PCLinux playing nice with AMD high-end system?

[NoMicrosoft4ME?]

I want to buy a high-end system without an OS and use PCLinux with the full-monty desktop and openElec sp? for access to hulu and netflix etc.  The system I'm looking at is amd fx-8150, 16gb ram, 1TB HD, Nvidia Geforce 550Ti.  I'm looking for comments on whether it will work and if not, how to make it work.  If there is a better place to ask, please feel free to advise me, 'cause I'm new to this!!!  (btw... I am a windows programmer (novice) and have used linux in a limited way, so I'm not totally "clueless").  Thanks for any and all comments!

[T6]

hello and welcome to the forum!

the 8150 doesn't have a integrated video card in it

that is good, it is a big cpu

the video card sounds good, haven't heard anything bad about it here so latest nvidia driver from repo should handle it well

to make the system work with all 16 gbs of ram you will need to use pae kernel form synaptic, it is a easy process

do you have plans for all that ram and cpu?  i ask because it is hard to use 2 gbs of ram, i don't know what i could do with 16 other than load 3 or 4 virtual machines on that big cpu or do massive video encoding or edit big images in a image editor to get closer to really see the machine work

[NoMicrosoft4ME?]

Thanks for the response!.....I've got no real plans for the excess power right away, but I'm getting too "old" to do it again so I thought I should buy a system that will fill any of my needs well into my future.  My grandchildren live with me (for the time being) and are probably going to get into video gaming. If need be, I will be able to dual boot into windows for them to play games. Not my first choice, but it's something a "grandpa" is willing to do.  In the mean time, I do a lot of "photoshop" stuff (which I hope I will be able to do using linux programs) and some video editing. Thanks again for being willing to help the beginners!  Larry

[NoMicrosoft4ME?]

Sorry....I also forgot to ask what the pae kernel is, and is it included in the pclinux full-monty iso?

[Just17]

Sorry....I also forgot to ask what the pae kernel is, and is it included in the pclinux full-monty iso?

Not by default ........  but you can select it from the package manager and install it, then use it thereafter.
It allows all the memory to be accessible from the 32 bit operating system.

I use a 550Ti video card so no problems there.

The only addition I would suggest is a SATA III motherboard and SSD drive for the operating system and SATA III drive for the data.

The difference is phenomenal

[T6]

i learned to build machines depending on what i am going to do in not more than 3 years

i used to build them for others with more resources but almost every one of them ended being wasted by just browsing facebook

in linux you can use gimp, a equivalent to photoshop and if it is not enough you can run photoshop in wine or under virtualbox

the pae kernel is a kernel with physical address extension support, to handle ram over the 32 bit limit, that is around 3.5 gbs(the reason to sell windows laptops with 3 gbs when sold with windows 32 bit) and is very easy to install

about fullmonty, i never used that specific version of pclinux but i have read some posts that mention problems updating it so it is always recommended to install the latest version for it available, if you have a version form january, time to download a new one for your new install

[NoMicrosoft4ME?]

Thanks for the reply.... In 1998 I decided to learn windows programming and passed the 2000 microsoft MCP test.  I never did anything with it, just did it to see if I could.  Since then, I'm a lot older (pushing 60) and have lost most of what I learned.  I'm looking to build close to the last computer I'll need (out of necessity, before it's all gone).  It won't be wasted on facebook, trust me.  WineHQ sounds interesting, but do I need to dual-boot and have Photoshop installed in windows before it will work? All opinions have been greatly appreciated.

[Vorteggs]

Not by default ........  but you can select it from the package manager and install it, then use it thereafter.

NoMicrosoft4ME?,
here is a snapshot of opened package manager "Synaptic" in FullMonty:
http://i48.tinypic.com/b492ix.png


You see there I have two kernels installed - .bfs and .pae.bfs.
The first came by default and I just installed the second for to be able to use all the 4 GB of memory.
The previous kernel immediately appears on the booting list so I can always switch to it if I am in troubles with the new kernel.

[agmg]

Thanks for the reply.... In 1998 I decided to learn windows programming and passed the 2000 microsoft MCP test.  I never did anything with it, just did it to see if I could.  Since then, I'm a lot older (pushing 60) and have lost most of what I learned.  I'm looking to build close to the last computer I'll need (out of necessity, before it's all gone).  It won't be wasted on facebook, trust me.  WineHQ sounds interesting, but do I need to dual-boot and have Photoshop installed in windows before it will work? All opinions have been greatly appreciated.

Regarding your question about Photoshop... I haven't had any real luck with it under WINE, especially on more recent versions. I have a dual-boot with Windows just to run Photoshop and CorelDRAW.
But I have found GIMP to be a tough competitor that can cover about 90% of a Photoshop user's needs. The rest 10% involves professional use (document proofing and printing, CMYK support etc) which I don't think an everyday user will miss. Have you tried it? It takes a little time to get used to it but you will find it is very powerful.

[T6]

"WineHQ sounds interesting, but do I need to dual-boot and have Photoshop installed in windows before it will work?"

wine can do alot but it is not a windows replacement for everything

if you must have photoshop, then a virtual machine is your best solution to avoid the dual boot, virtualbox is very popular

i personally dualboot all my machines, i use rarely windows so it is kind of wasted space on hard disk but it is there for those few occasions when is required

you can use gimp for a couple minutes, you will discover if it can replace photoshop or not in your machine

if it does, then you will like it alot because gimp works on linux, windows and mac

if i understand well, you say you want to assemble the last pc you will need, but you say you are young, 60 years old?

in this forum there is many users at their 80's so i think that this will not be your last pc 

[alphaace]

Hi,

Just so that you're aware, netflix doesn't play nice with linux. Netflix uses microsoft silverlight with proprietary drm which doesn't work on linux. People have tried through wine but so far no success there either. I've tried myself but no luck. The only thing you can do is make a virtual machine to run windows and watch netflix through there :-(.

[sling-shot]

Considering the specs of the machine in question, Windows inside a virtual machine should be no sweat.

[T6]

windows 7 containing windows vista containing windows xp containing windows 98 containing windows 3.11 should be no sweat 

[The Chief]

windows 7 containing windows vista containing windows xp containing windows 98 containing windows 3.11 should be no sweat 

Maybe "no sweat," but excruciating anyway!

[GreggB]

I have an AMD Phenom II 965 with an ATI HD6570 video card.

The minor issues I have had have been with the mobo, or more precisely, the support chips on the mobo. Under the old 2.6 kernel the sensors all worked, but the network chip would not wake up after sleep (suspend) mode. The 3.2 kernel has fixed the network chip issue, but now I can't see most of the sensor info. (I can still see the CPU temp). From what I have read, the sensor issue is fixed in the 3.3 kernel.

I'm also having a couple of video issues - one I think I've solved by turning off "Tear Free Desktop". The other only affects DailyMotion in full screen mode - it's probably either flash or something weird they've done with the site.

The other thing to be aware of is that even though you have lots of processors - don't expect to see them used. Some things (like MP3 encoding) simply can't be multi-threaded; and not all code has been re-written for multi-threading. e.g. Some video encoders do, some don't.

Gregg.