I wouldn't pay more for any sort of graphic's for cli. It is possible but not real easy to have no video adapter at all. Might have to do some stuff blind. If it breaks and you may need to put in an adapter or take out the drive. A simple adapter onboard is cheap and easy way to configure it locally.

1 members found this post helpful.

Video from a chip on the CPU or motherboard.

If you want (direct) video output from the box, yes.

If you want to acess the system (graphically) over a network/internet but not directly from that system then no, you wont need a graphics (intergrated or from an add in card) at all.

Still, a cheap video card or intergrated video will use sod-all power, and can make life a lot easier.

AFAIK, yes. I'd probably avoid the intel hardware though. The Intel CPUs in the $200+ range are faster, below $200 AMD might be faster in many cases. In cases where AMD is slower, its not going to be that much slower.

I assume that you mean the 'cracking, piracy, warez, fraud or any topic that could be damaging to either LinuxQuestions.org' bit of the rules.

Handbrake and other video rippers/transcoders arent 'warez', and 'piracy' can be achived just as easily with commercial software as with FOSS software.....

1 members found this post helpful.

I keep getting mixed signal as to what would work with linux. I looked it up and Cascade9 is makes a good point when it comes to buying mother boards and cpu's. So I think I will stick with AMD hardware. The only problem is that if I get one of the APU's that has integrated graphics, I am concerned that it will not work well with linux (if I have to put a gui on the system).

Also what does every one thing about the Gigabyte brand for motherboards? I know ASUS is great. Should I even consider Gigabyte, or should I just stick with asus?

Intel is still an option, I'd just rather have a AMD in the sub $200 CPU price range. Others would prefer intel.

I wouldnt be getting any of the AMD 'fusion' CPUs (those with APUs) if you are even thinking about transcoding/converting videos. They are fine CPUs for desktop use, for CPU heavy work the AMD 'Bulldozer' (FX series) or Phenom II X6 CPUs, or intel i5/i7 would be better.

I like the gigabyte boards, and I havent bought an asus board for years (had a few issues, and IMO the quality dropped quite a bit between the late 90s and mid/late 00s).

Gigabyte is an option, but if you like asus boards they'll work just fine.

1 members found this post helpful.

Breaking dvd's encryption is illegal in many countries. Unless the OP is talking about their home movies, most commercial dvd's are protected by encryption. That is the part that is illegal. The tools to crack them are illegal.

1 members found this post helpful.

I can only tell you about my personal experience with mobos. I have a Gigabyte K8N (ancient nforce4 system) for 8 years now and has never let me down. It also has good subsystems (realtek audio, Texas Instruments firewire chip). 3-4 friends of mine with Asus mobos (I can't recall the models) have brought me their PCs to check some problem, and we ended up changing the board, so personally, I stay away from Asus.
My Gigabyte also came with Award Phoenix BIOS, which has much more settings available than Asus's setup utility, and (a little trick) if you press Ctrl+F1 has some more.

Will an amd am3 cpu fit in an amd am3+ socket? I know that the "+" probably means that the cpu has the turbo option, I just want to know if I want a processor with AM3 cpu can I put it in and am3+ socket?

If you're going to be that black and white about it, dvd-fab is 'illegal' as well. Just look at how many 'removes all known DVD protections' and similar references there are on the dvd-fab page-

http://www.dvdfab.com/

Yes, AM3+ boards can run AM3 CPUs. BTW, the '+' is nothing to do with turbo, there are AM3 CPUs that have turbo. AM3+ is just a modified AM3 socket made to work with 'bulldozer' CPUs.

Which AM3 CPU were you thinking of getting?

1 members found this post helpful.

I am thinking about getting one of these two.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103996

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819106009

I know it is way more than I need, but it is so cheap. This way if I decided to drop the entire server thing, I will have a decent computer.


Also can you recommend a good linux software raid?

Dvd-fab and other companies have an agreement that excludes them. It is not illegal at all. Movie companies know about this program and get paid by them.


Those processors are pretty good. Might be a bit more than you need.


Linux has a common software raid built in to most distro's. http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html

1 members found this post helpful.

I am also thinking about this mother board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131758

Dont be misled by the core count on 'bulldozer' CPUs. The FX-4XXX CPUs are sold as '4 core' but thats not totally true. Its really a '2 module bulldozer' CPU,a nd while each module reports as a full core, as some of the parts that make up a full coer are shared on each bulldozer module.

I wouldnt. IMO the 880 chipsets (and all the AMD chipsets with onboard video really) arent that great, the chipsets without onboard video 770, 790, 790FX, 870, 890X, 890FX, 970, 990X, 990FX) are better overall.

If you like aus, maybe a M5A97-

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD...5A97/#overview

mdadm. You might find this page usefull-

https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Linux_Raid

Either you've worded that very badly, or else you dont know your own laws. The 'movie companies' bit at least implies that circumvention of 'copy protection' on movies with commercial software is legal. Which its not in the US, apart from a very few exceptions.

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/

1 members found this post helpful.

I really did not want to have to buy a video card if I needed or wanted to put a gui on the box. Is an on board video chip-set really that bad?

no, not at all, though onboard video cards aren't usually the most powerful gpus available if you don't plan on using a gui onboard video should be more than adequate, heck, technically a text only terminal attached to a serial terminal should be enough once you have the system installed.

1 members found this post helpful.

IMO yes.

The AMD 7XX/8XX chipsets with onboard video all use HD 2XXX/3XXX/4XXX IGPs. Support for HD 2XXX-4XXX chipsets has been dropped, so there wont be any closed source drivers for future xorg versions.

IGPs without added onbaord memory will always use some of the main system RAM (and system RAM I/Os).

The onboard video chipsets are less likely to get BIOS updates to work with future AMD CPUs.

IMO the onboard video chipsets are less reliable than the chipsets without IGPs.

The M5A97 is actualy abit cheaper than the M5A88-M. You can get a AMD HD 5450 (or nVidia G210) less than $30. So even if you bought a M5A97 and a video card over a M5A88-M its not going to increase the costs that much.

1 members found this post helpful.