In any case, here is how to fix the problem:

1) Edit (or if necessary create) the file at /etc/firestarter/user-pre
sudo gedit /etc/firestarter/user-pre

2) Insert into this file the following two lines:
$IPT -A INPUT -p udp –dport 5353 -d 224.0.0.251 -j ACCEPT
$IPT -A OUTPUT -p udp –dport 5353 -d 224.0.0.251 -j ACCEPT

3) Save the file, exit the program and restart Firestarter.  In Firestarter, enable the required printer ports if you haven’t yet.  You should now be able to access your printer with Firestarter running.

1) In Kmail create a new folder: right-click on Local Folders: Inbox and select “New Subfolder”

2) Enter a name for the folder (for instance, Export) and then for “Mailbox Format” select: mbox

3) Right-click on the directory whose contents you want to export (in my case Local: Sent Mail) and select Copy Folder To and then navigate to the folder you just created (Local Folders: Inbox: Export).  Wait for the contents to be copied to your new mbox folder.

4) Open a file manager (Nautilus), and select show hidden files (View: Show Hidden Files)

5) Then navigate to the kmail directory containing your new mbox folder: ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/.inbox.directory
(Note that your new mbox folder is a hidden directory within the hidden directory .inbox.directory that itself is a hidden directory inside of .kde!  You won’t be able to find it if you don’t have Show Hidden Files enabled.)

6) Navigate into your mbox directory and then move the mailbox file (for instance, sent-mail) to your Desktop

7) Open Evolution and select: File: Import

8) Forward: Import a single file and navigate to the mbox file on your Desktop.

9) In Destination Folder specify what folder in Evolution you would like your Kmail e-mails to be saved in (for instance, Sent).

Your Kmail e-mails should now show up in Evolution.  Repeat for each Kmail folder you want to export.

1) Open the Terminal and change to the directory containing the photos you want to rename (cd name-of-directory-with-photos)

2) Enter this command:

rename -v ‘s/\.JPG$/\.jpg/’ *.JPG

Easy.

To set it up on GNU/Linux, install Wine from Synaptic, download the newest version of EAC, and install it with Wine:

wine Name-of-EAC-Installer.exe

EAC will show up on the Applications menu under Wine: Programs. Open it and then follow the above guide exactly, checking all of the boxes identified in the screenshots and taking special care to get your dvd drive’s offset configured properly.

Finally, to copy a CD in EAC:

1) Put the CD in the drive
2) Make sure that the album, artist, genre, date, and song titles are correct. (Don’t ignore this step!)
3) Press F4 (This will check your CD’s offsets.)
4) On the menu select Action: Create CUE Sheet: Multiple Wav Files with Gaps… (Noncompliant)
5) Press Ctrl-A then Shift-F6 (This selects all of the tracks and then runs the Action: Test & Copy Selected Tracks: Compressed command)
6) When the CD is done, check to make sure that all of the entires in the CRC column say OK. If any of them don’t, clean the disc and try again.
7) Make sure to include the .cue and .log sheet in the same folder as the resulting FLAC files.

The above steps will produce perfect FLAC copies of your CDs. If you want to make MP3′s, you can use a separate program to convert the resulting FLAC files to MP3s. I find that Gnormalize works well for converting audio files provided that you turn off the normalize option (Normalization Type: None). The preferred method of making MP3s is to use the LAME encoder, set the quality to 2, and the variable setting to 0. MP3s made at the V 0 setting should be indistinguishable from considerably larger MP3s made at the 320 setting (the highest constant bit rate setting). (And if you’re ripping to MP3, you really do care about file size.)

1) copy dvd to hard drive using vobcopy (Alternately, you can use Acid Rip to copy the DVD to the hard drive):

vobcopy -m

2) Open Acid Rip and specify Video Source in the upper-right hand corner; copy and past the full name of the folder vobcopy created and hit Load.

3) Select the Video Title you want to rip in the menu that Acid Rip just opened up.  (The length of the title should give you a clue.)

4) Enter the name of the .avi file you want to create in the “Track Title” box.

5) Make sure that .avi is selected in the list next to Filename

6) In the menu under Audio select the Appropriate Language Track

7) Make sure “mp3lame” is selected for the Audio Codec

8) If the video has subtitles, specify the Subtitle and check the box Sub File

9) Click on the tab Preview and click the Preview button.  Watch a little of the video and listen to the audio.  This should help you make sure that you selected the appropriate entries in steps 3) and 6) above.

10) Click the Video tab and under Codec select “xvid”

11) Set Passes to: 2

12) Make sure Crop is check and click “Detect”

13) Make sure Scale is checked and that the box “Lock aspect” is also checked.

14) Check the “Post filters” box and in the box next to it, type: yadif

15) Now for the hard part.  We need to figure out how small we can get away with making the video.  There are three inter-connected features that we’re interested in: 1. file size, 2. video bitrate, 3. frame size (the width and height values next to “Scale”).  We reduce the video size by reducing either the video bitrate or the frame size (or both of them together).  If we lower either the video bitrate or the frame size too much, however, the resulting .avi file will look awful. There is a value called bits-per-pixel (bpp) that is specified in the Bits/Px box next to Bitrate; this value measures the relationship between the video bitrate and the frame size.  Acid Rip will encourage you to aim for a bits-per-pixel value that is between .20 and .25; this will produce a relatively nice looking video (one that is somewhere between dvd and vhs quality).  Lowering the width size in the “Scale” section will raise the bits-per-pixel value.  Raising the file size on the General tab will also increase the bits-per-pixel.  If you scale the width down too much, the video will look terrible when you watch it at full screen.  If you raise the file size up too much, you’ll defeat the purpose of creating an .avi file.  If you need to, Acid Rip suggests that you can squeeze by with a bits-per-pixel value between .15 and .20. 

You’ll want to start by figuring out how big you want the file to be.  If you want to squeeze it onto a cd, you’re shooting for around 700 MB.  I generally assume that a nice looking .avi file will have around 10-15 MB for every minute of video, and I try to keep the screen resolution as close to the original as I can. 

15A) So first I click on the Video tab and make sure that Scale Width and Height are set to the same value as Crop Width and Height.

15B) Then I determine what I think is a reasonable file size (let’s say 1160 MB for a 116 minute movie) and after making sure that Lock Bits/Px is checked on the Video tab, I adjust the Bitrate on the Video tab. I then flip back and forth between the Video tab and the General tab and continue to adjust the bitrate value until the file size under the General tab matches my desired file size.

