<div dir="ltr">Hi,<br><br>An old desktop computer of mine is croaking - it still
breathes, but with difficulty. A quick check concluded that there are
problems with the MoBo, and some with the graphics card, too.
Basically, it looks like I need a new MoBo, and since there seems to be
a shortage of boards with sockets for Athlon 3800+ or support for DDR1
- also a new CPU and memory. [Even if such boards can be found I am not
going to waste time or money on the effort.]<br>
<br>The machine is for dual workstation / home server (ssh, web, NFS,
version control, bugzilla, stuff like that) use, maybe at times to run
a program or two (say numerical but not HPC), web/office/coding, Skype
and the likes, occasional video. Nothing particularly high performance,
no games, etc. Target distro - Fedora (well, I do intend to use the old
disk, which is actually new). I don't want already half-obsolete
components, I want it to be reasonably reliable for a few years, I
don't want any sluggishness in my normal tasks, and I want it
hassle-free. <br>
<br>"Hassle-free" is the topic.<br><br>I got a quote that seems to be
reasonable for a GIGABYTE H55M-D2H s1156 MoBo and Intel Core i5 650
3.2GHz with a GPU Core. Looking at the detailed specs on the 'net (<a href="http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3572#sp" target="_blank">http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3572#sp</a>)
I see that the MoBo has on-board Realtek network and audio. I searched
more, and found a fair amount of complaints about both Realtek
(especially audio) and Intel's graphics. I won't bother you with URLs,
but what I found was from 2009 and the first half of 2010. Oron posted
very useful explanations on this list, too (<a href="http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il/msg55395.html" target="_blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il/msg55395.html</a>) but that was in May 2009 as well.<br>
<br>Any comments? Experiences? Can anyone confirm that the onboard
component (graphics, network, audio) will work fine? Is there any need
for non-mainstream drivers (kernel, xorg, whatever)? I am not religious
about FOSS but I do want "yum update" to pick the drivers for the new
kernels up. Is the built-in i5 graphics enough for the described usage
or do I need a decent external card? I saw reports (from about 9 months
ago, e.g., <a href="http://www.linux-archive.org/debian-user/344759-intel-core-i5-integrated-graphics.html" target="_blank">http://www.linux-archive.org/debian-user/344759-intel-core-i5-integrated-graphics.html</a>
- some doubts about Realtek there as well) that the i5 graphics didn't
work with a VGA cable but only with a DVI cable - is it true? <br>
<br>HW gurus: I realize there are other options from MoBo/CPU as well,
many/most of which are costlier. Any suggestions (besides "this stuff
won't work") why I should opt for something else, given the described
purpose? The proposed configuration was clearly with the price in mind.<br>
<br>Thanks in advance,<br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Oleg Goldshmidt | <a href="mailto:oleg@goldshmidt.org" target="_blank">oleg@goldshmidt.org</a><br>
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