# Building a fresh Linux Box

## arnuld

Hello There,

I am building a Linux Box. After reading ESR's Ultimate Linux Box article, I have dropped the idea of quad-core processor. Rather than what most people do, instead of Intel I am going after 64 bit AMD Athlon dual or Phenom triple core system, both are much cheaper than quad-core. I have used AMD Athlon 64 on ASUS's K8V-MX motherboard for 2 years and it was excellent (except for using gnash).

GOALS:

    * To use Gentoo Linux as machine's native OS

    * play movies or songs

    * NO Video Games

    * GNU Hurd as 2nd OS (as I want to develop it)

    * using Flash-Drives from Kingston, Transient or i-ball

    * connecting my friend's digital cameras for getting/sending pictures

that's it. Choice are limited here in my city, so I have this idea after making a round in the computer market here:

    AMD Athlon X2 2.8 GHz (or Phenom X3)

    Gigabyte Motherboard

    22 inches LG LCD W2242S or W2252TE, see here

    2 x360 GB SATA Hard-Drives (one for back-up) - HITACHI or  Western Digital

    1 ASUS DVD-RW, 1 DVD-ROM (DVD-ROM is here for I will do all reading work in it. It will be used like hell)

    2 x 2GB RAM (1000 MHz) Kingston 

    UPS a company knows as Numeric

 Logitech Mouse + keyboard (my favorite)

   2 extra pair of fans for extra cooling

What you people suggest. I am in Hyderbad, India, so will not have much choices in motherboard except of ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI. As per ESR's article FSB is more important which actually belongs to motherboard itself, so I will see which model of ASUS is good on that. 

 1.) what about video card: ATI Radeom or Nvidia . Do I need them ?

        2.) What about ASUS's on-baord audio/video support in Linux ?

        3.)  you have better recommendation for flash-drive ?

        4.) Anything else ?

Thanks in Advance . I have posted this at different places,  and this post is little different version from what I posted   here, here and here for help.

----------

## d2_racing

 *arnuld wrote:*   

> 
> 
> 1.) what about video card: ATI Radeom or Nvidia . Do I need them ?
> 
> 

 

If you can go with a Nvidia, I think that the driver is more stable and you don't need to wait until a new driver is out to test a newer kernel.

I have an ATI and a Nvidia and I must say that that I always need to wait a couple of days before I can test a ~x86 or ~amd64 kernel, because basically, the ati-drivers doesn't compile on a newer kernel. I had this problem since kernel 2.6.23  :Sad: 

 *arnuld wrote:*   

> 
> 
>         2.) What about ASUS's on-baord audio/video support in Linux ?
> 
> 

 

Double check with hardware4linux and the forum or google, because right now the ONLY Asus board for a Quad Core that is 100% working is the P5Q-Deluxe or P5Q-E. Audio/video is pretty standard, but the SATA controler and also the Lan card can be a really mess.

Just check for exemple for the Asus P5Q-SE, it's not working on Linux, because of a cheap Atheros Lan card.

----------

## d2_racing

What kind of case do you want to buy ? 

I recommend that you check for the Antec 900  :Razz: Last edited by d2_racing on Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:02 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## arnuld

From linuxquestions.org that I mentioned at the end of my OP, I got these advices:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> CABINET:   Antec, Corsair, Seasonic
> 
> RAM:         Corsair, Kingston, DDR2-800
> ...

 

----------

## Simba7

 *arnuld wrote:*   

> I am building a Linux Box. After reading ESR's Ultimate Linux Box article, I have dropped the idea of quad-core processor. Rather than what most people do, instead of Intel I am going after 64 bit AMD Athlon dual or Phenom triple core system, both are much cheaper than quad-core. I have used AMD Athlon 64 on ASUS's K8V-MX motherboard for 2 years and it was excellent (except for using gnash).
> 
> GOALS:
> 
>     * To use Gentoo Linux as machine's native OS
> ...

 

The existing box would be good for this.. If not, turn the old Athlon 64 into a DVR.

 *arnuld wrote:*   

> that's it. Choice are limited here in my city, so I have this idea after making a round in the computer market here:
> 
>     AMD Athlon X2 2.8 GHz (or Phenom X3)
> 
>     Gigabyte Motherboard
> ...

 

I'd go with a Plextor DVD-RW drive if possible. Never had a problem with them.

As for RAM, why not go Corsair?

..and 1TB drives are freakin' cheap now-a-days. Might as well get a pair and do a RAID1 or get 3 (or more) and do a RAID5.

As for the Video Card, do you want the fastest as of now? If yes, I'd go with the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2.

