Of course, the 7950 that I bought to run Linux burned out. I gave up, put the old card in, and gave it to my daughter.
I built a few new boxes: one to run Vista (and play games) and one to run Ubuntu 7.10. Just finished the Linux box, the core of which is:
- GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L motherboard
- Q6600 quad-core
- SEASONIC|SS-550HT 550W
- LIAN-LI|PC-A05B
- Gigabyte GeForce 7300 GT (fanless)
- G. Skill F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ memory (2 sticks, 1 gb apiece)
plus assorted sata drives, etc. So far, this combination works very well, and the video card is just powerful enough to drive my Dell 2407WFP (using the restricted nVidia driver) in its full 1920×1200 glory. For reasons unknown to me, Ubuntu reports it as running at 50 Hz vertical refresh, but the monitor itself reports 60 Hz (the norm), so I think all is well. Sound works fine (although the Alsa mixer’s levels start out at zero for some reason).
Glitches:
- The Ubuntu install disk won’t respond to usb keyboards. That’s widely reported, so I expected it, and the GA-P35-DS3L can use a PS/2 keyboard.
- My Epson Perfection V100 scanner doesn’t as yet work with Sane. I’ve tried recompiling from source (after installing a number of packages), but there is a problem with the symbol definitions. I’d use the RPM’s (converting them to debian packages with alien) except they can’t handle the x86_64 architecture. I suspect the compilation problems are related but will persevere.
Not really a glitch, but the case is a bit oddly configured and has questionable cooling. If I were running this as a gaming box I’d be worried, but I think it will be OK for a desktop linux box.
I’ll be adding another 2 gb now that I’m certain the G. Skill works (I had some lying around from another project). Overall I’m happy to make this my main desktop. I’ll stick the Vista box in the game room where it belongs.