15C) By the time I get to my desired File Size, my Bits/Px value on the Video tab is probably too low (well below .20). Ideally, I would like to fix this by lowering my scale Width (making sure that “Lock aspect” is checked) until I get a Bits/Px value of .20.  (To get Bits/Px back up to .20, I have to lower my resolution to 550 x 375). Unfortunately, if you scale the video down, Acid Rip does not make sure that the resulting frame sizes are multiples of 16. (DVD:Rip, however, does.)  You may want to skip this step and just leave the .avi at its original screen resolution and reduce the file size by further lowering the bitrate (and thereby messing up your Bits/Px). Or you may want to settle for having a larger file size. Or you could try using DVD:Rip and mencoder to create the AVI file as I illustrated in my previous blog post.

We’ll use the following programs to create our .avi file(s): vobcopy, midentify.sh, mplayer, DVD:Rip, and mencoder.  Midentify.sh is included in mplayer’s source code in a folder called TOOLS.  You can download mplayer’s source code directly from mplayer’s website and then cp the midentify.sh script to your /usr/local/bin directory.  We’ll use DVD:Rip to calculate our frame size and video bitrate, but we’ll make the actual .avi file(s) with mencoder.  The resulting files will be made using the xvid codec and will be deinterlaced so that they play better on computer screens.  If you don’t want them to be interlaced, just remove the -vf yadif line from the end of each script.

Using Mplayer and Midentify.sh to find out the Title and Language Track Numbers:
1) First, we need to copy the DVD to the hard drive and then rename the folder containing the DVD’s VIDEO_TS folder so that it is compatible our mencoder scripts below.  To copy the DVD to a folder named dvd that is located on our Desktop, we open the Terminal and do this:

cd Desktop
vobcopy -m
mv folder-vobcopy-created dvd

2) Next, we’ll determine which Title on the DVD we want to copy.  DVDs often have several Titles (different ones for the main feature and for special features, previews, etc.).  Run the following in the Terminal and see if the feature you want to convert starts playing:

mplayer -dvd-device dvd dvd://1

The number 1 in the above command identifies the first Title on the DVD.  If this is not the right DVD feature, press “q” to stop mplayer and replace the number 1 in the above command with the number 2 and hit enter again.  Repeat this process until you find the correct DVD title.  Once you’ve found the correct Title number, write it down.

3) Next we want to use midentify.sh to tell us the language track number of the audio track we want to copy.  A given Title on a DVD may have several different Language Tracks (for director’s commentary, other dubbed languages, etc.).  The main language track is normally 128 (though sometimes it’s different). To do this run the following in the Terminal:

midentify.sh -dvd-device dvd://NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-TITLE

In the above command, replace NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-TITLE with the Title number you found in the previous step.  Midentify.sh should spit out a pile of information about that Title number.  Look for the lines that begin ID_AUDIO_ID=.  These lines should identify the different language track numbers.  After you find the language track you want to rip, run the following command to test that track:

mplayer -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-TITLE -aid NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-LANGUAGE-TRACK

Replace NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-TITLE with the appropriate title number and replace NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-LANGUAGE-TRACK with the appropriate language track number.  If the resulting movie looks and sounds correct, then both numbers should be correct.  Write down the correct Language Track number.

Using DVD:Rip to Determine a Frame Size and Bitrate:
1) Open DVD:Rip by going to Applications: Sound and Video: dvd:rip
2) File: New Project
3) Project name: type a name here and select “Create Project” and on the pop up window hit OK
4) Select “Choose DVD Image Directory” and navigate to the dvd directory on your Desktop; hit OK
5) Select “Encode DVD on the Fly”
6) Select “Rip Title” on the left side of the screen
7) Select “Read DVD Table of Contents”
8) If you like, you can double-check your chosen Title number and Language Track Number by looking at the information provided on this screen.
9) Select “Clip & Zoom” on the left side of the screen
10) Select “DVD Title” at the top of the screen
11) Hit “Grab Frame”; don’t worry if nothing happens
12) Select “Open Zoom Calculator”
13) In the top right hand corner of the calculator select the “By Quality” tab
14) On the BPP Value drop down menu pick a number between .10 and .25.  The higher this number the better our .avi file will look, but the larger it will be.  Generally, good quality .avi files should be between .20 and .25.  The closer you go to .10, the blockier the .avi file will look.  If you don’t care much about creating a nice looking .avi file, you should be fine with an bpp of .10.  If you want it to look really nice, pick a bpp of around .20 or .23.  Don’t go above .25 as the resulting file will be needlessly big.
15) Now look at the 3 numbers in bold: v-rate, bpp, and total size.  Under “Zoom Calculations” the calculator lists a series of acceptable screen resolutions (ones that will preserve the aspect ratio.  Picking a lower screen resolution is like picking a lower BPP; doing so reduces file size, but it produces blurrier videos when the .avi is played at full screen.  Try to pick one of the screen resolutions near the top of the list within the first 5 or 6 entries.  In addition, the numbers in red are slightly better than the numbers in black as the red numbers will preserve the screen resolution exactly.  Experiment by selecting different screen resolutions and clicking “Apply Click and Zoom Settings” until you find a “total size” that is acceptable to you.  For a good quality .avi file, I assume that 10-12 MBs for every minute of video is reasonable; if you want to squeeze an .avi file onto a CD though you will want to go with a smaller file size (around 700 MB).  If the picture display is working (sometimes it doesn’t!) you should be able to compare different frame sizes.  The picture at the far left is the original dvd’s frame size; the picture at the far right is the frame size you’ll end up with.  You can click on them to make them bigger so you can compare them.
16) When you’ve settled on an acceptable frame size, write down the following numbers: V-RATE, Zoom Size, and Result Size.  When we plug these numbers into mencoder, the V-RATE will be your video bitrate; the Zoom Size will be your scale rate, and Result size will be your Crop rate.

Creating the AVI file with Mencoder:
Below are several mencoder scripts.  You will need to replace the following values in each script:

NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP: Replace with the number of the appropriate Title. You must replace this value twice.
LANGUAGE-NUMBER: Replace this with the number of the appropriate language track.  You must replace this value twice.
REPLACE-BITRATE: Replace this with your chosen Video Bitrate (DVD:Rip’s V-RATE).
SCALE-WIDTH:SCALE-HEIGHT: Replace this with the width and height you want to scale to (DVD:Rip’s Zoom Size specfied as “width x height”); mencoder wants these values separate with a colon as in width:height (ex. 720:480).
CROP-WIDTH:CROP-HEIGHT: Replace this with the width and height you want to crop to (DVD:Rip’s Result Size specfied as “width x height”); mencoder wants these values separate with a colon as in width:height (ex. 720:480).

The following scripts are two-pass.  This means that they have two parts that are separated by a &&.  The NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP and LANGUAGE-NUMBER must be replaced in two places in the script (before and after the &&).  The values REPLACE-BITRATE, SCALE-WIDTH:SCALE-HEIGHT, and CROP-WIDTH:CROP-HEIGHT only need to be replaced in the second part of the script (after the &&).  I would recommend coping and pasting the script into a text editor like Gedit: Applications: Accessories: Text Editor. Replacing the appropriate values in the text editor and then copying and pasting your finalized script into a Terminal window.

