Its me again. I now have a better idea of what I'm getting. I mainly want input on which parts to get considering this is my first machine that uses Linux. Again, I plan on having Linux as the primary OS. I'll be using it for gaming, game dev'ing, animation, 3D modeling, and some video editing. OS SuSE 9.3/Windows XP Motherboard I'm currently deciding between these two: ABIT http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA20431 ASUS http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA30076 I'm really on the fence on which one to get. CPU AMD 3700+ http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA21445 RAM Kingston 1GB GPU I'm still stuck on what to get here. I do want a good card considering I want gaming and decent video editing, and it must be good with Linux. I do have a preference to nVidia. Sound The MOBOs have this integrated Ethernet Card The MOBOs have this integrated Modem Yes, I still use dial up. I just need something cheap with linux compatibility to hold me off until I have money for broadband. PSU I have no idea what to get here. Swap Drive Since partitioning is a pain in the ass, I'd like a SATA compatible swap drive. Is there any Linux compatibility issues to worry about? Also is there any sites that rates computer parts' Linux compatibility? Where's a good place to get drivers if SuSE doesn't have them out of the box? Sorry for the poor organization, its just that my current computer crashes every few minutes.

I'm a happy linux gamedev'er so I'll bite...

Motherboard:
I noticed both those boards are AGP boards. Have you considered getting a PCI-E board instead? You would be able to buy your gfx card cheaper (atleast last time i upgraded PCI-E cards were cheaper than comparable AGP ones), you are also pretty much screwed if you want to upgrade your gfx board in the future since most new cards are PCI-E only. This is a nice board from asus, or my current from MSI

GPU:
Definitely get a nvidia board. ATI is getting better, but their linux drivers are still nowhere near nvidias, and their OpenGL support is worse too. "semi personal opinion": nvidia makes much better developer boards with nicer features (for example, I still don't think there is an ATI card that supports texture sampling in vertex shaders... and some other things) so if you want to do graphics coding I'd go with one of theirs. the geforce 6600 is probably the card with most bang for your buck at the moment, but if you have a nice big pile of cash you can always get something better (I'm happily developing on a 6600GT in linux at the moment).

PSU:
Something big and scary! Modern processors and GPUs are real power hogs, and if you put in several hard drives etc you will soon outgrow a 300W (depends a bit on its quality. a good one might work fine). I played it safe and put in a 520W from aspire. gives off a nice homey blue glow too (I actually wanted a plain one, but it was the only decent one in the store, they were closing soon, and I had a fresh Doom 3 at home and a computer that didnt want to run with my old PSU...)

Sound:
onboard sound can be a problem in linux. check and see if the one you get is ok (I'v had loads of problem with my onboard sound and ended up having to use alsa drivers from their CVS), and if it doesnt work just get a nice cheap card, like some sort of Soundblaster. It will save you hours of headache.

Modem:
dial up? urgh... this can be tricky for linux. Make sure you get a proper modem and not one of those winmodems. I cant give you any specifics though since my last modem was an old 28.8 US Robotics (worked fine on an old redhat though)

Quote:
Is there any Linux compatibility issues to worry about? Also is there any sites that rates computer parts' Linux compatibility? Where's a good place to get drivers if SuSE doesn't have them out of the box?

For most linux distros you can get the drivers from the normal package manager. Nvidia also has downloadable drivers from their website. About compability issues: I'm sure there are sites that list these (hopefully someone will be able to provide links, otherwise google is your friend) I usually just search forum for my linux distro for these things (the gentoo forums are very helpful and might be worth checking out even if you run Suse).

I hope my suggestions didn't destroy your budget :S anyway, if you think a PCI-E motherboard + GPU is too expensive I'd still get them and buy a cheaper CPU instead. Socket 939 is probably going to stick around for a while so you can easily get a cpu upgrade in the future, if you need it.

As for linux support of Nvidia, I agree, its the best, but that doesn't mean its as up to date as their window drivers, so if you get the biggest and newest one, it might not be supported yet. Here is a link to the most recent README for the drivers, and it has a complete list of supported GPUs in Appendix A (it says that up towards the top)
ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-7676/README.txt
You will notice, it doesn't seem as though any of the 7x00 series are supported yet.

actually the 7800GTX is listed as supported both in those drivers and in the 64-bit drivers