Re: Linux on all new iron

Rex Karz <rexkarz00@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
Asus motherboard P5N32-E SLI Extreme
-- Any troubles with Linux on this mobo?
-- Other 680i mobos better?

Since you want to buy only one video card, why buy an SLI board? (Are
there even SLI drivers for Linux?). If you want to go with Nvidia, a
650 board should be good enough for the rest of what you want.

Intel CPU Core 2 Quad E6600
-- Comments?
-- Is there a Quad 6850? Is it worth it?

Not at the moment, but it should not be long. It will probably be a
QX6850, though, where the X means "eXtremely eXpensive); currently
there is a QX6800. There is a Q6700, though, which seems a saner
choice. However, if you don't do a significant amount of
multiprocessing, the E6850 (i.e., Dual) will be faster and cheaper
(and probably cooler, too).

CPU cooler
-- Who's quiet CPU cooler is recommended?

On my current box I use fancontrol to control the fan speed (I had to
disable QuietFan in the BIOS with recent kernels to make that work),
and with the usual idle CPU load my CPU stays so cool that the stock
fan (which is not reputed to be quiet) runs very slowly and quietly.
Fancontrol did take some setup work, though.

-- Are there cooling issues I've overlooked?

You need to make sure that there's enough cool air and airflow inside
the box, especially at the CPU capacitors, the graphics card, and the
hard disk(s). Some of the specialty coolers don't get as much airflow
to the CPU capacitors as the stock coolers.

4GB PC-6400 (2-pieces)
-- Memory hole on 32bit Linux. Comments?

Use a 64-bit kernel even if you use a 32-bit userland.

-- Does 64bit Linux solve the memory hole problem? How?

Yes, by remapping memory into higher areas. This requires motherboard
support, but AFAIK most modern motherboards have it.

Here are some outputs of free from a box with 4GB and a box with 8GB:

total
Mem: 4045744
Mem: 8183204

-- Is 64bit Linux (Ubuntu) stable enough for "production" desktop use?

In general, yes, don't know about Ubuntu or VMWare, though. I have
been running it on my desktop for more than three years, and we have
used it on our servers for more than two years.

Asus Video card: GeForce 8600GT Silent 256MB PCI-E (EN8600GT2DHT256)

Note that only 2D acceleration is available on Nvidia cards with free
drivers. If you only want to do 2D, something cheaper and less
power-hungry will be good enough.

-- Asus says it supports up to 3840x1900. Can I use 2 1920x1200
monitors with this to get the effect of a single screen 3840x1200?

Yes.

Do I want to? Alternative configurations?

You might find that having both in monitors side-by-side in landscape
mode is cumbersome to use, because the whole area is just too wide.

Alternatives would be to put them in portrait mode side-by-side for
2400x1920 (this requires pivoting monitors) or to arrange them
vertically in landscape mode for 1920x2400 (this requires hanging both
at the wall, or a special stand).

Seagate ST3500630NS 500GB SATA2 7200.10 hard drive
-- Some say that a 10,000 rpm boot drive is good, in addition to a
separate drive for /home. Others say it does not make any(enough)
difference to warrant the cost. What's the truth?

Unless you have a significant amount of seek-intensive workloads, I
would go with 7200rpm drives, especially if you care for noise. You
might consider using two drives in software RAID1 configuration for
additional safety against disk death (backups are still needed).

If you want to have fast booting, you can save quite a few seconds (up
to ten) by selecting a motherboard that wastes less time in POST/BIOS
(the tests in c't contain data on this), by disabling all hardware you
don't use in the BIOS, and by disabling/uninstalling all services you
don't use (take a look at the /etc/init.d directory). You can also
increase the fsck intervals (for ext3 filesystems with tune2fs).

- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
anton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
.

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