AMD64 and xgl recommendations

[Josh Coffman]

I built a new desktop with stuff from newegg <6 months ago. very happy with it.

SATA2 is faster that SATA, but it might limit the mboards you can choose from.

I'm running and AMD X2 4200+, and its great. Unfortunately I am not running linux on this box. yet.

You will have to pay attention to the max memory for your motherboard. 2 gig seems pretty common, but thats a max on some boards.
Also, you should look for a board with PCIE vid card slots. AGP seems to be on the way out. I think i just read an announcement for PCIE2 yesterday.

If you want to run dual screen, you'll need to either pick a vid card that supports that or run dual vid cars.
That, again, should factor in you choice of a motherboard. A lot of MBoards don't have dual PCIE slots.

BTW, I'm happy with the geforce 7600 I got from newegg. It does the job for a good price. I only have a single widescreen lcd, but I'm happy with that.

Also, consider the case and fans carefully. That affects how quiet a system is and how well it cools.
I've read that the Core 2 Duo chips out perform AMD's current consumer chips and do so with less power consumtpion.
I'm an AMD fan but am thinking about a new laptop with a Core 2 duo chip because it should mean better battery life.

Also, if you are considering putting windows on this box... XP does not automatically support booting on SATA drives. 
The linux distros I've played with on this box (trying to fix the SATA thing) supported the SATA2 drive without even thinking about it...
I know Fedora was one of those, but I don't remember what others I tried.

I don't know about writing DVD's from linux, but the install from and reading from just worked.

----- Original Message ----
From: Joshua Zeidner <jjzeidner at gmail.com>
To: Main PLUG discussion list <plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 11:26:04 AM
Subject: Re: AMD64 and xgl recommendations

On 1/22/07, der.hans <PLUGd at lufthans.com> wrote:
> moin moin,
>
> I'm wanting to buy a new box. I'd like to go to AMD 64 and have a good
> video card with Free Software drivers.
>
> I figure I'll go SATA for hard drives.
>
> I don't really care about a CD rom, but might get a DVD burner.
>
> Any recommendations on what processor(s) to get? Dual-core?
>
> What mother board? I want to be able to put at least a couple of GB of RAM
> in it, but I think that should be pretty standard by now.
>
> If I put it together myself I'll likely by the RAM from Crucial.
>
> Any specific heat syncs I should look at? I'd like something that doesn't
> need much fan as the box will be in a somewhat dusty environment and I'd
> like the box to be quiet.
>
> Video card? Do I need to worry about what type of slots the mother board
> has for video? I plan on running dual-head 20" LCDs. I'm liking
> wide-screen monitors. Does that affect video card decisions?
>
> Are there different SATAs to worry about?
>
> Do DVD burners just work for Linux?
>
> Anything else I should care about?
>
> Low power would be awesome. Quiet would be good. Able to handle a somewhat
> dusty environment is a must.
>
> I don't need a bunch of power as it'll mostly just be a desktop. I don't
> game, but I would like to play with xgl. I will likely play with
> virtualization stuff like qemu and xen.
>
> I haven't even thought about hardware for a few years, so I'm totally out
> of touch with what's available.
>
> Recommendations on where to shop would be good as well.

   I recommend New Egg:  http://www.newegg.com/

  -jmz

>
> I'm fine with putting the box together, but am also fine with buying a
> complete system from a Linux-friendly vendor.
>
> I might consider buying the case from Frys, but likely no other components
> as I want the box to work and Frys sucks. No need to start a thread
> on this, see list archives. Just saying that I'm going to ignore any
> recommendations on picking up components there.
>
> ciao,
>
> der.hans
> --

-- 
.0000. communication.
.0001. development.
.0010. strategy.
.0100. appeal.

JOSHUA M. ZEIDNER
IT Consultant

++power; ++perspective; ++possibilities;
( 602 ) 490 8006
jjzeidner at gmail.com
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