SSF and Linux

[fow99]

I am thinkining of building a SSF box. Probably I will go
for the nForce2 + AMD rout. Something like IDEQ 200N
or the equivalant.
I am a bit worried about the Linux support for such a
setup. Googleing for a while and failed to find any
success story. If anybody here had any expericen and
is willing to share it, that would be very helpful.

I am thinking of the following components:

IDEQ 200N
Athlon-M 2500+
512M RAM
120G HD (is SATA a problem?)
onboard sound
onboard net
onboard graphics

 

[n0cmonkey]

nVidia's FOSS support is weak at best.

 

[fow99]

It is better than ATI anyway. I own a ATI AIW 8500DV and
their drivers is crap. That is the main reason I want to get
a new box.

 

[Sunner]

I'd definitely go with a VIA chipset rather than nVidia, the nForce drivers aren't exactly a whole lot of fun.

 

[fow99]

sunner: I don't know much about the KM400 chipset
(well, I don't know much about the nVidia IGP either)
But I'd imagine that the Geforece 4 MX graphics are
better than the VIA UniChrome 2D/3D (is that even
supported by Linux?)

 

[Sunner]

Can't say I've used the GFX part of either for any gaming or other performance demanding issues.
What I was referring to is mostly the fact that since there are no open source drivers, due to nVidia's refusal to work with the OSS community, or even release public documentation, you're gonna have to go through alot of trouble getting them to work on anything but nVidia's supported list.
I tried to install Debian on an nForce2 based box, I gave up after a while, not even having a working NIC didn't exactly make it easier.

 

[fow99]

hmmmm. I don't play a lot of game as I used to be. But still,
decent support for hardware acceralation would be nice.

 

[Sunner]

You won't be playing any halfway recent game on the integrated gfx on an nForce2 anyway.

 

[fow99]

I am not going to play the latest and greatest 3D games.
I used to have 3D acceralation for my 8500 when
2.4.x and Xfree 4.3 was there. And that was good enough
for me.

 

[Sunner]

Well, your 8500 will utterly destroy an nForce2 in 3D performance.

 

[fow99]

How big a gap are we exactly talking about here?

 

[Sunner]

You can always search Google for reviews, but I remembered XBit labs had one, here.

Then, looking at <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1655&amp;p=5">this</a> review, the R8500 looks between 50-100+ percent faster than the MX440, which easily beat the nForce2 IGP.

 

[drag]

The onboard video with the nforce2 would be equivilent to a Geforce4 420MX. Which is about the same as the fastest Geforce2 video cards (the G4 mx line is realy G2 with newer manufacturing technology to make them run cool and cheap.)

It's a shared memory setup, too. Your system RAM is VERY slow compared to RAM on a video card.

I don't know much about ATI stuff, though. Never owned one. Would if they openned up the drivers... but, no dice.

 

[fow99]

What's the equivalent of the KM400 graphics then?
Maybe I should forget about the integrated graphics.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: fow99
What's the equivalent of the KM400 graphics then?
Maybe I should forget about the integrated graphics.

If you want to play games, definitely forget about integrated GFX.
I'd guess a KM400 would be even slower than the nForce2 IGP, but just cause one sucks less, doesn't mean they don't both suck.

Integrated graphics are for people who, for all intents and purposes, are not gamers.

 

[fow99]

Ok. Let's say I am gonna ignore the graphics thing.
What else (besides the driver) is Km400 better than
the nVidia one?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Just get the damn nVidia.

 

[fow99]

Now I am totally confused.
Did you not say that the nVidia is not well supported by Linux?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: fow99
Now I am totally confused.
Did you not say that the nVidia is not well supported by Linux?

Yes, but you obviously want the nVidia.

 

[fow99]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes, but you obviously want the nVidia.

Smart. It was my first intention because those 'KM'
notation scares me a little bit at the start. 'KT' is
much more comfortable.

But at the end of the day, I just need a board that
has working audio, video, network, IDE, agp, etc.

I just found this
http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=96&amp;threadid=44053&amp;FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

And a couple of guys is happy with that. So yeah,
I think I might just take the risk and go with the
nVidia one in the end.

Thx

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: fow99

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes, but you obviously want the nVidia.

Smart. It was my first intention because those 'KM'
notation scares me a little bit at the start. 'KT' is
much more comfortable.

But at the end of the day, I just need a board that
has working audio, video, network, IDE, agp, etc.

I just found this
http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=96&amp;threadid=44053&amp;FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

And a couple of guys is happy with that. So yeah,
I think I might just take the risk and go with the
nVidia one in the end.

Thx

Just be sure to go and download nvidia's propriatory drivers and burn them to a CD, along with the directions because your not going to be able to connect to the internet with out them, unless you are very lucky.