[linux-audio-user] AMD64 question

[John Anderson]

On Tue, 2006-06-27 at 08:30 -0400, Dave Phillips wrote:
> Greetings:
> 
>   Not long ago I mentioned that a student had traded an MSI mobo (socket 
> 939) for some lessons. I'm ready to start building a system around that 
> board, and I have some questions for this list:
> 
>   2) Recommended case/power supply ?

I"ve been eyeing an Antec case, with power supply. Never used it but I
heard good reports. www.antec.com

>   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).

I vaguely remember there being issues with the onboard ethernet for
these chipsets - as in you have to install a driver that doesn't come as
part of the standard kernel source. But I could be completely wrong.

>   5) The CPU includes a fan, but should I get something more powerful ?

Something quieter, probably. Zalman make some interesting fans for CPUs.
www.zalman.co.kr

>   6) How can I best reduce the noise from this system ?

Fans and hard drives are the noisiest components. So if you have quiet
PSU and CPU fans (and GPU if it's a powerful nvidia), the next step is
to get a hard drive enclosure. Or maybe go for a 2.5 inch laptop drive,
bearing in mind that the throughput is lower. Although I read recently
that laptop drives aren't as slow as they used to be and can be used
acceptably in a desktop system.

bye
John