HW compatibility research: are intel i5 graphics and realtek net/audio hassle-free?

[Oleg Goldshmidt]

Hi,

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.]

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.

"Hassle-free" is the topic.

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 (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3572#sp)
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 (
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il/msg55395.html) but that
was in May 2009 as well.

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.,
http://www.linux-archive.org/debian-user/344759-intel-core-i5-integrated-graphics.html-
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?

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.

Thanks in advance,


-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | oleg at goldshmidt.org
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