This is my first post here so if its in the wrong place please let me know.

Im trying to get away from the world of M$ into linux and I think slackware is the way to go for me. In particular SW13-64bit. My question is though I dont see many hardware manufacturers supporting SW, but I do see suse and redhat. How hard/possible is it to use redhat suse drivers for slackware? Can they be modified/rebuilt?

Im also considering buying a cheap server off ebay to use. Can someone let me know if any of the following would cause an issue with slackware?

In particular the Adaptec sata raid controller which I want to run in raid 5.

2x Intel Xeon 2.8GHZ 64Bit Processors
4x 80GB SATA Hard Disk Drives SET AS RAID 5
2x Intel Pro 1000 MT Gigabit Network LAN Adapters
Adaptec 2025SA SATA Raid Controller
1x ATI RAGE XL 8MB Onboard Video Card
SuperMicro X6DHR-TG Dual Xeon Server Motherboard

Try to get hardware that is supported by the kernel, then you don't have to worry about some proprietary drivers designed for some ancient version of redhat or suse.

Usually most hardware is supported in the kernel. You should do some research to see if anyone has had problems, but in general it should be fine. You should however research graphics cards, printers and scanners for Linux compatibility. Drivers for other distributions *can* be made to work with Slackware (I repackaged Brother's debian package for their printer drivers [sadly they have no 64-bit drivers]), however this isn't always easy and unless you repackage it properly and possibly adapt the init scripts you may get things placed in weird locations.

I have built two computers and did not put much thought into Linux compatibility for either one. Both are fully supported by the kernel (though I used nVidia's proprietary drivers for the graphics card), and three older prebuilt computers have also been 100% supported without me researching Linux compatibility. I also have a Firewire card and an SATA RAID controller card that worked fine.

Basically, you should do some research but unless it's a printer, scanner, graphics card or something more obscure (a tablet perhaps) then it will likely work, as long as it isn't bleeding edge new.