Hardware questions for new linux box

Boggit · 08-09-2003, 03:53 AM

I have a pc (P4 2.4ghz 512ram Radeon9100) that runs solely as an XP machine. I have recently ordered the following, to build a solely Linux machine:

AMD®_ Athlon XP 2600+/333Mhz Thoroughbred (2167Ghz) (Boxed
MSI K7N2 Delta-L NFORCE 2 AMD® Athlon™/ Athlon™ XP / Duron™
DDR400 256Mb PC3200 400Mhz
MSI GF4 MX440SE 64Mb
Western Digital Caviar ® SE 40.0Gb 7200RPM + 8MB Buffer
MSI StarSpeed 52X IDE CD-ROM (MS-8152 / C52)
KME CX-6059 MIDDLE Tower ATX chassis
COOLER MASTER SAF-S82 8CM Chassis Fan + Sensor
ENERMAX EG301P-VE(FMA) 300W ATX PSU

I have Linux Redhat 9.0 distro CD's and I wanted to ask the following questions

1.)Even though it's only got 256mb ram, its 400MHZ, will this go unnoticed in linux or will it perform as well in Rh9 as it would in windows?

2.)I had to buy a cheaper vid card GF4 MX440SE, will I need to install seperate drivers etc after clean install or will RH9 come with drivers for this card? (Otherwise I could swop it for the Radeon9100 from my other box)

Many thanks in advance

Boggit

bobtmasse · 08-09-2003, 04:09 AM

I have an nForce2 based board as well and I will let you know I am having a hell of a time getting it configured since the current 2.4.x kernel does not support the onboard NIC, audio or the AGP config at all. You will need to compile a new kernel to get it to work in other than text mode probably. Also, I am getting reports that ATI cards and the nVidia AGPGART driver don't mix... I have not been able to get this far yet myself so I can't comment.

With the current prices on memory, I would suggest that you look into maybe getting a little more. The 256 is not a bad amount if you are just cruising with the system. If you plan on doing heavy 3D gaming I would recommend more, but it is not a requirement otherwise. The performance should adequete until later when you get a little more mem in the machine. You will also get better performance from a dual channel memory board with two sticks of memory, although just a modest jump in most cases.

Boggit · 08-09-2003, 04:18 AM

Thanks bobtmasse. Thats not a good sign. I really don't wanna have to use XP on this machine, and i'm far too newb in linux to even think of compiling a new kernel. Does anyone else have any suggestions on this subject, or use any of the above mentions pieces of hardware with linux?

Boggit · 08-09-2003, 04:37 AM

The reason I only bought 256MB Ram was because I have a really fast machine running XP that I use for gaming. Im limited by my monitor resolution (Samsung SyncMaster 753dfx -17" flat) rather than my pc, so if need be I'll always game on that. I figured, 400mhz ram must run decently, and if the pc is mainly used as a linux desktop it would be ample?

Boggit · 08-09-2003, 07:09 AM

It says here - http://www.redhat.com/software/linux/technical/hcl/ that Redhat 9 supports the Nforce / Nforce2

Is this true? Does anyone have the following hardware in their box without hassles?

Skyline · 08-09-2003, 11:30 AM

Hi Boggit

I am using 256mb RAM with Red Hat 9 amongst other OS's - RH9's fine with 256mb for ordinary work - there are faster Linux distros though - like Vector 3.2.
I am using an MSI Geforce 4 MX440 SE card under RH9 with no problems - I didnt have to install any extra graphics drivers

As a general point - don't get too hooked into just using Red Hat 9 - there are plenty of other distros that are worth trying.

Mandrake 9.1
Slackware 9
Vector 3.2
JAMD

Further - you can check out all the major Linux distributions and more at Distrowatch - currently around 140 of them :

Click here to go to Distrowatch

Boggit · 08-09-2003, 05:06 PM

Thanks Skyline, so I know my Vid card is supported!

I currently only have a set of Redhat 9.0 CD's. But nearly all are available to me for R100 (about $12.5 each). I was wondering which is best? I just went and got Redhat because it was a distribution I had previously heard of.

I want the best distro for desktop use (anything that isn't windows, because my folks have a pc set up that I can't add any extra's on because it'd confuse them, so even if linux isn't the absolute best to be used practically as a desktop OS, I couldn't care, it's far better than Windows aggravation.

Now im just hoping that the onboard sound and the lot will all be supported. I know Mandrake comes with a slightly newer kernel (any other distro's come with a later released distro than mandrake?) I am a linux newbie, but i'm not too simple. If need be I could start on anything, I just prefer using X with all the eye candy 'cos it looks nicer

Boggit · 08-09-2003, 05:15 PM

Hey Skyline, just wanted to ask, does your MSI Geforce 4 MX440 SE perform a lot faster in linux than in XP?

I have a P4 here that is just for winXP and it has a ATI Radeon 9100 (128MB) that will never get any game time, I was wondering if it's worth taking it out and using it in my linux rig? If I can set up linux for games then I'll probably never touch the p4. What do you think?

Skyline · 08-09-2003, 05:47 PM

Hi Boggit

Mandrake 9.1 is a good choice for a new Linux user - I buy my distros dirt cheap from online sellers for as little as £2 each - so - I tend to get lots of them - set them up in various multiboots - then just switch between them as the mood takes.

Personally - I'd just get a couple of them considering how cheap they are if you buy online.

I do any gaming at present ( Colin Mcrae Rally 2,3 in particular ) in Windows - I havent tried it under Linux - so I dont know about the 3d performance of the 440 SE under Linux.

You could always dual/multiboot and do your gaming in Windows at the moment - then see how Linux gaming improves over the next 6 months (which it will)

Certainly - I've had no problems with RH9 or any other distros with the 440 SE card in 2D.

Boggit · 08-10-2003, 02:43 AM

Great, thanks for your response Skyline, you have been very helpful