Computer for Testing

[Erik]

I am majoring in computer science, going into my last year in September, and would like to build a secondary PC for testing. This way I can play around with settings, programs, networking, etc. to my hearts content, and not have to worry about messing up my main PC. I am thinking I would like to set this up as a multiboot machine with Windows XP, Windows 2000 Pro, a Linux distro, Longhorn, and possibly Windows 98. This way I could use it to test software I create under different OS's to ensure compatability. I have a few questions on it though:

1. How useful would it be to have Windows 98?
2. What size HD would be good? I don't have lots of money, so I can't just run out and buy a 120 gig drive.
3. Installing DOS to the HD?

I am not planning a state of the art machine, just something cheap to mess around with. This way if I create any problems I atill have my main PC for doing my school work until I have time to fix the problems. Thanks for any thoughts.

[saphalline]

1. For a testing computer, I think Win98 would be very useful. Many users still have 98 on their main PC, and it's still the best OS for older PC's that can't quite take on XP. Plus, it lacks a few features of XP that would make it more challenging to work with - and you are trying to learn, right? ;)

2. You wouldn't need a massive hard drive at all. 20-40GB would suffice, tho you will have to be careful about the order in which you install all those OSes.

3. DOS? Win98 uses a DOS-based kernel, so I don't think you'd need DOS at all. Plus, there are numerous free DOS emulators designed for WinXP that work well enough. This is yet another reason to include Win98, tho (for native DOS compatibility).

As for the hardware, WinXP would be the deciding factor. I recommend a 600MHz CPU, 512MB RAM, and a dedicated 8MB+ video card - at the very least. You can go with onboard video, but then I would bump the CPU speed up to 1GHz or more. Of course, you can leave all that eye-candy turned off in XP. The main reason to go with modern hardware, however, is because XP's drivers don't always work with older vid cards and such, and because hardware manufacturers just recently made Linux drivers widely available (mobo-based onboard components, for instance).

Surf around on Newegg (www.newegg.com/) and you'll find a plethora of cheap parts you can use, from $60 mobo's with onboard everything, to $30 optical drives, to $40 cases. Do you have any extra parts lying around? You can start there.