Check my hardware compatibility please

Oreo · 11-07-2009, 02:40 PM

Hi folks,

I'm building a whole new computer with some of the latest hardware. Can you please look over my hardware list & let me know if you see anything that has known linux compatibility problems? Thanks!

CPU: I7-920
MB: Asus PT6D
RAM: GSkill DDR3-1333, 24GB
Video Card: Asus ENGTX260
HDD: Raid 0+1 array of 4 Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB drives

This will be the first time I've ever built a 64bit linux machine.

irishbitte · 11-07-2009, 04:30 PM

All of the hardware you describe except the video card is intel based, so you shouldn't have trouble. Take a look here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us for drivers for the GeForce card. In terms of whether your hardware will definitely work or not, please consult the linuxquestions.org Hardware Compatibility List:http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/, it's quite comprehensive. Unfortunately, you will probably have to do this yourself!

A quick question: you are proposing a RAID system, are you proposing a software RAID?

Oreo · 11-07-2009, 05:25 PM

Far as I can tell the RAID implementation is on the motherboard. I prefer hardware RAID if at all possible.

I chose a video card with nvidia chip-set specifically because nvidia was particularly good with linux support. Or at least that's what I've been lead to believe.

irishbitte · 11-08-2009, 10:07 PM

Hmmm, well there are good nVidia drivers available, though it can be tricky. I would double check compatibility for the card you are buying with the distro you want to use.

You should know that hardware RAID in linux is not fantastic, because the RAID card does not present a standard SCSI/IDE interface to linux to work with. Most times, people use software RAID in linux, in order to make life easier.

YMMV. Hope it goes well for you!

Oreo · 11-09-2009, 08:33 AM

Thanks for the heads up on the RAID issues. Are there any good threads about it here?

irishbitte · 11-09-2009, 12:16 PM

Honestly I don't know, it's generally something I don't go near! I'd say have a search about, you'll find plenty, of that I have little doubt.