----------

## zyko

AMD has three very nice CPUs at the moment: Athlon64 X2 4850e, 4450e or 4050e (from fastest to slowest). Those are actually the most cost-efficient desktop CPUs right now (measured in performance per dollar). 

Don't buy any of the Phenoms, those are just too slow and eat too much power for their price. 

You should watch out for a mainboard with a 780G chipset. Those normally come with a radeon HD3200 integrated graphics chip and a HDA sound chip. The radeon HD3200 is said to perform very well with video decoding. I don't know how linux driver support is, but I guess there should be a binary blob. HDA sound is generally quite good and is supported in the linux kernel. There are many different HDAs around, I can vouch for the realtek ALC885. Gigabyte should be safe choice in mainboards.

This should give you a nice combo of CPU, mainboard, video and audio for under 200USD. Anything better than that would only be needed for gaming.

As far as hard drives are concerned, imho the samsung spinpoint series is the best. In any case the spinpoints are very fast and very quiet.

----------

## arnuld

 *zyko wrote:*   

> AMD has three very nice CPUs at the moment: Athlon64 X2 4850e, 4450e or 4050e (from fastest to slowest). Those are actually the most cost-efficient desktop CPUs right now (measured in performance per dollar). 
> 
> Don't buy any of the Phenoms, those are just too slow and eat too much power for their price. 
> 
> 

 

yes, I am going with Athlon X2 

 *zyko wrote:*   

> 
> 
> You should watch out for a mainboard with a 780G chipset. Those normally come with a radeon HD3200 integrated graphics chip and a HDA sound chip. The radeon HD3200 is said to perform very well with video decoding. I don't know how linux driver support is, but I guess there should be a binary blob.
> 
> 

 

I got the full list of Open Source Drivers for Radeon cards at DRI web-site:

http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/AMD?highlight=(CategoryHardwareVendor)

Though most people have recommended Nvidia but I see the Open Source drivers and Linux support is nearly Zero with them, totally contrary to ATI.

 *zyko wrote:*   

> 
> 
> HDA sound is generally quite good and is supported in the linux kernel. There are many different HDAs around, I can vouch for the realtek ALC885. Gigabyte should be safe choice in mainboards.
> 
> 

 

I will go with Gigabyte Motherboard.

----------

## shickapooka800

i think we are all missing the real question here:  will any of this work under HURD?  im guessing no... :)

its like asking:  is this hardware good?  I am going to use linux as my main OS, and amigaos as my 3nd OS.  

I would like to mention that I have a phenom 9550 and it works.... phenomenally....

it stays cool using ondemand frequency governor, is plenty fast for what I do (i wanted the multitasking not the raw power).  

it was also not too expensive when I got it.

----------

## arnuld

 *shickapooka800 wrote:*   

> i think we are all missing the real question here:  will any of this work under HURD?  im guessing no... 
> 
> 

 

My primary OS will be Arch (or Gentoo). Hurd does not work properly like a Desktop OS, not yet. But I will write new drivers of my hardware for Hurd  :Smile:  . I will develop Hurd, so if it does not work there , then I wil make it work myself.

 *shickapooka800 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> its like asking:  is this hardware good?  I am going to use linux as my main OS, and amigaos as my 3nd OS.  
> 
> 

 

Only Linux will run it and  nothing else. So the question is: The hardware is compatible with Linux or not ?

 *shickapooka800 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I would like to mention that I have a phenom 9550 and it works.... phenomenally....
> 
> it stays cool using ondemand frequency governor, is plenty fast for what I do (i wanted the multitasking not the raw power).  
> ...

 

Congratulations then, at least you did not run into problems of "Sir, we don't support Linux and we can't help you on that ", that's straight from Samsung Customer Care.  

"You installed Linux on your Laptop ? "

"Sir, you removed default installation Windows XP ?"

"Sir, I am sorry but we can no longer provide you any warranty on our hardware"

That was straight from HP  (on my friend's laptop).

----------

## A Hired Goon

Nvidia recently released VDPAU for certain cards, makes for a much lower processor requirement if you had HD video viewing in mind.

AHG

----------

## Simba7

 *arnuld wrote:*   

> "You installed Linux on your Laptop ? "
> 
> "Sir, you removed default installation Windows XP ?"
> 
> "Sir, I am sorry but we can no longer provide you any warranty on our hardware"
> ...

 

..and why would installing a different OS void the warranty? They're just as bad as Sony.

I just wouldn't tell them. It's your business if you want to use a different OS.

