Update

For the few of you who read this,
I finished the solar tracker!  I'm busy at the moment, but I'll eventually get a video showing you what it can do.  Until then, you'll just have to wait.

Furthermore, I'm also planning on replacing my Arch partition with Xubuntu.  I'm also most likely going to reorganize my computer boot sequence as well.  I currently have my boot partition doing nothing but booting, which seems kinda silly.

On the hardware side, I just upgraded my RAM from the 2x1 Gb Crucial 1033 Mhz to a 2x2 Gb Corsair 1600 Mhz.  So far I've noticed a slight improvement in Windows (which is 64bit) and I haven't tried it in Arch yet.

Also, if you haven't already, check out This Week in Linux with Jordan Keyes.  He recently lost his adsense account due to some strange DDoS/Misuse  and showing all of his videos either through Blip.tv or through his website.  I highly suggest everyone watch his videos, he's a wealth of knowledge!

New Package

Well guys, the computer came in today. First thing I did was take the case off (which was annoying) and look at the guts. Everything matches the description, which is great.

(Sorry for the poor quality. It was taken with a webcam)

First thing I noticed was the giant heat sink. This sucker's probably the biggest stock heat sink I've ever seen. It's a Foxconn, and is going for about$5.99.


The motherboard is a basic Intel with build in graphics card, but room for more. There's two 256mb RAM sticks in there, with room for two more, if I'm not mistaken.

(Once again, sorry for the poor quality. The camera doesn't like close-ups)

If there's anymore info you want, just shoot a comment or email my way. I'll try to get pictures.

A thoughtful redo

After looking around some more, I've decided to cancel my first order.
I found a much more appealing computer on geeks.com!

This guy is a HP Compaq dc7100 Pentium 4 with 3.0GHz and 512M ram. It's listed as a Compaq with the manufacturer being Dell.
unfortunately it doesn't have a hard drive, but luckily I have one laying around from an old laptop. They're both sata, so hopefully all I need is a 2.5 - 3.5 adapter.

(geeks.com)
so the computer comes out to $89.99 and shipping is $18.00, which comes to a total of $107.99. Only $6 more than the 1.7Ghz XP Pro.

Overall I am much more impressed with geeks.com compared to used-pcs.com. When I canceled my order, I had to IM a guy using aim and ask him to cancel it for me. used-pcs.com never sent me a conformation email, and never asked me to validate my card. Not to mention shipping which was $4 more.

A seasoned overclocker warned me last night that Dells are notoriously tough to overclock, as they lock the bios and speed settings. After a quick google, I came across a method that requires I download a program called CPUFSB. If I have any troubles with a locked "Dell" compaq computer, that'll be my first step.

On a side note, I plan on getting a Stumpleupon link here. We'll see how that goes.

Finding the goods

Well I finally worked up the courage to get my project computer. As I am cheap, I decided to go old first. I picked this little sweety from used-pcs.com.

(used-pcs.com)

It's by no means pretty and I'll be sure to spark it up a little bit. Maybe I can add that to my list.

Here's the stats (From used-pcs.com)
Dell OPTIPLEX GX260 Low Profile Chassis, Celeron 1700 Mhz, 512 MB RAM, IDE 40 GB Hard Drive, IDE CD-ROM, 1 Floppy Drive, 64 MB Video RAM, 1 Parallel Port(s), 1 Serial Port(s), 6 USB Port(s), 1000 MB INT Network Adapter, Sound WinXP Professional Installed.

I was mostly looking at the 1.7 Ghz processor. I'm not too happy about the IDE, but I can deal with that for now. XP Pro is also a nice option, though its not necessary.

Overall my running total is $79.99 for the item, and a whopping $22.91 for UPS ground shipping, which should take 3 days, I'll be looking for it on monday.

I'm still looking for a monitor and keyboard. I'm looking to get a cheap LCD monitor. Any ideas?