james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
3) The MSI box says it includes an nVidia nForce3 chipset, which I
assume means that there's an audio/video chipset on the mobo. I'll
probably disable the audio, and I have a gForce AGP video card to put in
the machine. Question: Am I better off using the integrated video or
should I use my card instead ? (Btw, I use the kernel nv driver, not
nVidia's binary driver).
Use the better of the two. I'm guessing this will be the card, but
check the specs. Xorg will be able to use it to reduce the processor
load for X stuff.
But why use the nv rather than nvidia module? If you don't like a
tainted kernel, then that's fine. If that's not the problem... why not?
I'm glad you asked. As a matter of personal (moral/ethical/philosophic)
preference, I'd rather use the open-source solution than the locked-up
binary *unless* I have a compelling reason to do otherwise. In past I've
used nVidia's driver for exactly two purposes: Quake and Pd. :) Well, I
can't play Quake worth a damn anyway, and my experiments with GEM and Pd
were just experiments. I'm not currently working with Pd or anything
else that wants accelerated 3D, so I'm working with the kernel driver.
It's also a shame that 3D support under Linux should be so woeful. IIUC
it's worse than the audio hardware situation.
7) Am I correct to assume that this system runs in a 32-bit more as
well as the 64-bit ? How do I determine which mode I'll run in ?
It just does it. Don't worry about it :) The only thing I even
noticed any oddness with was the codecs for mplayer et al. Even then,
it was just WMV (eugh!) that wouldn't work, so I also installed an x86
binary of mplayer, which worked fine.
That's all cool. I like easy. :)
Best,
dp
