[Ardour-Users] Motherboard hints and tips?

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Thu, 2008-01-31 at 18:01 +0000, Mark Greenwood wrote:
[MUNCH]
> Two final questions: It seems impossible to get a decent mobo which 
> doesn't have a pci express 16x slot on it. So I may as well stick a 
> graphics card in it. But are there downsides to using 'big hoofer' 
> graphics cards (like bus-hogging?) and would I be better off with a 
> cheaper PCI card, or a lower-spec pci-e 1x card?
[MUNCH]

Depends on whether you want real fast graphics (and usually noisy fans
in the card as well) and do not mind using the binary drivers that are
usually needed. 

If you want acceleration and open source drivers and have a pci express
slot (no other choice these days) the best you can do currently (AFAIK)
is to get an X850 or X800 based Radeon card. They are hard to find. I
bought several not long ago from Dell. They do have a fan so you will
have to replace it with some sort of passive cooler if you want/need
silence. 

If the motherboard has an Intel graphics card built in (x3100 or so, I
think) then you could use it, there's open source drivers for them. They
are not so fast but well, they work. 

-- Fernando