To convert your chosen DVD Title to one long .avi file do:

rm -f divx2pass.log && mencoder -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP -aid LANGUAGE-NUMBER pass=1 -o /dev/null && mencoder -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP -aid LANGUAGE-NUMBER -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=REPLACE-BITRATE -vf scale=SCALE-WIDTH:SCALE-HEIGHT -vf crop=CROP-WIDTH:CROP-HEIGHT -ffourcc XVID -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128 -vf yadif -o movie.avi

To convert one chapter of your DVD to one .avi file, also replace the values CHAPTER-NUMBER-CHAPTER-NUMBER before and after the &&. (For example, to rip chapter 5 only replace CHAPTER-NUMBER-CHAPTER-NUMBER with 5-5):

rm -f divx2pass.log && mencoder -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP -chapter CHAPTER-NUMBER-CHAPTER-NUMBER -aid LANGUAGE-NUMBER pass=1 -o /dev/null && mencoder -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP -chapter CHAPTER-NUMBER-CHAPTER-NUMBER -aid LANGUAGE-NUMBER -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=REPLACE-BITRATE -vf scale=SCALE-WIDTH:SCALE-HEIGHT -vf crop=CROP-WIDTH:CROP-HEIGHT -ffourcc XVID -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128 -vf yadif -o chapter.avi

To convert multiple chapters of your DVD to several .avi files (one for each chapter), the above script just gets longer. You want to copy the above script and then for each additional chapter you want to copy, paste the following to the end of the script. (Be sure to replace the two CHAPTER-NUMBER-CHAPTER-NUMBER sections and the final chapter.avi. Rename chapter.avi to chapter-2.avi, chapter-3.avi, chapter-4.avi, etc.):

&& rm -f divx2pass.log && mencoder -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP -chapter CHAPTER-NUMBER-CHAPTER-NUMBER -aid LANGUAGE-NUMBER pass=1 -o /dev/null && mencoder -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP -chapter CHAPTER-NUMBER-CHAPTER-NUMBER -aid LANGUAGE-NUMBER -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=REPLACE-BITRATE -vf scale=SCALE-WIDTH:SCALE-HEIGHT -vf crop=CROP-WIDTH:CROP-HEIGHT -ffourcc XVID -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128 -vf yadif -o chapter-2.avi

To convert a specific section of the movie to an .avi file do the following:
First, use mplayer to find the beginning and ending of the section:

mplayer -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-TITLE -aid NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-LANGUAGE-TRACK

Use the arrows and page-up and page-down the find the appropriate section. When you get to the start of the section you want, press spacebar to pause the video. Then look at mplayer’s output in the Terminal; write down the first number following the letter A (for example: A:1231) and replace the value START in the following with this number. Continue watching the video until you get to the end of the section you want to copy. Pause the video again and write down the second number following the letter A (for example: A:1250); subtract the first number from the second number (for example 1250-1231); replace END in the following command with this new number.

mplayer -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-TITLE -aid NUMBER-OF-CORRECT-LANGUAGE-TRACK -ss START -endpos END

After you’ve determined the appropriate starting and ending position, do this command (replace START and END in two separate places):

rm -f divx2pass.log && mencoder -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP -aid LANGUAGE-NUMBER pass=1 -ss START -endpos END -o /dev/null && mencoder -dvd-device dvd dvd://NUMBER-OF-TITLE-TO-RIP -aid LANGUAGE-NUMBER -ss START -endpos END -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=REPLACE-BITRATE -vf scale=SCALE-WIDTH:SCALE-HEIGHT -vf crop=CROP-WIDTH:CROP-HEIGHT -ffourcc XVID -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128 -vf yadif -o movie.avi

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

After you’ve installed libdvdcss, you can have vobcopy use libdvdread (with libdvdcss added to it) to crack and copy dvds. Here’s how:

#1) In a Terminal window, change to the Desktop directory:

cd Desktop

#2) Insert the dvd and use vobcopy to copy it by typing:

vobcopy -m

To burn your copied DVD to a blank disc, check the size of the copied DVD by right-clicking on the folder vobcopy created. If the copy is smaller than 4.7 gigs, put a blank dvd+r or dvd-r into your disc drive; if the folder is between 4.7 and 8 gigs, insert a dvd-dl disc into your drive. Then:

#3) Right-click on the folder vobcopy created and change the folder’s name to dvd or type:

mv name-of-folder-containing-dvd-copy dvd

#4) Burn the dvd folder using this command:

mkisofs -dvd-video -o dvdimage.iso dvd/ && growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/scd0=dvdimage.iso

Sometimes, dvds are just barely too big to fit on a single layer dvd-r or dvd+r. If you encounter an error message when you try to burn the dvd, recheck the size of the .iso file to see if you need a dual layer disc. If you do, insert the dual layer disc and run the second part of the burning command (growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/scd0=dvdimage.iso). If your burner cannot burn dual layer discs, you might want to buy one that can. They only cost around $30.

Here is how I installed Office 2007 on Linux. These instructions should get Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point up and running. I don’t use Access so you may have to do some additional tweaks to get it working. These instructions are taken from the comments section at this blog. (Thanks Chris!)

1) Figure out how to acquire Microsoft Office 2007. The world is a surprising and mysterious place. Use your imagination!
2) Install Wine version 1.1.14. (The installer crashes on wine versions 1.1.17-1.1.20.) You can get 1.1.14 for x86 Ubuntu here and for 64 bit Ubuntu here. Click on the .deb file to install it.
3) In the terminal, run the Office installer with wine: wine path-to-installer.exe
4) In the terminal, run winecfg and select Libraries and in New Override for Library add riched20 and set it to “native” and add usp10 and set it to “ native,builtin”.
5) If you have a Windows computer you can copy Windows/fonts/ symbol.ttf to your corresponding wine folder: ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/Fonts
But if you don’t have access to this file it shouldn’t matter too much.
6) If you’d like, you can also copy the Microsoft Office programs from your Wine sub-menu under Applications to your Office sub-menu by right-clicking on Applications, selecting “Edit Menus,” and dragging the appropriate programs over to the Office submenu.

Microsoft Word and Wine

Step 1: Installing the CPU on the Motherboard:
So let’s get started. If you’ve got a spray bottle you might want to mist the room with some water to cut down on  static electricity. Don’t get the room wet, though. Then put on your anti-static wrist strap, clip it onto the computer case (or any piece of grounded metal), and set the motherboard on the anti-static wrapper it comes with. Then open the clip on the side of the CPU socket and remove the plastic processor cover.

Next, we carefully install the processor so that it lines up with the holes on the motherboard. We want to make sure the triangle in the corner of the processor lines up with the missing corner on the CPU socket.

Finally, we close the metal bracket and lock the processor in place.

