[RTTY] Customize a "barebones" PC kit for RTTY (and WriteLog)

[Jon Harder]

Andy, et al --

>Building one would be fun though.

While I didn't save a _whole_ lot overall, I found that buying a speedy
barebones kit with CPU included was a good compromise between "roll your
own" and trying to adapt a complete new PC package to do what I wanted under
Win XP.   I spent a LOT of time on the web comparing boards and kits,
reading reviews, and saw quite a number that would have done just as well as
the one I finally chose.

The object was to move up to a machine capable of running WriteLog in SO2R
with two instances of MMTTY, and plenty of serial ports.  From Tiger Direct
I purchased a SOYO Dragon Plus barebone kit and AMD 1700+ CPU with one 128MB
DDR RAM module.  The price had just fallen to around $300, with an
additional $50 rebate.   The SOYO board had an integrated C-media sound
module which gets 7F on the WL soundchecker utility.  Then I found a large
hard drive discounted at BestBuy, and migrated my SB PCI soundcard, SIIG
CyberPort PCI serial card, CDRW drive and a spare floppy drive into the new
ATX chassis.  Other items have been added  in a little at a time over the
last three months, as I could afford them.   I opted for a quieter power
supply - a good idea.  Also added another 256mB of DDR Ram, to a total of
384.

The result is a machine running Win XP nicely at 1.4 GHz,  with separate
DSP sound  modules for each instance of MMTTY, six serial and two LPT ports.
(I like to run CW on an LPT port to be able to use YPLog's very nice CW
keyboard, and WL as well.  (Serial CW keying is also there if I need it.)
My Kenwood 870 and 850 are both happy with this arrangement.

I'm very pleased with the stable and reliable results from starting half-way
there from a good barebones kit and adding the rest at my own pace.  It also
handles all my home office chores when not driving the RF end of things.

Just another way to go, but a good one, IMHO.    Everybody's mileage will
vary!

73,  Jon         K1US


----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew J O'Brien" <obrienaj@netsync.net>
To: "K4SB" <hamcat@directvinternet.com>
Cc: <rtty@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 20:35
Subject: [RTTY] Serial cards are getting scarce


>
> >
> > You will find you get much more for your money by "brewing your own",
> > and save money as well.
> >
>
>
> Does anyone have a source for advice on " brewing your own" ?  I am
thinking
> of doing that as a winter project.  I figure I installed my HD, new floppy
> drive, CDRW drive, and serial cards, there can't be much more to it.  I
> looked at mother boards on the web the other day and the prices are very
> cheap.  I am not sure which are good ones though and what they include.  I
> thought that by the time I buy all the other components that I could have
> bought a cheap system.  Building one would be fun though.
>
> Andy KB2EOQ
>
>
>
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