can someone double check these computer components for me please
 

hi,

can someone double check that these computer components are alright together and should work with Ubuntu (and compiz fusion).

Motherboard: MSI S775 Intel P35 DDR2 ATX Audio Lan supports Core 2 Duo + Core 2 Quad (http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4JWS)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 S775 2.66ghz 4mb Cache 1333FSB (http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4MMC)
Graphics Card: Asustek Radeon 3870 512MB GDDR4 PCIE Dual DVI 775/2250MHz (http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4XMS)
Monitor: Acer 24" Wide AL2416WB 5ms LCD TFT (http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4MQY)

Cheers
Nonc

Mobo: BIOS upgrade needed - you also need to check out the components individually
IMX - MSI boards are trouble.

On-board Audio: Realtek alc888 HDA
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4066389

SATA/eSATA: you may need to set legacy mode in BIOS - do not use the onboard RAID.
http://www.intel.com/support/chipset.../cs-020663.htm
http://ntcompatible.com/Exploring_In...ID_s38408.html

Network Controller: Realtek RTL8111B
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...howtopic=36365
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=388403

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 S775
No worries :)

Graphics: Radeon 3870
RV670 GPU supported by the catalyst 7.12+ driver
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item=944&num=1
... benchmarked in Ubuntu 7.10!

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item=953&num=1
... claims free driver support for this card, though I don't see the RV670 series in the man page. Whatever you do, you'll have to tweak the graphics.

Monitor - no worries.

ok, what about this motherboard instead

MSI S775 INTEL G965 DDR2 MATX 8CH QUAD CORE AUDIO LAN
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4L5XWS

and this gaphics card instead
Gigabyte GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI-E 16x DDR3 Dual DVI
http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4SSG

or even the 3850 instead of the 3870
http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4V3W

It's still an MSI mobo. But a much more likely choice.
You know - these things are easy to look up.

You go through the stats... the things to check are:
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...specifications

Video & Net - you have to be able to see something and get online. So this is pretty important. Mobo has i965 chipset, supported out of the box. Try out the intel gfx before you get a plugin. Could save you money. (May need the 915resolution package for the full range.)

I note that the name suggests quad core, but the specs say only dual core... you weren't planning on a quad anyway right?

HDD - never use onboard RAID - GNU/Linux software raid is usually faster anyway. Some sata controllers are unsupported or rotten to use. But if the bios has a legacy ide mode you'll usually be fine.
Audio - is usually nice to have.

If you don't like intel GPUs, try ATI cards with HW DRI from the free driver. This will mean an older card - but you do not need directx-10 support as you don't have Vista... in fact, this makes the older cards cheaper!

There's not much wrong with either the gfx cards you picked (did you read the links?)

Check that the BIOS has OS indipendent update utility.

cheers

so i think i have now found one that meets all those needs
Asustek S775 Intel P35 ATX GLAN
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4QNW

has Realtek ALC883 which from my searches can work
it supports the Ethernet stuff
it supports the processor ive chosen, and the graphics card will fit

and for the graphics card, i can still go for the first one i mentioned, it looks like it will still work out of the box,(with compiz fusion i hope)

anything i have forgotten?

Probably - there is often something. But you have a solid choice there.
Again: the RAID controller is fake (HW) RAID.
Disable this in BIOS. If you need RAID for something, use software RAID or purchase a HW raid card.

Note: mobo goes up to 8GiB RAM ... Ubuntu 7.10 (32bit) won't access more that 4GiB without recompiling. If you have more than 2GiB, you can safely disable swap. (I have very low swappiness with 1GiB. Some rendering uses swap but I have yet to see useage above 5% of 1Gig. If you use swap for suspend though, you need to keep a sizeable swap partition - or file - around still.)