Building a dream PC- What does *Nix support?

[erikpiper]

Hey! I am upgrading my ancient desktop (866 Mhz, 256mg mb Ram, Nvidea 2.......) and building a new dream pc. It will be a dual boot, for games only :) However, I know nothing about this new stuff. Can linux support SATA? Hard drives and optical (sata)? Dvd burning? New motherboards? Newest Nvidea?

Basically, what should I avoid? SATA is my biggest concern.


Thanks!

[YourSurrogateGod]

Hey! I am upgrading my ancient desktop (866 Mhz, 256mg mb Ram, Nvidea 2.......) and building a new dream pc. It will be a dual boot, for games only :) However, I know nothing about this new stuff. Can linux support SATA?
Yes.

Hard drives and optical (sata)?
Not 100% sure, but most likely yes.

Dvd burning?
Yes.

New motherboards? Newest Nvidea?
Most likely. New drivers come out very soon after the hadware does.

Basically, what should I avoid? SATA is my biggest concern.
It shouldn't be.

Ubuntu (I'm assuming that this is the specific distro you want) has support for a number of hardware pieces.

[erikpiper]

Thanks! I have heard in the past about SATA being BAD. Sweet! To the local Fry's! :)

[tomwell]

building a new dream pc. It will be a dual boot, for games only :) Thanks!


Hey I dont mean to be a Negative Mother F%&*^ but have you considered that perhaps Linux is not the best gaming platform... I mean if you are investing a lot into making your dream pc For games only i would stick to a windows box... where you have the biggest choice of games...

On the other hand if you want a fast amazing computer and want to run linux + some games when your not working or browsing or scripting or just tinkering with the PC then go for it !!!

Any one else on this???

Peace

Tom

[YourSurrogateGod]

Thanks! I have heard in the past about SATA being BAD. Sweet!
What problems specifically?

To the local Fry's! :)
Ehh?

[YourSurrogateGod]

Hey I dont mean to be a Negative Mother F%&*^ but have you considered that perhaps Linux is not the best gaming platform... I mean if you are investing a lot into making your dream pc For games only i would stick to a windows box... where you have the biggest choice of games...

On the other hand if you want a fast amazing computer and want to run linux + some games when your not working or browsing or scripting or just tinkering with the PC then go for it !!!

Any one else on this???

Peace

Tom
A dual-boot should be fine for gaming and Ubuntu.

[tomwell]

A dual-boot should be fine for gaming and Ubuntu.

My Bad i missed the dual boot part...!! But then again if really you want it for gaming only ....

peace

Tom

[erikpiper]

Naw- linux for real work, m$ > for gaming only. I am making a dream PC now to escape my current desktops pitiful performance when playing an oog and webrowsing at the same time :rolleyes:

(A pc capable of anything at all, fast, even gaming, is my dream PC)

I have heard of problems as simple as not being able to format a sata drive- at all - using linux. Apparenly old and outdated info.



BTW, What is the point if you have a ton of hard drive space, of not dual booting and having just windows?

[tomwell]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1640126&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

Go check this out sweet price sweet machine... dont know if its our style but it sure kicks some ass...!!

Peace

Tom

[erikpiper]

But it's a p4! And comes with audio that will use cpu! Icky!!

:p AMD all the way!

[tomwell]

LMAO!!!

Am off to bed now i havent slept much all week..not doing another 5:30 am again tonight... Damn forums..!! lol

Peace

Tom

[erikpiper]

LOL

night.

[Hobbes]

I have had SATA optical and HD working with no problems or additional setup. The problem that I ran into was with SATA hard drives and it was a few kernels back, when I was trying to install Fedora Core 2 i think there were a million posts about SATA problems on bunch of distros, anyway that is a thing of the past and should all be fully supported.

Enjoy your new upgrade!
I've run a Shuttle form factor with a dvd+-rw, 120 and 250 gb SATA hds, p4 2.6 ghz, ati 9800 pro graphics for the last couple years and its still going strong.

But if I were to recommend now I would say some sort of AMD 3200+ or 3400+ 64 bit processor and an nvidia 6600 GT, and a gig of ram, you will fly through anything, games or desktop productivity wise, and will be getting tons of value for your buck.

[GeneralZod]

I have had SATA optical and HD working with no problems or additional setup.

Same here - I have two distinct SATA drives and any install of Linux has always "just worked" with them. If it's any help,



lshw


lists them as a Maxtor 6Y080M0 and a Western Digital WD800JD-00HK

[giloth]

But it's a p4! And comes with audio that will use cpu! Icky!!

:p AMD all the way!