Step 2: Preparing the Computer Case for the Motherboard:
Because the motherboard is going to get a lot harder to remove after we add the giant heat sink to it, now would be a good time to see how the motherboard fits into the case. We do not yet want to install the motherboard into the case (we’ll do that after we add the heatsink. We just want to adjust the case’s brass standoffs so the board can be screwed into the case later on.) Your computer case should come with a number of screws that fit into the motherboard and extra brass standoffs that screw into the case (and that the motherboard in turn screws into). Add or remove brass standoffs from your case so that your motherboard will fit properly. (To get a better sense of how the motherboard will line up in the case, you may want to remove the I/O plate from the back of the case at this point.  Just pop it out; these plates never fit the back of anyone’s motherboard so it’s really stupid that cases even ship with them.) Make sure you do not leave any unused brass standoffs touching your motherboard as they may short the board out. I had to remove one of the standoffs in the picture below (and several of the screw holes on the motherboard went unused) but my MicroATX case had no large problems fitting in my Sonata case.

When you’re done, remove the motherboard from the case and put it back on the anti-static wrapper.

Step 3: Preparing the Heat Sink for Installation:
The following steps will be quite different if you have a different type of heat sink. For the Xigmatek, I did the following: First I installed the fan onto the heat sink so that the fan will blow towards the heat sink and out the back of the case.  (The arrow on the side of the fan tells you which way that air blows.)  To do this, I first installed the rubber mounts onto the heat sink and then pulled them through the fan holes. This took some real force, but I was careful to not break the rubber mounts.

Next, I installed the Xigmatek’s extra bracket for 775 motherboards. I put the sticker on the back bracket and attached the bracket to the back of the motherboard as follows:

Then I attached the clips to the bottom of the Xigmatek heat sink

This sticker on the bottom of the Xigmatek heat sink caused me so much fucking trouble! When I removed it, it left sticker gunk all over the bottom of the heat sink.   I was able to remove the gunk with a tiny bit of vegetable oil, and then I washed off the vegetable oil with rubbing alcohol. What a ridiculous nightmare.

Step 4: Installing the Heat Sink on the Motherboard:
Normally when you fit a heat sink onto a motherboard, you first put a small drop (about the size of a pea (no bigger!)) on the center of the processor and then screw the heat sink on top of the processor. The directions for putting thermal grease on the Xigmatek are a bit different, though, because its pipes directly touch the processor. Here’s how I applied the grease to the processor:

(Thanks to this site for the instructions on how to apply the grease.) Do not install grease like this if you are using a different heat sink. Follow the directions for installing grease that come with your heatsink.

Next I gently set the heatsink on top of the processor and screwed it in place. The exact method for attaching the heatsink to your motherboard will vary according to your heat sink. This step is a little difficult to get right at first so you may want to practice it a few times. Try and put the heatsink onto the CPU in one move without wiggling the heatsink around. (You don’t want to create air bubbles in the grease.) If you are unsure if you are doing a good job spreading the grease, practice installing and removing the heat sink a few times; just be sure to  clean the grease off the processor and heat sink using rubbing alcohol between each attempt.

The heat sink after it’s been screwed onto the motherboard.

Clearing the video heat sink.

Clearing the Ram channels. Beautiful.

The heat sink does not really extend over the top of the motherboard so it won't bump into my power supply either.

Step Five: Installing the RAM:
First, open the switches on the side of the Ram channels. Next, align the ram into the channel without pushing down on the RAM. Close the switches so that they press against the sides of the ram.

Finally, push down on the RAM so that it snaps in the channel; this should cause the ram switches to automatically lock around the the ram stick as in the picture below.

Step Six: Installing the Rear Exhaust Case fan and the Power Supply:
My case came with the rear exhaust fan and power supply already installed in it. If yours didn’t you might want to install them now. (In Step 11 I do some additional modifications to my case fan that you may want to do at this point.) Fit the power supply into the top back of the case.  Screw the power supply in using the screws that came with the case. You want the intake vents on the power supply to face towards the back of the dvd drive (and maybe) towards your motherboard (as this will help draw air away from your motherboard). Move all of the power cables off to the side of the side of the case so that they don’t interfere with the next steps.

Step Seven: Installing the DVD Burner:
I would install the DVD burner before you install the motherboard as there may be more room to work in the case without the motherboard installed. This step is fairly simple. Just pop the top 5.25 cover off the front of the case, slide the DVD drive into the case from the front, and screw it into the brackets on the side making sure that the burner does not stick out past the front of the case.  (Depending on your case, you may have to remove all of the sides and the front of the case before you are able to install the burner; just make sure that you don’t break any of the plastic tabs that hold the front of the case to the body of the case.)   At this point you may want to start planning which of the cords from your power supply you would like to plug into the DVD burner.

Step Eight: Installing the Motherboard in the Case:
If you haven’t done so yet, replace the IO plate on the computer case and install the cover that came with the motherboard.

Then, align the motherboard in the case and gently screw it in place. The brass standoffs are fairly fragile so make sure you do not strip any of the screws! Just tighten the screws up to the point at which they stop moving. Make sure there are no unused standoffs touching the motherboard as they may short the board out.

Step Nine: Plugging Everything (Except the Hard Drive) into the Motherboard and the Power Supply:
See your motherboard’s instruction manual for details of how the parts plug into your motherboard. Make sure you do not forget to plug the Heat Sink fan in! Try to manage your cables as efficiently as possible so that you do not interfere with the case’s air flow. I find that by taping loose cables down against the sides of case I can drop the case temprature by a few degrees.  (Remember, the  better your air flow, the lower you can run your fans, the quieter your computer.)  At this point, you’ll need to plug the following in:

1) The power supply into the motherboard (in two separate places)
2) The CPU Heat Sink Fan into the Motherboard (or into a fan controller if you bought one)
3) The DVD Drive into both the Power Supply and into a SATA (or IDE) port on the mother board
4) The Rear Exhaust fan into either the motherboard fan slot, a fan controller, or into the Power Supply directly (this will not allow the mother board to control the speed at which the fan rotates)
5) The case’s front audio, usb, lights into the motherboard (I always avoid plugging the speaker into the motherboard because I hate the noise it makes)
6) Leave a SATA connection and extra Power cable available for the hard drive which we’ll install in the next step
7) Any optional fan controllers into the power supply.

Step Ten: Suspending the Hard Drive in the Case:
Normally a hard drive is screwed into one of the 3.5 inch internal bays in a computer case. Hard drives make a lot of noise, though, and that noise is amplified by the case. Fortunately, you can silence a hard drive by hanging it (“suspending it”) in the case with elastic string.  The string both grounds the hard drive and absorbs all of its vibrations.  There are a couple of different ways to suspend a hard drive in a Sonata case. I’m actually going to suspend it into the 3.5 inch drive bay at the bottom of the case, but it is also possible to suspend it into one of the 5.25 bays at the top of the case. (Here is a very good tutorial for suspending a hard drive in a 5.25″ bay.  There are lots of other similar tutorials in the forums at Silent PC Review.)  In the following pictures, I’m using 1.8mm Stretch Magic string.

