Nilesh Govindarajan wrote:
On 09/29/2011 08:18 AM, Dale wrote:
As a general rule, hardware support is in the kernel. It shouldn't
matter much whether it is Gentoo, Redhat, Debian or any other distro.
It just matters that the kernel supports the hardware. I would imagine
that anything listed there as working is supported by Linux with a up to
date kernel. It all comes down to the kernel. By the way, the kernel
tested against is listed in the top right hand corner if I recall
correctly. You seem to have noticed that too. If the mobo is a new
design or new chipset, try to get at least that version of kernel.
I know that it is actually in the kernel, but some companies like Nvidia
package propreitary drivers only for Ubuntu/Debian, so it at times makes
sense to check it out in detail. I have had lot of fights over this
point on twitter with friends, in fact it resulted in myself getting
blocked (and unblocked later hehe).
As far as I know, nvidia drivers should work with about any distro. I
have installed the same drivers on Gentoo that I used on Mandrake. That
was a while ago but they look the same to me. Keep in mind, Gentoo is
source based which makes it different. Binary distros are not.
If it shows things are working for the mobo you are checking on, it
should work fine. I think the 880 chipset has been out a while so it
should be really stable by now. I seem to recall it was out when I
bought my new setup but was still getting worked on for drivers.
By the way, it is always somewhat wise to buy things that have been out
for a while. If you are building a spare or something to play with,
then newer stuff is fine. I say this because some very new hardware may
not have all the kinks worked out. Unless you really really need the
latest and greatest, pick a slightly older setup. When I picked mine,
it was about a year old. That is usually plenty of time to let the
drivers stabilize. It can also save you some money too.
Now to be nosy, how many cores and how much ram you planning to put in
this new rig? I have a 4 core 3.2Ghz CPU with 16Gbs of ram. Compared
to my older AMD 2500+ with 2Gbs of ram, the new rig is super fast. My
old rig was named smoker because at the time it was built, it was
smoking. My new rig is named fireball. I guess lightening will be
next. After that, someone will just have to bury me. Not much is
faster than lightening. lol
Dale
:-) :-)
P. S. If you get your things selected and want someone to double check,
I'd be glad too. I posted mine on here to make sure I hadn't missed
anything. The mobo, CPU and ram are the most essential things that have
to be right. You have some wobble room on the rest. Also, Gigabyte has
a list of supported ram and CPUs on their website. That comes in handy.
Quad Core 3.2 Ghz with 16 GB of RAM that's big piece man. Well as I said
earlier, I'm thinking of that 1075T thing and may be 4-8 GB of RAM
(depends on cost, because I've to get myself a 22 or 24 inch LCD as
well), but since bulldozers are going to be launched on 12th October,
I'll prefer to wait, they have tons of new virtualization-related
features. Will save me from installing windows directly onto the machine
to play games (I usually don't, but after getting such a powerful
machine, may be) and troubling it for no reason with that piece of bullshit.
Here is some advice. When you buy memory, buy so that you don't have to
remove anything to upgrade. If for example the mobo takes a max 4Gb
stick in each slot, get a 4Gb stick or two of them. I started with 4Gbs
and while it did fine, I can tell the difference when I added the
extra. If you do that, you don't have to remove a stick to upgrade or
keep them paired up. I started with 4Gb, went to 8Gb then bought a 8Gb
kit and went to the full 16Gbs. They do seem to run faster in pairs.
I can't blame you for waiting on the CPU if it is what you really want.
I usually buy a couple notches down on the CPU and save some cash. You
won't tell very much difference between a 3.4Ghz and a 3.2Ghz. Now if
you are doing something really CPU intensive, then you may need the
extra. Me, I balance out cost verses speed. I like a lot of bang for
little bucks. That said, I hope to get a 6 core when the prices go down
some. Maybe when yours comes out, they will start to drop on mine. :-)
I have to say, this rig is pretty fast. Example:
Sat Sep 17 04:03:00 2011 >>> app-office/libreoffice-3.3.4
merge time: 52 minutes and 42 seconds.
That would be while I am logged into KDE and doing no telling what.
Post back when you get your stuff picked out.
Dale
:-) :-)
