I haven't made a lot of headway on a case. The SilverStone LC03 and the Thermaltake Tenor are leading right now.
I've taken a break from case research to try to nail down CPU and motherboard. So far I've been skipping over it, but it's time to start taking notes, so again, I'll do it here instead of on 2000 scraps of paper.
So far I've been an Intel man. No particular reason, just have. I did have an AMD way back when and it had no problems. All the stuff I've seen lately seems to favour AMD, so unless I see something to sway me, I'll be looking at an AMD.
Looks like the "new" 64 bit CPUs are the way to go, but which one, Athlon or Opteron ?
From what I've seen so far, looks like the Opteron is for server systems while the Athlon is better for desktop. This machine is a bit of an each way bet, so the Athlon is sounding like the way to go.
I've seen reports of Atlon 2600+, 2800+ and 3000+ all being used successfully in HTPC boxes.
It seems any "fairly new" CPU will be up to the task, basically depends on how much you want to spend. I prefer to go too far than not far enough, so a 3200+ may be the chip for me. There is a 3500+ for just a few dollars more. Will look at that (this is my problem: "just a few dollars more").
Seems that ASUS have some anti Linux attitude. ( See here ) I want simplcity not hassles, so they are off the list until I disprove this attitude.
I had no luck looking for linux compatible boards, so I've reversed the procedure. I've picked what looks to be a good board, and search on that specifically for any linux compatibility issues etc. www.linuxcompatible.org is the best info I've found so far...
Sounds like the nVidia chipset is good (but may run a bit hot).
Via ones are reported to have compatibility issues with linux.
I'm dubious about Linux "gigalan" support (seen a few issues where it is not
"supported out of the box") - All my other gear is 10/100 so while it's nice
to have an upgrade path, 10/100 is more important right now.
I've used MSI boards successfully in the past, so they are one choice. Gigabyte also seem good, the K8NS-Ultra sounds good, although it has a fan on the northbridge chipset which may make things a bit noisier that you'd like.
Here is a useful link to identify AMD CPUs AMD CPU Identification
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