New Linux Gaming Rig

[Svartalf]

Well X38 would be good for 2 GFX cards, but without SLI support only Crossfire (and no Linux support for that), what will you gain with it then?

Nothing much at this point in time. IF AMD gets on the stick and gets some stable and Crossfire capable drivers in the fglrx chain (or, conversely, they actually and honestly get all the 3D specs out to the Open Source community and we beat them to it... >:-) ) then there might be something. But that'd be a big IF that you're spending money on. If you can't find a non-Crossfire answer, sure, buy the thing, but don't spend on it at this point in time with the anticipation that you'll be using it anytime soon- with the problems AMD still seems to have with getting stuff out the door right at the moment, it may be a long while before they get that one down. It might even be a year or so before Crossfire gets stable on the driver sets- IF they even try to give it to us.

[d2kx]

If you can wait, I would wait for the nVidia G92 and AMD RV670 and see how they perform. It seems that the RV670 is on par with the R600 performance wise, but it's shrinked to 55nm and so it needs much less power and is cooled better (singleslot from what I've heard). Furthermore, it will cost only around ~ 200€.

[1c3d0g]

Good point, d2kx. The GeForce 8800GT (or whetever it's called) might be a better buy for a fraction of the price.

[Malikith]

Good point, d2kx. The GeForce 8800GT (or whetever it's called) might be a better buy for a fraction of the price.

Yeah I agree, there will be two models of the 8800GT, a 256mb version, and a 512mb version, the 256mb one will be around 200$ USD, the 512mb will be around 250$ USD. Good prices, I might pick one up myself. All depends on what I think of Unreal Tournament 3 I guess, I wasn't too hot on Quake Wars but thats just me.

[1c3d0g]

Malikith: I'm in the same boat as you are. It all depends on UT3 ('cause Quake Wars was a disappointment to me) and how well it's going to play on my current rig (Core 2 Duo E6420, 4GB RAM, 8600GT). If the 8800GT is a much better performer I'll have to consider upgrading my graphics card.

[supergamer]

Now I am going to throw a wrinkly in here. To hold down proce I would suggest looking at the amd processors like the 6000 (dual-core 3ghz) and for linux compatibility I would get the asus m2v k8t890 and either corsair or ocz ram and an asus 8600gts 256 card...the total for that in U.S prices from xpcgear with ocz ram is $519.45 minus shipping

[Kano]

Do you really think a 3 GHz AMD cpu on via chipset wins something against Intel? I highly doubt that.

[supergamer]

I didn't think he was going after outright speed but performance vs price and linux compatibility...speed on a via chipset is comparable in linux to nvidia and alot faster than the intel chipsets...now I am not going to get into a intel vs amd war as everyone has an opinion on that but performance vs price was the suggestion and just offering another option as both at this point will do everything most of us need to do farly easily..using amd optimizied kernels also helps in system response.

[steelwire]

I use a Gigabyte one with G33 and ICH9R without problems, the basic P35 ones from Gigabyte should work well too. ECS usally has no good BIOS to OC.

[orthetic]

Looking at recent reviews of the new 8800GTS 512mb, it is looking like a lot of bang for the buck. The card is currently around $350 at the most popular online places.

HardOCP did a really nice review of the card, with real world benchmarking.