A MONEY SAVING/OPTIMIZING TIP:
Adding a device similar to this...
http://www.leatherman.com/products/product.asp?id=1&f=6&c=1
...to one's belt (it comes with its own holster and is smaller than a cell phone) will allow one to salvage pocket-sized components/upgrades from discarded PCs whenever and wherever one may find them.
Why pay for obsolete PC parts (DDR 400 RAM and PATA 100 & 133 hard drives now cost
more than DDR2 RAM and SATA II drives!
) just to upgrade (or repair) one's once formidable, but now elderly machine to optimal Ubuntu Studio performance levels, when the money can be invested in a decent audio interface instead?
The best multi-tools to get are those made of stainless steel (they don't rust).
Portable toolkits have a myriad of other uses too for music gear users and vehicle operators.
I've had one like the model pictured above (which appears to have been superseded by newer versions) for about fifteen years and never leave home without it. It has enabled an unending trickle of computer upgrades and a coincidentally ever-expanding PC hardware know-how.
Also: it's a good idea to carry a folded anti-static bag (like the kind that new RAM and hard drives etc come with) in one's back pocket, and use said bag to put salvaged electronic components in to ensure they aren't damaged by static electricity generated by rustling clothes etc.
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A list of things to salvage from
DDR SRAM,
PATA 100/133,
SATA,
USB 2.0 &
Invalid Link Removed-era Pentium 4 (
socket 478 & 775) and AMD Athlon (
socket 462 & 754) machines:
- DDR RAM (all speeds).
- Hard drives (PATA 100/133 and SATA & SATA II).
- PATA optical drives (DVD drives are needed to boot into, and install from the Ubuntu Studio DVD)
- Cables (all types, spares are good to have).
- Expansion cards (AGP 3.0 aka 8x, PCI 2.2, PCI Express 16x and 1x).
- Power supplies (350 Watt or greater).
- Monitors (use a salvaged flat-faced CRT or an early LCD monitor for one's desktop, and a purchased DVI wide screen LCD to display audio & MIDI tracks as part of a budget two monitor PC rig/DAW).
- Jumpers & screws (all kinds).
- Whole computers (open the case, take an inventory of its innards, and sniff for any evidence of burnt components: overtaxed power supplies, over-clocked CPUs & graphics cards, and hard drives which cooked due to poor case ventilation/cooling).
FTR: heat - and stock CPU fan noise - are a BIG problem for home recordists re faster (2.8 GHz+) Pentium 4s (a 'silent' variety of after-market CPU chiller must be used) but not much of an issue with equivalent AMD processors (1.8 GHz+) due to their much lower clock speed and correspondingly lower heat generation. (The folks at American Micro Devices are correct in their claim that there's more to achieving good CPU performance than sheer speed. However, big numbers do sell big...)
