good linux hardware?

[WilliamWallace]

im building a pc that going to linux only..i need some ideas for good linux hardware, preferably easy to set up and install.

also preferably, it should be black in color.

i need info on sound cards, hard drives, graphic cards, and network cards.

additional info: i already have an ABIT KT-7 RAID MOBO with a AMD Thunderbird 700Mhz proc and an atx case (black)

[Shad]

Sound, SB LIVE! One of the best sounding Sound Cards, and Creative has been doing a great job on writing open source drivers.

Video, ATI Radeon. There is current 2D support with XFree86 4.0.2, and should soon have 3D support. You will want something that doesn't depend on closed source drivers that hold a decent potential of breaking when a new version of X gets Released. Of course the Radeon will have the sharpest picture available, Geforce cards are rather blurry. If you dont mind going with something slower, go with a Voodoo, Matrox G400, or a Rage128 video card. They should work right out of the box with any distro, and some of the later ones will automatically setup 3D for you.

Hard Drives, IBM makes some of the best, but any ATA100 drive will work fine. You might want to avoid Seagate though, as I have heard there have been troubles with Seagates in Raid Arrays.

Network Cards, Most any will work though one based on the Tulip Module, or have the Realtek 8139 chipset have worked well for me. I have a D-Link DFE530tx+ and and it has been auto detected by RH6.2 and 'Drake 7.0 and above.

Any Atapi Cdrom should work fine, and my favorite mouse has been a Logitech USB Wheel Mouse. Keyboards are too personal/generic to really recommend one. I like a standard 104/105 keyboard with a large backspace key. Quiet smooth key press are nice, but not a must have feature.

If you are looking to replace a monitor, get a Sony Trinitron. They look beautiful, and a monitor should outlast your computer by at least a factor of two. Plan accordingly.



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Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[WilliamWallace]

thanks, i was planning on getting an SB live. what do you think about the ATI all in wonder?

i wonder if i can find a trinotron in black,
as for keyboards im buying the happy hacking keyboard (black)

[X_Entity]

Kensington do a very bark blue almost black wheel mouse which works great under linux. IBM do black monitors. You could try them. I believe they use sony tubes as well so you still get a good picture.

p.s I take no responsibility for incorrect information. All is supplied with no Waranty and no come back.

[ph34r]

Be sure to check the hardware howto at www.linuxdoc.org (http://www.linuxdoc.org) - they have a complete list of supported hardware.

At the moment, I'd suggest either a Voodoo3-3500 or a GeForce card - the V3 does excellent 3d and is easy to setup, but the GeForce will be the linux 3d standard after a while - perhaps after X makes a few more releases.

For your monitor, plan on using it for 5-7 years at least - I still use the monitor I got with my 286 - it does 16bit color, but it maxes at 800x600.

[veloctTX]

I think Acer or Toshiba had a black keyboard at one time and it was a standard 102 keys. As for the monitors, I don't know of any black ones aside the IBM's. I think Alienware has some in black, as well as mice and keyboards. If you can afford it, go for a 21" .26mm or better, I love mine.

I guess computers can be fashion statements http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif. I also hear those RAID motherboards are overated since their form of RAID is nowhere near what it should be and most of the time it doesn't work.

[Shad]

I think the ATI All-in-wonder are a bit overated for Linux. Basically you can use about half of the potential of such a card in Linux (check out http://linvideo.org ), and I would probably never use it anyways, especially as the one feature I do like, TV OUT, does not work well if at all in Linux.


Black peripherals are going to be hard to find and more expensive than their beige counterparts. You might want to consider spray paint, though it is easy to screw up your new parts, so be carefull.

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Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[conman]

Check out the hardware listed for sale on linuxcentral http://www.linuxcentral.com
They only list hardware that is well supported.

[teeitup]

Check out Linux Journal and Maximum Linux.
Recently they both had nice articles on building the "ultimate linux box" and building a standout box for less than $500.00, minus the monitor.
There is plenty of good hardware out there.

Good Luck,