Tying the stretch magic string to the front bottom of the case.

I used two pieces of Stretch magic to get four pieces of string stretching across the 3.5″ drive bay.

I’m going to flip the strings so that they form a tight X shape and slip the hard drive in between them.

Twisting the strings to form an "X". The hard drive will be held in this X.

The people at silentpcreview have been doing this trick for years now. There is no reason why every computer case doesn’t come with elastic strings like this built into it. Failure of the marketplace.

The hard drive just barely squeezes into this space without touching the walls of the 3.5 cage. Unfortunately, I did have to put the drive into this space backwards so that the Sata cables and power cord wouldn’t bump up against the side door of the case. Really annoying, but it worked.

Tight fit, but it's not touching the sides.

When you’ve got the hard drive hanging in such a way that it does not bump into the sides of the case, plug it into both the motherboard and the power supply.

Step 11: Installing the Rear Exhaust Case Fan:
Next I removed the Antec case fan and soft mounted it. Antec mounted the case fan using standard nasty case fan metal screws. To cut down on fan noise you must figure out how to put some rubber between the fan and the metal case; otherwise, the metal case will amplify all of the fan noise. Ideally, one should also use tin snips to cut out the fan grills as air makes a lot of noise when it passes through these grills. (We’ll skip on the tin snips for now, though.)

Antec did not soft mount the case fan. Rather embarrassing for a "quiet case."

I’m going to soft mount this case fan using stretch magic and four of the otherwise worthless rubber grommets that come with the Sonata’s hard drive trays. If you have a different case, you can probably think of another way to accomplish this.

Unscrew the case fan and slip some stretch magic string in between each rubber grommet and the fan corner.

Wind the string through the fan grills, through each of the four rubber grommets, and through the fan holes.

Pull the string tight and knot it to hold it in place.

Soft mounted case fan. Now it’s a good deal quieter.

And again the finished computer build. I used lots of clear packaging tape to keep the extra wires from interfering with the case’s air flow. Getting the cords to be nicely arranged is probably the most time consuming part of assembling a computer.

Step 12: Turning it On and Testing it Out:

After you’re sure you’ve got all of the parts properly connected to the motherboard, power supply, and case, you can plug the computer in and turn it on.  Don’t forget to flip the switch on the back of the power supply to turn the power supply itself on or the computer won’t start!  There are two immediate tests that you’ll want to do on your computer:

1) You’ll want to check your computer’s temperatures.  Press the appropriate button (often delete or F1) to enter your computer’s BIOS.  Navigate to the System Monitor section of the Bios and wait for your CPU and Motherboard temperatures to stablize (this may take around 15 minutes or so).  A reasonable temperatures here should be around 40 degrees Celsius.  If you’ve used a good heat sink and have nicely arranged the cables in your computer case, you can probably see temperatures here in the low 30′s.  (If you’re seeing temperatures considerably higher than 40 degrees Celsius you probably did not install the heat sink properly.  Using too much thermal grease will raise your temperatures.)

2) You’ll want to check your RAM for errors.  The Ubuntu installation disc comes with a memtest program that allows you to do this.

After you’ve checked your temperatures and your RAM, you’re ready to install your operating system. If you’re setting up a dual-boot computer, you’ll want to install the non-Linux operating system first. You can download Ubuntu either directly (or by bittorrent) from here. (If your processor can run in 64 bit mode (all the new ones can), I recommend running 64 bit Ubuntu. Installing Ubuntu is very simple (easier than installing Windows because Ubuntu’s installation program provides better driver support). You just need to use another computer to download the operating system and either create an Ubuntu boot disk or (even easier) a bootable USB stick using UNetbootin. Then set up your the boot order in your BIOS to boot first from either the USB or the DVD Burner, put the installation disc or USB stick in, and restart the computer. (You can find plenty of complete tutorials for installing Ubuntu elsewhere. See, for instance, here, here, or here.)

Finished Desktop:
This is what the end product looks like from the outside:

Here are some screen shots of my girlfriend’s Ubuntu 64 bit operating system:

Ubuntu - Jaunty - 64 bit

With both Microsoft Office and Open Office

Exact Audio Copy for making Perfect Copies of CDs and plenty of other video/audio programs

Amarok playing Billy Bragg. A much better program than iTunes.

File sharing between networked computers. See my previous blog post.

In a further post I’ll detail how I got Microsoft Office 2007 running under GNU/Linux.

Part II: Buying Parts
Step 1: Select a Computer Case ($30 – $120):
You may have an old computer case laying around that you can re-use. Otherwise, you will have to get a new one. A good computer case should have the following features :

1) It should be made of steel. Aluminum cases transmit more noise than steel ones and they are flimsier. (They are, however, often cheaper. It is possible to reduce the amount of noise aluminum cases transmit by applying adhesive vinyl floor tiles to the interior sides of them. The tiles make the case more dense; denser cases = less vibration. You can get the floor tiles at Home Depot.)

2) It should be ATX-compliant. Both ATX and Micro-ATX cases are fine, but Micro-ATX cases will force you to use a Micro-ATX motherboard. (Especially avoid ITX cases unless you know what you’re doing.) Non-standard cases will force you to buy special parts (slim dvd drives that designed for laptops etc.) that will cost you lots of extra money. You can find more information on the ATX standard here.

3) It should have space for a 120 mm exhaust fan at the back of it. It doesn’t really matter if it comes with an exhaust fan because the fans that come with most cases are garbage. 120 mm fans move air more efficiently than 90mm fans and are thus easier to quiet.

4) Ideally, it will have lots of open space at the bottom-front of the case. On most cases, air is sucked into the case in the bottom-front; having empty space here will allow you to hang (“suspend”) a hard drive in an high-airflow part of the case. This will help keep your hard drive cool. Many cases fill the front-bottom up with a non-removable 3.5 hard drive cage; if possible, avoid cases that do this. If this cage is not removable (and only the nicer cases have easily removable cages) you will have to take a hacksaw to the case in order to remove the cage and create the space to suspend the hard drive. (Alternately, you can suspend your hard drive in a 5.25 drive bay, but these bays tend to be located near the top of the case in lower airflow areas and doing this will also deprive you of a place to put another dvd burner.) The Antec NSK3480 and 4480 II are good examples of cases with open front bottoms.

5) The best cases will allow indirect air flows at the front bottom of the case. Instead of entering the case directly, air will move into the case from the front sides. This reduces the noise the air makes as it enters the case. The Antec Sonata allows for indirect airflow.

6) It’s probably a good idea to avoid cases that are full of extra holes. The case helps keep noise from getting to you and those holes may make it easier for noise to seep outside of the case.