----------

## d2_racing

 *Simba7 wrote:*   

> I just wouldn't tell them. It's your business if you want to use a different OS.

 

The only thing that we can do for that is this.

Buy a external HDD and run this :

```

# time dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb conv=noerror

```

And if one day, you have to return your box, then run this :

```

# time dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda conv=noerror

```

----------

## Simba7

 *d2_racing wrote:*   

> Buy a external HDD and run this :
> 
> ```
> 
> # time dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb conv=noerror
> ...

 

..or just mount the external HDD and dump /dev/sda into a file (ex. dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/hddbackup conv=noerror)

----------

## d2_racing

In fact with this method, you can still use your external HDD and you have a backup image of your driver in case of a crash  :Razz: 

----------

## arnuld

 *Simba7 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ..or just mount the external HDD and dump /dev/sda into a file (ex. dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/hddbackup conv=noerror)

 

I don't get it, with these two commands, do you intend to do this:

1) it will first save current Windows installation onto sdb

```

# time dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb conv=noerror

```

2) Install Linux, remove the FAT/NTFS filesystem, create your favorite ext3 or whatever you like, enjoy Linux  :Smile: 

3) okay, you have some trouble with hardware, and you are within warranty period. Run the 2nd command, and it will create (destroy) the FAT/NTFS (ext3) file system automatically and will  make the HD installation same as first day. 

```

# time dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda conv=noerror

```

Am I right ?

----------

## arnuld

Sad news guys, because of financial problems, I can no longer build a new Linux box. I will just use my old AMD64. I will just put 2-3 things on it.  Except of my programming work, I am only interested in playing HD videos on my Linux box, no gaming, no 3D work. Just HD movies. My current on-board VGA card does not play HD videos properly. I get frequent jerks and slow system when I play an HD video, like matroska format. DVDrips play fine otherwise. So I am putting 3 things onto this current configuration I have:

AMD Athlon 68 2800+ (1.8 GHz)

    ASUS K8V-MX Motherboard

    1 GB DDR2-600 MHz RAM

    Logitech Mouse/Keyoard

    17 inces Samsung CRT Monitor

    SONY DVD-ROM + LG CD-ROM

    Samsung 80 GB SATA + Seagate 80 GB IDE drives

    SONY Floppy Drive

    Netgear ADSL Modem

    APC UPS

Three new things are:  an ATI Radeon 2400/2600 pro graphics card, I got from here. A Samsung/ASUS/LiteON DVD-RW drive and one audio card . Which audio card you people prefer. I don't have much idea about that.

----------

## d2_racing

 *arnuld wrote:*   

> 
> 
> 3) okay, you have some trouble with hardware, and you are within warranty period. Run the 2nd command, and it will create (destroy) the FAT/NTFS (ext3) file system automatically and will make the HD installation same as first day.
> 
> ```
> ...

 

Yes you are  :Razz: 

----------

## Simba7

My method above would've placed the entire HDD into a single file, then you could put the file on anything.

You could also use compression to make the file smaller, too. Wouldn't surprise me if you ended up with a 20gb file after bzip2 -9 compression. Even more if you used maximum 7zip.

----------

## arnuld

 *Simba7 wrote:*   

> My method above would've placed the entire HDD into a single file, then you could put the file on anything.
> 
> You could also use compression to make the file smaller, too. Wouldn't surprise me if you ended up with a 20gb file after bzip2 -9 compression. Even more if you used maximum 7zip.

 

I wonder how to do that exactly ?

```
#7zip (options) time dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb conv=noerror
```

 ???

----------

## Simba7

Naaa. More like (I think):

```
dd if=/dev/sda | bzip2 -9 > /mnt/hddbackup
```

..but that's using maximum BZip compression, which isn't bad.

----------

## arnuld

All the  GFX cards from ATI support only PCI Express x16 configuration, I wonder whether my MOBO has it or not. I have 3 PCI slots but my ASUS K8V-MX manual does not say that whether they conform to PCI express x16 or not. 2nd manuals does say I have 1 AGP 8X slot, supporting only 1.5V AGP cards, not 3.3 V AGP card.

----------

## Simba7

 *arnuld wrote:*   

> All the  GFX cards from ATI support only PCI Express x16 configuration, I wonder whether my MOBO has it or not. I have 3 PCI slots but my ASUS K8V-MX manual does not say that whether they conform to PCI express x16 or not. 2nd manuals does say I have 1 AGP 8X slot, supporting only 1.5V AGP cards, not 3.3 V AGP card.

 

I think this is the fastest card from ATI at the moment.

----------

