[OT] Buying a new computer

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi Ori,

On Monday 11 October 2010 14:29:39 Ori Idan wrote:
> I would like to buy a new desktop computer.
> Can someone recommend on what display board and sound board?
> I don't need heavy graphics, it has to work fine with compiz and be able to
> play video clips. I do not use it for actually watching movies.

Well, my old card here ("Card:ATI Radeon HD 2000 and later (radeon/fglrx): ATI 
Technologies Inc|RV630 PRO AGP [Radeon HD 2600 PRO AGP] [DISPLAY_VGA]") runs 
Compiz and plays videos perfectly fine on my Mandriva Linux Cooker system with 
100% open-source drivers and an untainted kernel. Recently, there has been a 
problem with the X server crashing on the window-manager's startup with KMS 
(Kernel Mode Setting), but it runs fine without KMS. See:

https://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=61233

But as a general rule, I've been happy with it. I also have an ATI Mobility 
Radeon HD card on my laptop, and it works nicely with the FOSS radeon drivers. 
Here are the complete specs of my machines:

http://www.shlomifish.org/meta/FAQ/#computers-specs

I've had much less luck running the ATI proprietary fglrx drivers, as they 
caused various issues in using KDE (which are absent with the radeon drivers).

In the past I've had many issues with an Nvidia GeForce 4 MX card with all the 
drivers I tried - the now discontinued "nv", which is technically open-source 
but is written in hex and does not support 3-D; the completely proprietary 
"nvidia"; and the community-developed free "nouveau" driver. Some people I 
talked with on IRC said that they had better luck running Nvidia cards with 
the proprietary driver than with ATI cards, and other claims the opposite, so 
it's hard to tell. However, given nvidia's hostility towards the freedom of 
software and complete lack of cooperation with the community of developers, I 
don't think any open-source advocate should support them with my wallet.

I did not have any experience with the Intel graphics cards and their drivers 
(which are always built-in-on-the-board). Their Linux drivers have been open-
source from the start, and Intel also released specifications, but someone 
told me that their cards are of low quality and reliability. But I don't have 
any first-hand experience with it so I cannot confirm.

To sum up, I think an ATI card is the way to go. I don't know how well the 
newest Radeon HD 5000 (r800 / "EverGreen") are supported yet by the FOSS 
radeon driver, but r700 and below are supported well.

---------------

Sound: regarding sound, I think the garden variety Intel AC'97 sound card 
should do fine if all you need is stereophonic sound and not surround sound. 
If you do, then maybe see which cards are well supported by ALSA. I recall 
something about Creative developing open-source drivers for their SoundBlaster 
Live! cards which support Surround sound.

> 
> Does anyone know of any good computer store in Herzelia or the
> neighbourhood that preferably knows the answers to my questions or at
> least will not ask "what is Linux or why use Linux..."

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

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Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
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