7) Make sure that your case is wide enough to fit a large heat sink. The best kind of heat sinks are big heat pipes that are sometimes as tall as 7 inches. Be especially wary of cases that have removable mother board trays. While this extra “feature” may make it slightly easier to install a motherboard, it will also reduce the width of the case as it will force the motherboard (and thus the heat sink) to sit an inch or so closer to the opposite side of the case.

8) It should look nice. You are going to look at it aren’t you?

You can find more information on good cases here.
The Case I Bought:
Antec Sonata III 500 (power supply and 120 MM case fan included): $100

Step 2: Get an Energy Efficient Power Supply ($30 – $50):
Many cheap cases come with cheap power supplies. These power supplies are pieces of garbage that sound like blast furnaces; avoid them. If you aren’t doing crazy video gaming (and because this guide is addressed to open-source software users, I’m assuming that you probably aren’t) you don’t need a power supply that gives you a lot of watts. A 300-350 watt power supply is fine for almost anyone. What you really want is a power supply that will be high efficiency and that will have a quiet fan built into it. A good power supply should only need one small fan sitting at the back of it; avoid power supplies with extra fans in them. Sometimes you can get a good efficient 400 or 500 watt power supply for less than a 300 watt one; that’s fine, but don’t spend extra money for watt capacity that you will never use.

To get an estimate of you computer’s electricity needs see these computer watt calculators:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

http://www.silentmods.com/modding/PSU_Watts_Calculator.html

Also, see this list of good quiet power supplies at Silent PC Review. While many of these power supplies are quite expensive, the FSP, Seasonic, and Antec Earthwatts (really just Seasonic power supplies with a different fan in them, I believe) can often be found for cheap.

The Power Supply I Bought:
Antec Earthwatts 500. Included with Sonata case.

Earthwatts Power Supply. Reasonably quiet. I don't think this computer ever uses more than 180 Watts.

Step 3: Get a Quiet 120 MM Case Fan ($10 – $20):
A case fan is needed to blow air out of your computer case. By blowing air out of the back of the case, the fan also sucks air into the front of the case. Unless you are buying a very nice case by a company that specializes in designing quiet computer parts, the fans your case came with your case are probably noisy pieces of shit. Throw them out and replace them with better quality fans. You probably only need one 120 mm case fan in the back of your computer, although you may want to also pick up a small (say 80 mm) case fan and install it in front of your hard drive (though this probably isn’t necessary). Here is Silent PC Review’s list of recommended Case Fans.

The best case fans are probably the Nexus Real Silent ones.  These also come with rubber mounts that dampen the noise the fans make. You should avoid directly screwing the fan into the case as this will cause the case to amplify the noise the fan makes. Using rubber mounts (and maybe string) to decouple the fan from the case is a good idea. Unfortunately, New Egg does not sell Nexus case fans. You can, however, get them from endpcnoise.  Scythe fans are also quite nice, though, and New Egg does sell them. Scythe also manufacturers a PWM fan in case you want to replace the fan your heatsink comes with. Finally, you many also want to look at Noctua’s case fans.

The Case Fan I Bought:
I just used the tricool fan that was included in the Sonata’s case. I set the fan control to it’s lowest setting (still a relatively high 1200 RPMs) and then soft mounted it during the installation with stretch magic and some rubber grommets that came with the case. I may replace it with a quieter case fan later.

Step 4: Pick a Processor (CPU) ($50 – $200):
There are only two major processor manufacturers: Intel and AMD. Ideally I would like to avoid Intel products as Intel recently lost a massive lawsuit in Europe for engaging in anti-competitive practices, and Intel used to be notorious for fudging the specs on their processors. However, AMD has had a difficult time making multi-core processors that are as energy efficient as the newer Intel ones. When looking at processors, pay attention to the nm and watt rattings on them; in both cases, lower is better. Processors that use a lot of electricity are more likely to run hotter and thus require more cooling which means both a higher electricity bill and more noisy fans in your computer case. When looking at Intel processors, ignore Intel’s nonsensical names (Celeron, Wolfdale, blah!) and just focus on the model number (i.e. E6300) and the specs. Most new processors are either dual core and quad core; the quad cores cost around twice as much as the dual cores. In a year or so they should be a lot cheaper. All of these processors are now 64 bit compatible which is nice because modern GNU/Linux operating systems have very good 64 bit support. (Especially since Adobe has finally released a 64bit Flash plugin for Linux.) The type of processor (its “socket” type) you select will determine the type of motherboard you select. You might want to try and find some reviews on different processors. I found this review at SilentPCreview helpful.

The CPU I Bought:
Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale Dual-Core Processor (45 nm!): $88

I wish AMD would make dual core processors that were 45 nm. I also wish New Egg would have sold me this processor without the stock Intel heat sink and fan.

Step 5: Pick a Motherboard ($40 – $90):
The socket type of the mother board you select is determined by the socket type of your processor. Here are the steps for picking a motherboard:

1) Determine whether you want a full ATX motherboard or a Micro-ATX motherboard. The full ATX motherboard is bigger and will have extra features on it that Micro-ATX boards do not have. Do not get a full ATX motherboard if you are only getting a Micro-ATX case as it will not fit in your case. Full ATX motherboards generally have more SATA connections, and they also have more PCI slots. They may also give you more space to allow you to fit larger heatsinks on the processor (see Step 6 below).

2) Avoid any motherboards that have fans on them. Those little fans can make a racket! If you aren’t doing heavy video game stuff you should be fine with a motherboard that has entirely passive cooling (metal blocks and spiky looking heatsinks that suck heat off the motherboard but that do not have a fan blowing on them directly).

3) Pay very close attention to the motherboard’s onboard video. (The type of onboard video is determined by the company that manufacturers the motherboard’s Northbridge. For instance, motherboards with Nvidia northbridges have Nvidia video.) There are five companies that make video drivers: Nvidia, AMD/ATI, VIA, SIS, and Intel. Avoid any motherboards that have VIA and SIS onboard video. Their open-source video support is terrible. Nvidia and AMD/ATI are more difficult cases. Nvidia provides good proprietary drivers for Linux and there is a decent quality open source Nvidia driver, though Nvidia has not been good at helping the developing of open source drivers. AMD/ATI used to have terrible support for open-source drivers, but a little over a year ago, AMD open sourced all of their drivers. AMD/ATI now provides decent proprietary drivers for Linux and there are rapidly developing good open source drivers for AMD/ATI video. Generally, 3-D (for video games and flashy spinning desktop cubes) open source support for Nvidia and AMD/ATI is very limited while 2-D video works fine; 3-D support is available for Linux by using proprietary drivers. Installing proprietary video drivers on Linux is still a bit of a hassle (though nowhere near as hard as it used to be), and if something goes wrong with Nvidia or AMD’s propritary driver, no one in the open source community will be able to help you fix it. Making sense of AMD/ATI’s naming scheme is particularly difficult; to check on open source support for AMD/ATI hardware first determine the R series number by looking here. Then, check the xorg webpage’s information on driver development for that hardware. Generally, older hardware is supported better than newer hardware. I believe AMD/ATI onboard video is only be availabe on motherboards that use AMD processors. Finally, Intel has provided very good open source support for their onboard video. Buying a motherboard with onboard Intel video is probably the safest bet at this stage. Intel 3-D (and of course 2-D) should work fine, though, it won’t be as powerful as using an external video card. (Unlike Nvidia and AMD, Intel does not manufacture video cards.) Intel video is only available on motherboards that use Intel processors. (Another reason to prefer getting an Intel processor.)

