I know open source community has openly condemned Nvidia (*cough* Linus) for their lack of open source drivers. Despite how much grumbling there may be in this regard, the fact remains that Nvidia is far superior in many regards. It really depends on what kind of user you are. If you're using a single monitor, gpu, don't care about 3d support, audio out or performance, it almost doesn't matter what you use, and discrete graphics lose a lot of their value. I'm inclined to agree that at that point, Intel is a better option. On the other hand, if you're more of a "power" user, avoid ATI unless you have a very specific reason to get one. Say what you will about this or that distro or driver, but it remains that when get an Nvidia card and use Nvidia drivers the hardware and software consistently preform as they should, regardless of OS. That same is not true for ATI.
Another note about intel graphics: The thing to be careful of is that certain Intel chipsets will only allow you to us the integrated gpu OR a discrete graphics card, not both. If that's something you wish to have down the road, get the correct chipset. As far as hardware listed: Get at around a 500w power supply. most systems use 200w-400w but most PS are only <80% efficient. So give your self some wiggle room. Also don't cheap out on a power supply or you're going to have a bad time. I'm a big fan of corsair power supplies but they aren't the only ones who make some decent ones. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027 Check out this link: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=677 I'd go with the i3. The x4 does a little better on multi-threaded applications, but the i3 dominates at single threaded. Its not really a fair comparison as the i3 is two gens newer than that x4. You may consider this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103962 Its a little more comparable to the i3 Intel graphics are quite good and tend to keep up well with discrete graphics in most applications. The exceptions, of course, are games and rendering. In other words, there haven't been enough widespread problems with it to warrant a warning (another jab at AMD). So that's another reason to go with the i3. I'd be in favor of buying a super cheap case and ditching the dell altogether. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119243 I've used the piece of junk in a bunch of builds and its worked out well every time. On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 8:20 AM, Andrew McNabb <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 09:57:41PM -0600, Topher Cullen wrote: > > > > Go for Asus, > > Intel, Nvidia, MSI, Corsair and Gigabyte. > > I don't want to start a flame war, but I absolutely have to disagree > with the recommendation for Nvidia. They don't have open drivers and > don't release any open specifications whatsoever, so I happily avoid > them like the plague that they are. :) > > -- > Andrew McNabb > http://www.mcnabbs.org/andrew/ > PGP Fingerprint: 8A17 B57C 6879 1863 DE55 8012 AB4D 6098 8826 6868 > -------------------- > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their > author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list >
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