thing was planned some weeks ago.

I fitted the wireless card and then we started to connect the various bits of wire....until we came to the ethernet socket, or at least the absence of one on the motherboard.

It turned out that this box was put together by a local chap in 1998 and so it is not surprising there was no ethernet or for that matter USB. So I am now ferreting about looking for components to knock up a new "economy" box of tricks.

Most of the "value" motherboards seem to be very reluctant to provide more than one IDE connetor, and given that I had intended transfering the HD, the CD player and the DVD player I would really like 2.

I have found a board but it is takes and Intell socket 775 CPU, but the best "value" CPU seems to be an Intel duel core rated as 1.6 Gig.

Now the question is " Will a 1.6 dual core CPU be faster in operation than say a 2.0 Gig single core?"

Bare in mind that this friend is a fellow luddite, who has a strong liking for sticking wih W98SE.

[Boris]

Cheaper option ?????

Why not just add a PCI ethernet card - under a fiver :)

[catgate]

Cheaper option ?????

Why not just add a PCI ethernet card - under a fiver :)

That was my original thought too, Boris, but my friend has a young son, who will be starting at "the big school" next year and who is already playing Flight Simulator stuff, so he thought something a bit faster might be in order. BT have just had some sort of improvement made to the 'phone lines so that they can now get BB at his end of the village (about 5 miles from the exchange) and so it makes some sort of sense to improve what they will be conecting to it. I am not sure what the current CPU, is but the RAM consists of 2 x 64Mb 100Hz !! I imagine the CPU will be something of a similar level.

[AlanHo]

I have found a board but it is takes and Intell socket 775 CPU, but the best "value" CPU seems to be an Intel duel core rated as 1.6 Gig.

Now the question is " Will a 1.6 dual core CPU be faster in operation than say a 2.0 Gig single core?"

Bare in mind that this friend is a fellow luddite, who has a strong liking for sticking wih W98SE.

I recently built a budget computer for a friend and used an Intel E2160 Dual core CPU - 1 MB cache, 1.8 GHz clock speed, 800 MHz FSB. the CPU and cooler cost £36. I fitted 2 GB DDR2 667 RAM.

My computer has an Intel Q6600 Quad core CPU - 8 MB cache, 2.4 GHz clock speed, 1066 MHz FSB. The CPU and Zalman cooler cost £171 in January. It has 4 GB DDR2 800 RAM.

To my chagrin, I could not detect any really noticeable difference in speed between the two computers in terms of boot up time, internet and Email use and MS office programmes. My computer is somewhat faster at video and graphics editing though - but perhaps not enough to justify the large price difference.

I do not play games so have no idea how they would compare in this respect.

My guess is that the dual core processor is going to be faster than single core if you multi-task with more than one programme open. Provided of course that the software can take advantage of dual core processors.

[catgate]

I have just had a 'phone call from him asking if I had got as far as ordering anything. After discussing EIDE v SATA (and explaining what bit I know) and discussing memory, CPU speed and his sudden decision to get "a camera", I am left with "Well just build what you would build if you were building it for yourself."

So I feel he might end up with a dual boot M$/Linux machine, when I sort out the dual booting technical bit.

[catgate]

After a week of fighting the CCL system (don't ask) I managed to place the order for the bits needed for this project. Hopefully to be received Tuesday.

The question now is ,"Does anyone know any reason why W98SE will not dual boot with Ubuntu 8.04?" and also " any ideas about sneaky ways of doing it?"

[catgate]

After a few trial and tribulations I have gathered all the bits and stuck them together into what looks like a reasonable facsimile of a computer. Then I began to wonder about formatting the HDD prior to installing the dual booting operation.

What I have seen so far seems to indicate that the W98se should be installed first followed by the Ubuntu. That leads me to think I need to format for W98 and leave the Ubuntu to shuffle things around afterwards....or am I living in my usual cloud cuckoo land?