4) Determine what kind of extra features you want a motherboard to have. I care about having digital video (a dvi or hdmi) and digital audio (“optical”) outputs on my motherboard. I connect my computer to my stereo so I want my computer to output the highest quality audio signal it can; digital video is also nice. Be sure to check the input jacks on your monitor. Monitors with hdmi input jacks may not be able to receive video from a dvi output jack (even if you buy an adapter for them). There seems to be some kind of copyright protection built into hdmi technology that requires you to have an hdmi output jack; I think this has something to do with preventing you from copying blueray video. Fascists.

5) Pay attention to how many SATA and IDE connections the motherboard has. If you’re using older hard drives or DVD drives, you may need more IDE connections (though you can fit 2 IDE drives on 1 IDE channel). The more SATA connections, the better. I’m currently using 3 of the 4 SATA connections on my motherboard (1 for the hard drive, 1 for the DVD burner, 1 for the e-Sata connection on the front of the case). This leaves me with only one extra Sata port to plug in a second DVD Burner or a second hard drive. Most micro-ATX motherboards seem to come with only 4 Sata ports and 1 IDE port. If you want more SATA or IDE connections, you might want to think about getting a full ATX motherboard.

6) Pay attention to the physical layout of the motherboard. Try to pick a motherboard that will give you enough space to install a large heatsink on it. It may help if the processor is located a little farther away from the RAM channels; also be wary of unusually large heatsinks that are located next to the processor slot. These may (but probably won’t) cause problems for large heatsinks.

7) Some motherboard manufacturers give you more control in their BIOS (the program built into the motherboard that controls the computer’s physical hardware) over the computer’s fans. I’ve heard that MSI motherboards tend to have slightly better fan control options in their BIOS.

The Motherboard I Bought:
GIGABYTE GA-EG41M-US2H MicroATX motherboard (digital video and audio outputs, open-source friendly Intel GMA X4500 on-board video): $65 after rebate

Nicely spaced motherboard; the Xigmatek heat sink easily fits over the video heat sink and leaves plenty of clearance for the Ram coolers.

Step 6: Pick a Large Heat Sink for your Processor ($30 – $60):
Many processors are sold with heat sinks, but they are generally not very quiet. Ideally, you should buy a separate CPU heat sink. The best heat sinks are large heat pipes. These heat sinks use liquid filled copper pipes to suck heat off the processor. The heat is then either passively dissipates as it moves up the pipes away from the processor or is gently blown off the heat sink by a 120 mm fan moving at very low (and thus inaudible) speeds. Ideally, the 120 mm heat sink fan should blow air horizontally through the heat sink drawing air from the front of the case and feeding it in a “push-pull” configuration to the 120 mm exhaust case fan on the other side of the heat sink. Here’s Silent PC Review’s list of recommended heat sinks.

My favorite heat sink used to be the Sythe Ninja, but there are similar better quality heat sinks being made now that are not as wide. (The Ninja’s width makes it difficult to install with ram sticks that have large coolers attached to them.) Currently, the most affordable heat pipes seem to be the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 and the ZEROtherm ZEN FZ120. The Thermalright HR-01 Plus is also a very nice (though slightly pricier) heat sink.

A few words of caution: the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 has nice copper coils and a good PWM fan (PWM fans can be speed controlled by the motherboard), but it does not fit properly on AMD motherboards. On AMD motherboards, instead of blowing towards the rear of the case, the fan blows towards the top. Fucking stupid. The ZEROtherm ZEN FZ120 is probably a better bet for AMD motherboards. The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 also comes with stupid push pins for attaching it to socket 775 Motherboards. Push pins can damage your motherboard. If you’re attaching it to a 775 motherboard, it’s a good idea to also get the XIGMATEK ACK-I7361 back brace instead of using the push pins. Finally, you have to take more care when you move a computer with a large heat pipe attached to it; because of their added weight, these heat pipes put extra stress on motherboards.

The CPU Heat Sink I Bought:
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler(PNM fan!): $30 (after rebate)
XIGMATEK ACK-I7361 (extra screws for attaching the Xigmatek heat sink to an LGA 775 motherboard): $10

Heat sink and extra mounting clip for Intel motherboard (so we can avoid push pin idiocy). A large heat sink like this is a must for any quiet computer, and the PWM fan that comes with it is fairly quiet, too. I skipped on getting Arctic Silver 5 and used the white thermal grease that came with the heat sink; it worked fine.

Step 7: Select the Computer’s RAM (Memory) ($25 – $60):
To buy Ram:

1) Check your chosen motherboard’s specs to determine what kind of RAM it uses. Sometimes you can download the motherboard’s manual as a .pdf file. If you can, see if the motherboard manufacturer recommends any specific brands of RAM as functioning best with their motherboards. Selecting the right kind of RAM can be a little tricky. When looking at the motherboard’s memory specs, you want to pay attention to the following information: 1. the number of pins the motherboard’s RAM channels have, 2. the total amount of RAM the motherboard can handle, 3. the speed of RAM the motherboard is recommended to work with (this number is generally specified in two different ways either by a number that looks like this: “DDR2 800” or one that looks like this: “PC2 6400.” “DDR2 800” and “PC2 6400” are two different names for exactly the same type of RAM; New Egg tends to refer to RAM by the DDR number while Tiger Direct refers to it by the PC number.) You almost certainly want to buy a Dual Channel Kit (this is a package containing two identical sticks of RAM. The two sticks of RAM work together and the total amount of RAM you have installed is determined by adding together the size of the two sticks. For instance, a 2 gig dual channel kit consists of two 1 gig sticks of RAM. Technically, you could install 2 gigs of RAM by just buying one stick of RAM that is 2 gigs in size. (Dell seems to use this stunt to cut costs on its computers.) For instance, buying this will get you 2 gigs:
or buying this will get you 2 gigs.
It’s generally better, though, to have 2 sticks of RAM working together.)

