[vox-tech] making a new pc

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Jimbo (evesautomotive at charter.net):

> I am compiling a list of items to make a nice computer.  I want to make 
> this pc so it can also run linux.  The biggest problem I have faced is 
> making hardware work in linux.

Yes, using cutting-edge I/O devices often poses challenges, mostly
because many hardware manufacturers don't cooperate very well with the
open source community, necessitating some degree of reverse engineering
in the long term, which takes time.  (Alternatively, in most cases, you 
can fall back on proprietary, binary-only drivers from the manufacturer,
if you're willing to take on the drawbacks of such things.)

> Raid, wireless broadband, dvd  and, most important, high end games is what 
> this system is being built for.  Buzzwords like dual core, sli and 8.1 want 
> to be implemented.  Amd and nvidia will be focused on.   I have a 3k budget 
> so I don't have to scrimp however there is no way that I am going to buy a 
> $1000 processor.  The one I want cost $600 which gives some indication of 
> the system that I want to build.

Some pages in my knowledgebase that might help:

"Help Resources", "Serial ATA", and "SAS" on
http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Hardware (and maybe some others).  The first of
those is (primarily) a "link farm" page hyperlinking to various
primary-resource pages on driver support for various types of hardware.

> I have suse linux ver. 10 that I have dabbled with.  User friendly for a 
> mechanic like me but have seen abundance praise about debian.  Don't want 
> to, nor do I have a need to compile kernals and spend hours tweaking an os 
> just to make it work.  Will debian do this for me?  Is it packaged like 
> suse?

I recommend that newcomers to Linux stay away from Debian until they are
relatively experienced, and that would be my advice to you.  (I speak as
a longtime sysadmin using Debian by preference.)  However, I might point
out a page where I list an abundance of installer images for installing
Debian onto systems, including those with problematic cutting-edge
hardware:  "Installers" on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Debian/  (Page is
getting old and needs revision.)

Judging by the general nature of your intentions, you're going to want a
very recently released distribution, in order to have a very recent
kernel and X.org (graphical video subsystem), thereby giving you the
broadest possible range of new-hardware drivers.  Which distro?  Good
question, and you'll hear even more answers than people giving them.
Here are a few places to start finding one of your own:
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/index.php?page=kicking#distro

Or just try a bunch of them consecutively, maybe starting with the ones
you can try free of charge.  Be aware that some proprietary software,
including some proprietary drivers, cannot be redistributed by the
general public, and therefore cannot be incorporated into distributions
that will be freely redistributable.  Some such software (though no
_drivers_ that I can think of at the moment) is even per-seat licensed,
and therefore is available only in shrinkwrapped (non-downloadable)
retail distributions or a la carte.

Much of the above might be already known to you.  No offence intended,
if so.

Anyhow, are you _sure_ you're looking to build a Linux box?  Again, no
offence, but you seem likely to be happier with MS-Windows for your
gaming and proprietary-software needs, frankly.