Why do you say the i810 video support is shaky at this point? It works
great and is packaged with LM 7.1. I'll admit you do have to do a little
hand configuration. Support is also available for older releases of LM, but
you have to manually install it yourself. It may not be the speediest video
in the world, but if you are not doing heavy duty 3D graphics or gaming
you'll never know the difference.
I would be careful in the low-end PC's of the combined sound/modem setup. I
have an HP with this and neither the modem (winmodem naturally) or sound is
supported in Linux. Since the cheaper machines also don't come with many
slots I can't replace the sound/modem with internal cards - its either one
or the other. Fortunately, I don't need a modem in the PC as I use a
separate firewall/IP masquerading server which has a supported modem. And I
have a sound card I took out of the firewall box since it doesn't need it,
but, at least in LM 7.0, I couldn't get that card working. Haven't tried in
7.1 yet.
The bottom line is to find out what all the components in the machine you
are interested in are and check the hardware compatibility list to be sure
they are supported. It wouldn't hurt to post on the list too check how easy
they are to get working as well.
- Ralph
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anton Graham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2000 12:56 AM
Subject: Re: [expert] Pentium 200Mhz/MMX and Mandrake - Resource Efficient?
> Submitted 23-Jul-00 by Sevatio Octavio:
> > That gets to my next question... While shopping, I ran across a lot of
> > boxes with motherboards that have onboard sound & video. What's your
> > take on those? Do they tend to require funky device drivers that Linux
> > may not have?
>
> These have their pros and cons. In brief:
>
> Pro:
> 1) Generally less expensive than purchasing separate components
> 2) Only a handfull of different sound/video chipsets are available
> increasing the likelihood that drivers have been developed.
>
> Con:
> 1) Only a handfull of different sound/video chipsets are available
> reducing the likelihood that it's a "quality" chipset
> 2) upgrade-ability may be extremely limited, as most of those boards
> skimp on pci slots
>
> That said, if you choose to go with one with onboard sound and video,
> ensure that the chipsets are supported _before_ buying. I would tend
> to avoid SiS video chipsets (although they are extremely common)
> because of bad personal experiences with them and i810 chipsets all
> together. The video support for the i810 is shaky at this point.
>
> --
> _
> _|_|_
> ( ) * Anton Graham
> /v\ / <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> /( )X
> (m_m) GPG ID: 18F78541
> Penguin Powered!