2) Determine how much RAM you want. I would recommend buying a lot of RAM at this stage. A given type of RAM goes through a cycle in its price; it’s intially expensive, then very cheap, then expensive again. RAM tends to be at its cheapest when there are lots of new motherboards that uses it. If you want to add more RAM to your motherboard in a few years, you will probably find that that RAM you need costs more then (because it’s rarer) than it costs today. I think getting 4 gigs of RAM (a dual channel kit consisting of two identical two gig sticks of RAM) is reasonable at this point in time.

3) Pay attention to the RAM’s Cas Latency. The lower this number, the better.

4) Pay attention to any coolers that are installed on the RAM by default. Before you buy RAM that comes with attached coolers, look at the physical layout of your motherboard and make sure that the fan attached to your CPU’s heat sink will not bump into these coolers. (Technically, these coolers are not necessary. I was afraid that I would have to cut them off my RAM to keep them from bumping into my heat sink’s fan. Fortunately, they did fit as the coolers that came with my RAM were very durable and would have been difficult to cut.)

The RAM I Bought:
Patriot Viper 4GB ddr2 800: $34 (after rebate)

Ridiculously large coolers on the Ram. I like the green color, but I was scared the CPU's heat sink fan would bump into them. It did not.

Step 8: Pick a Hard Drive ($40 – $100):
Here is Silent PC Review’s list of recommended Hard Drives:
Since you’re building a desktop, you probably want a very large 3.5 SATA drive. 2.5 drives are for notebooks (though they can be used in desktop computers); they run more quietly, but they are also slower, smaller, and more expensive. Avoid IDE drives, they use outdated and slower connections.

I would avoid the Western Digital Green Power drives as they use some kind of technology that doesn’t play well with Linux and can put a lot of extra stress on the drive. If they don’t make their drives open source friendly, they don’t deserve my business. I’ve had good luck with Samsung’s Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ. This drive is 1 terabyte in size, has an extra quieting feature, uses SATA connections, and seems very peppy.

The Hard Drive I Bought:
1 Terabyte SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ (Linux friendly and dead silent when suspended): $85

Step 9: Pick a DVD Burner ($25 – $50):
I’m not concerned about getting a quiet DVD burner because when I watch DVDs, I always copy them to my hard drive first. I also avoid Blue Ray drives because they currently cost too much money, and they are DRM nightmares. Fascists. So I look for a cheap DVD burner that does the following:

1) Burns Dual Layer discs (+RDL). These discs are 8 gigs in size (while normal dvds are only 4 gigs). Since many DVD movies are 8 gigs in size, Dual Layer discs allow you to copy DVDs without shrinking the DVD image to 4 gigs.

2) Has a SATA connection. DVD burners that use IDE connections are still common, but SATA connections are faster and SATA cables are smaller than IDE cables. Using smaller cables improves the air flow inside your computer case and lets you turn the speed on your fans down.

3) Burns both +R and -R DVDs. This is standard on almost all DVD burners. These DVDs can be bought in bulk (though sometimes only the +R or the -R is on sale). I use them along with the Linux program Dar to back up my hard drive.

The DVD Burner I Bought:
DVD DL SATA Burner: Sony Optiarc: $32

Optional Purchases:

Stretch Magic: 1.8 mm 3 meter: Elastic string that’s very useful for suspending the hard drive and/or the exhaust fan, but you can’t buy it from New Egg. I got it from here for $3. Any other kind of sturdy elastic string should work well too. (In the past, I’ve had good luck with little bungee chords).

Thermal Grease:
For the heatsink to work properly, a small amount of grease must be placed between the bottom of the heatsink and the top of the processor. Most cpu heatsinks come with either a thermal pad or some kind of generic thermal grease. The grease that comes with these should be fine, but installing a heatsink for the first time is a little tricky and you might screw things up and need to start over. Many people insist that the best kind of thermal grease is Arctic Silver 5:
(endpcnoise.com sells it for less.)
You might want to pick some of this stuff up in case you botch the heatsink installation. Note: you only need a tiny spec (somewhere between the size of a piece of rice or a pea) of thermal grease. (The exception to this is the Xigmatek heat pipe which seems to require a bit more grease.) Adding too much grease will actually make your processor run hotter and possibly damage your motherboard.

Extra IDE or SATA Cables:
You might want some that are shorter than the ones that came with your motherboard. My motherboard came with two SATA cables. I used one of them and then used this extra 18” SATA to connect to my DVD burner because I liked the plugs on it better.
I wouldn’t recommend a SATA cable longer than 18” because long cables interfere with air flow. If you can get away with it, a 10” cable might be nice.

HDMI or DVI Cable:
If your monitor has a digital jack that you haven’t been using, you may need to buy a cable to connect it to your motherboard. I picked up this one. Note: you may run into problems if you try using a DVI-to-HDMI adapter.

Fan Controller(s):
This is a smart but not totally necessary purchase. If you want to make your computer as quiet as possible, you can buy either one separate fan controller that will sit in your 5.25 or 3.5 drive bay or little individual fan controllers (such as those made by Zalman) for your case fan(s) and CPU’s Heat Sink Fan. These controllers allow you to reduce a fan’s noise by manually turning down the speed at which the fan rotates. It’s fairly easy to figure out what programs heat up your computer so you should be able to safely turn the fans up when you run processor-intensive programs (such as programs that compress video or audio). A good CPU heatpipe (like the Xigmatek) should requires only a very small amount of airflow moving across it; if you buy a good heat sink, you can safely reduce your heat sink fan to its lowest possible speed, but you’ll probably want to install a program that will let you keep track of your processor’s temperature. (There are plenty of GNU/Linux program that display your computer’s temperature readings on your desktop.) I would recommend reading the fan controller reviews at Silent PC Review.

PC Building Tools:
You will need an anti-static wristguard and a couple of different phillips head screwdrivers. (Generally you’ll only just a standard size phillips screwdriver, and a fairly small screw driver to attach the screws that connect the DVD burner.) If you don’t have a good set of screwdrivers, you might want to buy a PC building tool set. An anti-static wristguard should only cost a couple of dollars. Something like this (or an even better one with Velcro) should be fine.

Tape and/or Plastic Ties:
Using Packaging tape to hold down the extra wires or buying ties to wrap up the extra wires from the power supply and SATA cables is a good idea. It will improve air flow.

Tin Snips:
You can improve air flow and quiet your computer’s exhaust fan by using tin snips to cut out the metal grating that blocks the case fan. You will want to cover up the raw metal with some kind of rubber or electrical tape, though, so that you don’t cut yourself. Doing this will also require you to dust out the inside of your computer more regularly. You can buy either left-hand or right-hand tin snips at your local hardware store. I think it will cost somewhere around $15.

Compressed Air Duster:
I needed it to clean off the gunk left by the tape on the bottom of my Xigmatek heatsink.

Rubbing Alcohol:
Needed for cleaning off the bottom of the CPU’s heat sink. Get the purest alcohol you can.

Next, we assemble the computer.