Actually, it looks like it comes with a soundcard as well. If you scroll down through the images it shows a PCI based soundcard with a ton of jacks. :)

[erikpiper]

But it is paying for something other than an audigy- and that card in there will offload its work to the cpu....

Someone resurected my thread! Wow!

[Teroedni]

Yea AMD64 is the good bet:)

I will come with some recomendations later if you want
right now i need to sleep:P

Regards Teroedni
Self Builder;)

[erikpiper]

One thing I need to figure out is my motherboard/cpu. 754 or 939? Which mobo? etc.
I got an AMAZING deal on a case at frys- $20 for a black windowed one! I stuck an old pII in there.....

[prizrak]

You should check the hardware compatibility list (not sure where it is but prolly the Ubuntu homepage) to make sure that particular manufacturers are supported. Good luck getting a sweet machine! :)

[Teroedni]

First of all could you tell me what kind of computer you wanna get.
How strong should it be
eg which games do you plan to play ?

[erikpiper]

Got a great deal on a socket 754 mobo/ anthlon 3000 / 512 MB ram- just a couple hundred $$! :) Not the best- But still great! (I am still looking out for a 939 with pci-ex and etc,)

And I put in an old nvidea 2 with 8 mb of ram :p


My fav game is (the horror!) MS Flight Sim
(So it isn't a game..)


I need a AGP graphics card / soundcard- Is an audigy2 good for linux? Geforce 6600?

[BoyOfDestiny]

Got a great deal on a socket 754 mobo/ anthlon 3000 / 512 MB ram- just a couple hundred $$! :) Not the best- But still great! (I am still looking out for a 939 with pci-ex and etc,)

And I put in an old nvidea 2 with 8 mb of ram :p


My fav game is (the horror!) MS Flight Sim
(So it isn't a game..)


I need a AGP graphics card / soundcard- Is an audigy2 good for linux? Geforce 6600?

Happy with my audigy2 on breezy 64. Multiple sounds galore (and no ESD! yay!). As for video card I have an asus one based on radeon 9250 (before I had a plain radeon 9000), both "cheap", (around $60ish U.S.) and work with open source driver "radeon".
Anyway, I use it mostly for 2d stuff, everything is smooth and tearing free. OpenGL seems sluggish (most likely ati's fault, as I had this behavior in windows when I still had it).

[erikpiper]

My videocard budget is actually 150 and up...

I am posting from the PC in question- half new, half ancient.

(8 mb video...)

[Teroedni]

What games or software are you gonna use the video card for?

And about the 754 board
Is it a nvidia motherboard
My recommendation would be to keep away from others motherboard brand,and go for nvidia boards.Sure others brand work too, but many have problems etc via which seems have some s-ata problems

I myself use a Asus k8n Nvidia board and have no problem with it:)

[M3ta7h3ad]

avoid 754... unless you just dont plan on upgrading your pc at a later date.

754 was the defunct transition technology (doomed from the start). 939 is the only way to go now for desktop pc's.

Edit:

Also if you want pure audio quality consider purchasing an M-audio card as opposed to the creative audigy rubbish... sure its good for gaming but for audiophile goodness it just doesnt cut the mustard.

Yummy!!!:http://www.m-audio.com/images/global/product_pics/big/delta_1010_lt.jpg

However linux compatibility... nooo idea on it.

[erikpiper]

This PC is NOT UPGRADEABLE AT ALL..... No I am not done...
It will eventually either be put into a quieter case and given to my mom or dad, or mabe sold, or possibly given away. Here are the specs:

Gigabyte Nforce 3 Mobo (754)

AMD 3000+

512 MB Ram. (To be upgraded to 1024 and later 3 gigs)

Nvidea 6600 256 Mb AGP. (Yup. AGP)

Agdigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro (The PC is WAY too loud for recording anyway!!)

My old Western Digital 7200 Rpm 80 Gig drive

No name 40 gig drive
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions:
1. How do I get the Audigy working FULLY? (Aka- Digital volume knob and remote- the rest works)
2. How do I squeeze the most performance out of my card? I am only geiing around 4000 FPS in glxgears :(

[poofyhairguy]

GET A VIA CHIPSET!!!!!

Everything on mine works out of the box in Ubuntu.

[erikpiper]

Only thing I have not working out of the box is my audigy infared remote.. I find that good!

[briancurtin]

that m-audio card up there is ridiculous.

who needs BNC cords, or the big ones that are used for microphones? i obviously know who its for, but that thing just looks ridiculous.

[Teroedni]

GET A VIA CHIPSET!!!!!

Everything on mine works out of the box in Ubuntu.


Your sure about this?
What board do you have, Do you run Serial AtA?
My experience with Via is bad, and i have also read alot about s-ata problems on linux with Via.