On Sun, 23 Jul 2000, Sevatio Octavio wrote:
> Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 07:38:51 GMT
> From: Sevatio Octavio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [expert] Pentium 200Mhz/MMX and Mandrake - Resource
> Efficient?
>
> 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?
>
So far, I haven't found too many things to be incompatible. Most of them
probably come with an SiS video/audio or the VIAgra style chipset. It used
to be an issue for me about 8 months ago, but since then, drivers have
either been made for them, or you can pay $20 for OSS,
www.opensound.com. For the most part, XFree86 works, although some of the
drivers may have certain artifacts when using memcopy stuff, like moving
windows, it may produce some garbage. One of my older SiS motherboards had
snow on the screen when X was started, but that was because the
motherboard tried to share mem between the VGA and slow system mem. But
since then, RAM has improved in speed, and this no longer is much of an
issue on the newer built-ins I have tried. In the worst case, most of
these motherboards come with a jumper to disable the onboard
Video/Audio. Just in case you have problems, make sure you buy a
motherboard that can disable those. If you do end up disabling, you can
get some more compatible pci cards, like a voodoo3 and perhaps a
soundblaster. I recommend a Yamaha XG card, but that will cost you about
$30 of OSS drivers.
> Seve
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>
> On 7/22/00, 10:34:17 PM, Anton Graham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
> regarding Re: [expert] Pentium 200Mhz/MMX and Mandrake - Resource
> Efficient?:
>
>
> > Submitted 23-Jul-00 by John J. LeMay Jr.:
> > >
> > > Doesn't there come a point when using a machine as old as an XT clone
> > > actually costs more to run (heat/electric) than grabbing something like
> the
> > > BookPC machines (around $500 ready to roll) and tossing the "classic"
> into
> > > the antique rack?
> > >
> > > I'm not blasting anyone for still using old equipment, I would never do
> > > that. I'm just curious as to the trade off. I would assume their has been
> > > significant advances in power efficiency and in the physics involved in
> > > keeping machines cool in the past 10 years or so and that these features
> may
> > > make purchasing a new machine more cost effective than running an old
> one.
> > >
> > > Just curious!
>
> > Yes, it probably does cost more to run it than say one of the
> > everything on one board machines. I actually did it originally as an
> > exercise in adapting old equipment into terminals.
>
> > Bottom line is that I can get an XT with a monitor for around $50-100
> > while a real terminal will cost me at least twice that :/. Around
> > here, I am more accountable for initial investment than cost of
> > operation.
>
> > --
> > _
> > _|_|_
> > ( ) * Anton Graham
> > /v\ / <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > /( )X
> > (m_m) GPG ID: 18F78541
> > Penguin Powered!
>
--
Regards,
Ellick Chan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Jul 23
