New system, Linux?

clv101

clv101

clv101

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,959
Location
Bristol
I'm considering buying a new system based around a Phenom II X6 1055T clocked to ~4GHz. On a budget so thinking to use on-board video and Linux.

Can anyone recommend me a decent AM3 motherboard for a Linux system?

The main use initially will be ripping my DVD collection so I'd like someone to tell me what ripping/encoding solutions there are for Linux. It'll also be used for various data manipulation with R and FreeMat.
 
You shouldn't have problems with the mainboard, but ati graphics drivers are rather pants for linux, they run ok but you may encounter problems.

To combat this for my 5870 I use the opensource drivers which are great for 2D but pony for 3D.

If you only want a single monitor solution then ati cards are ok, anything more like dual screens I would buy a cheap secondhand Nvidia 8600GT-250GTX, Nvidia linux drivers are as good as there windows counterparts and a joy to use in linux.

As for which distro - check out opensuse, pclinuxOS, Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora and see which one you get on with best.

Ripping software - http://handbrake.fr/


This one will convert Avi's back onto DVD, should you wish http://www.rastersoft.com/programas/devede.html


Remember to use your linux OS's package manager to download and install software you do not need to search the web for your programs!!!!
 
yeah the main thing to worry about with linux is the GPU, if you plan to use linux, then its always best to get an nvidia card.

they are very well supported in linux, and some distro like ubuntu have the nvidia driver built in and will setup on instaltion if you have an nvidia card.

so if you plan to use onboard gfx, just avoid the ones with ati onboard, and got for nvidia if possible
 
Cycrow said:
yeah the main thing to worry about with linux is the GPU, if you plan to use linux, then its always best to get an nvidia card.

they are very well supported in linux, and some distro like ubuntu have the nvidia driver built in and will setup on instaltion if you have an nvidia card.

so if you plan to use onboard gfx, just avoid the ones with ati onboard, and got for nvidia if possible
Click to expand...


Yeh, just to clarify Ubuntu will also install your ati driver driver really easily as well.


I would get your AMD 6 core and onboard 4200 and see how it goes if it's a pain in the bum maybe consider a cheapo nvidia card like a 210-250GTX.

The 4200 ATI should run fine but is more fiddely, as I say my 5870 works great in linux, when I use the opensource driver.
 
Thanks, I've read about a few issues with ATI. Shame really, but I guess a cheap nVidia card isn't a problem.
 
Depends what you're doing with it... the problem with drivers isn't so much stability any more, it's more that compared to both nVidia drivers for cards of the same price range and the ATI drivers under Windows the performance drop is huge.
 
Yeah but he doesn't really need a Stonking Blitzoid GPU to rip & play music files does he ?

Be aware that I had to buy a Xonar sound card to get decent (frikkin awesome) sound out of an Asus M4A87TD-EVO.

Onboard sound played very quiet and muffled in Ubuntu.
 
I'm running Fedora 13 with my ATI 4870x2. installed open source drivers by default as part of the install and works fine. All pretty desktop stuff works great. 3D performance for games etc is absolutely dire though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom