[lug] Who sells good Linux computers?

[Jeff Schroeder]

Dean asked:

> There are plenty of vendors out there selling Linux boxes these days,
> from low end Wal-Mart boxes to sky's-the-limit computers, but who is
> truly worthwhile?

I've always been a fan of building my own systems.  You can usually save 
money buying components and plugging them together yourself; you get 
the added bonus of getting exactly what you want.

That being said, I've been using Shuttle (http://www.shuttle.com) 
small-form-factor systems for several years and have been thoroughly 
impressed.  They're small, quiet, inexpensive, and real workhorses.  
Plus they have a cool neon power light. ;)

My setup of choice is the SK41G with the following:

* 512MB of Kingston ValueRAM
* 52X CD-ROM drive
* 80GB Western Digital hard drive
* AMD Athlon 1800+ 1.5 GHz CPU

The box itself has all the jacks you'd expect: USB, Firewire, SVGA, 
sound, ethernet.  There's a single PCI/AGP expansion slot and room for 
two hard drives or one hard drive and one floppy drive.

You can get all of these components at NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com) 
for around $400.  My specs above are a little dated; I suspect you 
could pick up a better CPU and bigger hard drive for around the same 
price.  NewEgg rocks, BTW, if you ever want to buy computer parts.

HTH,
Jeff