I hope to build a new computer this Autumn or Winter, assuming of course that I will be able to arrange the convergence of those two rare in themselves commodities; sufficient funds and sufficient free time.

I plan to use an ASUS or Gigabyte main board, something like the M4A79XTD EVO AM3 with a quad core AMD processor of 3 gHz or so, either the Athlon II or the Phenom II, 4 gigs of memory, and a SATA hard drive. I will use a linux OS, probably Suse 11.3. I like Suse and it is what I am familiar with. I will also leave enough HDD space to load other distros to play with, but Suse is my "daily driver". I would like to also dual boot with XP or 7.

The only piece of hardware I am not 100% comfortable choosing is a graphics card. I have had good luck with nvidia cards and linux in the past so am leaning toward nvidia again. It seems that something like a GT 240 card should be about right for my needs, and since they started using GDDR5 with some of them it makes them even more appealing. I remember reading about problems early on with the GT240s used with Linux. Nvidia lists a linux driver for that card on their web site, I don't know how good it is. There doesn't seem to be much info available about this.

Does anyone have any experience using this card with linux? Or any other recommendations? I am not committed to this card so am open to suggestions in that price range or a little more, up to $150 or so. I would also consider ATI/AMD if someone has good experience with their cards.

The computer will be used for internet and watching videos and movies, no gaming.

There is article about this card on Phoronix http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...orce_240&num=1 they state that the Noveau driver doesn't work (yet) but the latest nvidia driver (256.53) solved some issue's with VDPAU thus makes this a good choice for multimedia

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Well, it wouldn't take me more than say 1 hour to build a computer from parts (if I have all the parts, which I usually don't). I recommend against a Gigabyte board, they are built cheap and I've had issues with them. ASUS is ok. I would check the HCL and around the net for reviews to see if there are any problems with the board before you buy it.

If you're not doing gaming you don't need the best card, just one with vdpau (8000 series and up) will be enough to view HD movies. The nvidia drivers are good in the sense that the performance is there for sure, I don't think any company can match it on the Linux platform or will for some time to come. The drivers are not always stable, but recently they have been for my card, maybe they got their act together. I'll still probably switch to nouveau when it becomes usable far in the future.

Thanks,Babertje, I did read that article on Phoronix, in fact that is what had me concerned about driver issues for this card. That was written last January, the GT 240 hadn't been out long at that time. I am thinking that most of the issues have been worked out by now, I was just curious about whether anyone had any first hand experience with it.

I guess I COULD throw one together in an hour, but it usually takes me a little longer. The time consuming part for me is getting an OS and all the software running right, but that is half the fun.

I like ASUS myself, most of my builds have used their MOBOs. The computer I am typing this from was one I built about 5 or 6 years ago using an ASUS board and an Athlon XP2800, it has been a good one but is getting kind of dated. Used one Gigabyte board years ago on a computer I put together for a friend, it worked OK best I can recall but I don't know much about their current stuff.

I agree about the graphics card, I don't need or want the latest and fastest, it would just be money wasted and create noise and heat. I want something mid grade that is fairly current and common and will be good for a few years, seems like the midrange nvidia cards should meet those requirements.

I can echo H_TeXMeX_H's remarks about Gigabyte boards. We have had a few of them here. Some are utter crap, while some are actually quite good.

About your GPU, since you're basically looking for a nice VDPAU capable card, the GT220 is more than enough. Supports all features of VDPAU, and has enough horsepower to hardware deinterlace 1920x1080 footage. The GT210 nor 8400 does not. Our 9400+9500's does seem to drop a couple of frames per 60minutes, far better than the 8400, and slightly better than the GT210. We don't capture enough interlaced HD material to upgrade those cards just yet. http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU

There were a slew of threads on www.nvnews.net about the previous GT240 problems. Reports indicate these were resolved.

As a bonus, if you did happen to play a game or 2, the GT220 is a competent gamer. It's no GTX480, but it gets the job done.

Thanks, good info. I will consider the GT220s also. I will look around on the nvnews site for info.

When I bought my GT220 (1GiB gddr2), the GT240 was a decent amount more, plus the 220 was on sale and had a $30 M.I.R. Could not pass up the deal. Was eyeballing the GT240 issues, just before the purchase. I can recall users reporting the 240's issues seemed fixed in the beta drivers. This was prior to the release of the 185.xxx stable series.

Found the post
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...6&postcount=61
and the thread
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=142020

I didn't even include the software part, that usually takes a full day or more.

If have a monitor that support 1080p and are planning on playing such videos you may indeed want something a bit more powerful, so maybe get at least a GT 220 like disturbed1 suggests.

I have an 8800 GTS and it can play any video I've ever tried. I don't usually play 1080p because my monitor doesn't have high enough resolution. 720p is good enough for me anyway, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference either way.

The GT220 looks good. I think either that or a 240 would probably work well. It seems that the driver issues are fixed.

disturbed1, a big thumbs-up to that link to the nvnews forums, good stuff there and I had never heard of it until now.

I'm working on a Gigabyte board that's been running wonderfully for 5 years and I love it. I don't remember the model number. UD3 that supports core2 processors. I'm running MSI in my newest build, which is nice , but this Gigabyte board is my absolute favorite that I've ever used.

On topic: I can't speak for the GT 240, but I have a GT220 that works fine with nvidia drivers, but is a little hit or miss on some distros OTB.