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1. my motherboard says i need a video card that doesn't need a fixed IRQ. i'm looking into getting an evga nvidia 7600gt, but how do i find out if it requires a specific IRQ or is requiring a specific IRQ non standard nowadays?
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An IRQ have to be assigned to video cards and several other devices. It is best to let the BIOS assign the IRQ to all devices instead of the OS. When using Linux it is require for the BIOS to set the IRQ because Linux does not work well if it have to set the IRQ. In some cases Linux does not detect devices that do not have an IRQ. eVGA is not very good. BFG or XFX are better.
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2. my motherboard doesn't have a graphics. will it automatically pick up the 7600gt or will it leave me in the dark... literally? if i'm in the dark, what do i do to see the light?
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I guess you have not built a computer before. It should see the video card in either an AGP or PCIe (PCI Express) slot. The BIOS can help you define where it should look first when looking for a video card.
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3. i'm also curious as to how i will set up the bios, but i'm not sure i know enough to ask anything intelligible at this point. a link to a good tutorial would be great, though.
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In the BIOS, use fail-safe settings first and double check if the CPU and memory is at the correct speed. Make sure USB is set to legacy because this will make some USB devices work better. Set geometry modes for IDE hard drives to LBA. LBA works better for both LILO and GRUB. Make sure the BIOS sets IRQ instead of the OS.
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4. i'm looking at a dvd RW that is E-IDE / ATAPI. will this work with all motherboards or do i need to make sure my motherboard is compatible?
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These days IDE slots are becoming rare. At least nVidia chipsets still provides an IDE connector. It is best to find an optical drive that connects to the IDE slots. SATA optical drives are little glitchy under Linux. Soon the kernel will have no problem with SATA optical drives.
