Guest markx Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 I'm looking at putting a computer together for my sister. Having heard me extol the many vitues of linux she is keen to make the switch. Her partner is highly sceptical, however, and so I'm keen that the transition should go well. Despite the many problems of windows I fear that any glitch will be seen as evidence that linux is not a practical solution. I recently built my own computer using an ASUS A7V8X-MX motherboard (onboard soound and video), 512M DDR333 Ram, AMD XP 2600, LG DVD combo drive, Creative Inspire 2.1 2500 speakers [amazing sound for the price], an Aopen ext modem, and an Epson CX3100 multifunction. I'm using my old 15" CRT 'til it dies, but I'm thinking a Benq 547 or 567 for my sister's setup. My computer as above seems to work superby with MDK 10, many thanks to BVC and VeeDubb (modem connection) and Energymedia (playing DVDs). So I'm thinking that I'll go with the same sort of setup for my sister's machine. However, I would love any feedback on the above setup. Is what I am proposing sane and reasonable? Could I do better for the money? Cheers, Russell PS. Having rid myself of all M$ software I got myself an M$ wireless keyboard and mouse for some reason and it stopped working after a few weeks. Serves me right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 My only comment is that I don't build anything with on-board stuff. I used to do it at customer request, but the performance is not good compared to normal components. On board sound or nic seems to be ok, but definitely not video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarissi Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 I would prefer to have NO onboard sound as well (includes midi port and all that). On my current mobo, I can disable AC 97 and the Game port, but, NOT the stupid Midi port. That interferes with the Soundblaster card I had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest markx Posted June 1, 2004 Report Share Posted June 1, 2004 Many thanks. But re your reservations about onboard stuff, is that because of performance or other reasons? I (and my sister) mostly do fairly mundane stuff like wordprocessing, spreadsheets and the like. The onboard video seems fine for such tasks. And the onboard sound seems excellent. All audio programs crashed under xandros, but in MDK 10 everything has been detected properly and works perfectly (even my Epson CX3100 printer and scanner with its obscure oceania ID). The most intensive stuff I have done so far is MP3 conversion, though I'm still thinking about converting all my vinyl over to digital media (not sure what software to use for "cleaning" yet). I'm finding MDK 10 to be a superb OS, and for the first time after trying a number of distros all my hardware seems to work. If I could find a more user friendly file manager to use under KDE I believe I would start to purr . . . Again, thanks to everyone at madrake.org. Though of few posts I have learnt much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 If nothings wrong with the hardware your running then don't worry about it. But I like to build my own machines and I like having the chance to pick and then maybe change out my video and sound cards. Sometimes one just works better with a motherboard and setup than any another. I also like the idea that if one goes out I can switch it out with out worrying about it conflicting with whats left over on the motherboard. Its getting harder and harder to find MB's without sound, modem, ethernet, video and 6+ USB ports. I also still like to use the old PS2 ports for my mouse and keyboard. I can't see needing a high speed USB2 connection for them yet. I can't type at onehundred MB's per second yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 My biggest problem with vidoe is that on-board shares the vram with you normal ram. This creates a bottleneck. Seperate ram is best for video, and yes I have seen performance differences just cruising the internet with shared ram. A full nic can be built onto a motherboard without shortcuts. An audio will take shortcuts, as well as a video section, in order to cram it onto the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 (edited) Many thanks. But re your reservations about onboard stuff, is that because of performance or other reasons? I (and my sister) mostly do fairly mundane stuff like wordprocessing, spreadsheets and the like. The onboard video seems fine for such tasks. And the onboard sound seems excellent. All audio programs crashed under xandros, but in MDK 10 everything has been detected properly and works perfectly (even my Epson CX3100 printer and scanner with its obscure oceania ID). The most intensive stuff I have done so far is MP3 conversion, though I'm still thinking about converting all my vinyl over to digital media (not sure what software to use for "cleaning" yet). I'm finding MDK 10 to be a superb OS, and for the first time after trying a number of distros all my hardware seems to work. If I could find a more user friendly file manager to use under KDE I believe I would start to purr . . . Again, thanks to everyone at madrake.org. Though of few posts I have learnt much. onboard sucks for afew reasons like 1) its usually bottomend but thats OK if your doing mundane stuff 2) Sometiomes a specific kernel will have a prob with a specific card config and if its built in your kinds stuffed. Sometimes if they are sperate you switch two over and they both work! This is bad if you upgrade to say MDK 11 later and find it wont work. Several people had probs from 9.2 to 10 (a lot didnt) but if you want no hitches its a damned site cheaper to pull out a card than recompile your own kernel etc. 3) shared RAM like Ixthusdan says REALLY sucks but mostly even when you disable them in bios they can still be reenabled ... when you run lspci it will still find and identify them so hardware detection tends to find them to then you have conflicts if you replaced one with a different card! oh and mutlifunction scanner/printer things are a pain .... if a part of it goes wrong (like the printer part ) you end up with a crappy fax/scanner etc. they usually trake expensive carts etc and the quality is usually less than seperate devices. I got a laser printer at XMAS for about $70 and about the same for my photo printer. Decent scanners are only $70 ish too. Edited June 2, 2004 by Gowator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plati Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 Yeah shared RAM between onboard components like a video chipset can really suck! Go for a proper video card, it just avoids the bottleneck that can sometimes be created. Onboard sound seems to be alright, unless you call yourself an audiophile, I doubt youd notice the difference in sound quality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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