video and soundcard question

[mrwill]

NOOB here...I am currently in the process of upgrading my system. Actually, I am building from scratch. Here is what I have so far:

ASUS **A7V8X-X** 8X AGP-DDR400-LAN-AUDIO
Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM, 8MB Cache

Just a note: I have the case and fans already.

I am expecting to get either and AMD 2600+ or 2700+ and (Hopefully) about 1G PC3200 DDR400 Ram.

My question is this...I will be running Win2K and RH9 (Possibly other distros in the future...) and I don't really want to use onboard Sound and Video. What would be the best cards to get for Video and Sound?

I have heard both good and bad about GeForce and Radeon. I am not familiar with either. I do wish to have a card that will allow TV OUT (does that allow me to connect to my cable in and view TV on my monitor so I can record TV shows? - don't know much at this point about that...)
Also, I have heard the same good and bad about SoundBlaster.

I just want to know the best choices for my particular setup and what to expect. I believe that there are good and bad replies to all choices because we are all different and we have different opinions about what is good to us. I will listen to all replies because that is how I learn and then I make choices based on replies and try by experience.

In closing, I want to thank all here for the GREAT JOB at this forum. We NOOBs learn quite a bit from everyone and this forum helps in so many ways.


Thanks in advance for all who reply and help.

[JamminJoeyB]

Since you are looking for a user opinion, here goes.

I think everyone will agree that the driver support from nVidia is top notch. Excelent installer and documentation for proper set up with X. Go with an nvidia.

Seems that audio has different opinions, but I would say go with a creative labs card. These seem to be the easiest to set up. I haven't heard anyone say they couldn't get their SB (what ever version ie audigy, live 5.1 etc) to work properly with a little help.

I posted a question here awhile back about sound cards and go some good feed back from other linux users. I'm still pinching my pennies so I can get that audigy2 platinum. Figured I may as well go big or stay home.

As for your TV requirement, that is a good question. Some one else may have a similar set up to help you out.

[kevinatkins]

hello mrwill,

i have limited experience of the various options but i can say that my nVidia geeforce 2 card was a breeze to set up under linux - nVidia support really is excellent. the card does have a composite video out terminal for connection to a tv, but i've never tried it under linux; i believe it will work, however.

video out will not allow you to connect in to your card and view tv on your monitor; for that, you will require either a tv card or a video capture card and suitable external video tuner source; the purpose of the video out connector is simply to allow the use of a tv set as a 'monitor' - useful if you want to play dvd's on a big screen, for example.

as for sound, again no experience of various vendors' stuff - i use a videologic (now pure digital) sonic fury and it works fine. there are two 'sound systems' in use in linux, as far as i know - open sound system (oss) and 'advanced linux sound architecture' (alsa) - it might be worth doing a web search to see what the comparative compatibility of cards you're considering under both systems (bearing in mind that alsa is the way forward...)

hope this helps.

[mrwill]

Thanks to both of you for your opinions and help. I will definitely consider the choices and responses. I hear a great deal about people praising GeForce so I will likely go with it. As far as sound, I will probably stick with SoundBlaster since I haven't read any real bad stories about it and people seem to be ok with its installation in Windows and Linux. Have a good day to all.