Help me build a Gentoo Gaming rig!

[Mesimeris]

Hi.

I've decided to attempt to build a pure gaming rig running on Gentoo. I would like the Gentoo gaming community to help me out here with any suggestions or ideas for my new rig.

(Yes, yes, if I want a proper gaming rig windows is probably the way to go, but screw that. I wanna give this a try, it will be fun)

So, here's what I have to work with:

AMD Athlon64 3200+ (socket939)
1024mb DDR400 RAM (Dual Channel)
ATI Radeon X550 256mb PCI-e
100GB Hard drive space to work with.
Onboard 5.1 Sound
USB Laser Mouse 1600DPI
PS/2 Keyboard
19" TFT Monitor
Samsung DVD-RW
350 Watt PSU
2 80mm intake fans, 2 80mm extraction fans (current CPU temp constantly below 30 degrees Celsius)

-------------------

So, that is what I have to play with, now I need your help.

I want to know from the Gentoo Gaming Community - What should I do with Gentoo on this machine to make it as awesome a gaming rig as possible (software wise, what you see above is all I can afford )

I will be doing a Gentoo AMD64 2006.0 universal CD install (I also have the AMD64 package CD)

I am open to any suggestions you might have. Here are a few examples of what I mean:

- What sort of partition table shall I use? I have 100gb partitioned for this experiment (on one hard drive) - how shall I divide it up?

- What shall I compile in my kernel?

- What Window Manager should I use?

- What Window Manager customizations will be cool and aid the cause?

- What additional software shall I install?

- I have games installed on an NTFS partition on the same drive for Windows, should I just use those with Wine/Cedega, or should I install fresh copies within the Gentoo system?

- Anything else you could possibly think of to create the perfect software-base for a Gentoo gaming machine.

------------

I intend to start this epic adventure this Tuesday (5th September), so I hope I will have some suggestions by then.

Let's see how creative the gentoo gaming community is.

The floor is yours:

[baigsabeeh]

Before, I go into detail, what games do you have or do you play, which ever is more fitting.

I have a Cedega subscription and I can play the following in Cedega because these are the games I like and have:

Day of Defeat: Source
Counter-Strike: Source
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 Deathmatch
Half-Life 2: Lost coast
Half-Life Source
Half-Life Deathmatch Source
_________________
BSD > SysV > Linux
BSD FTW!

[Mesimeris]

I pretty much play anything...

Counterstrike, Warcraft 3, Prey, Guildwars, America's Army (sucks it apparently doesn't work properly in wine - stupid punkbuster), GTA:SA Online.

They don't all have to work, this is more of an experiment than a means to an end for my gaming. I just want to see what I can get Gentoo to do in terms of gaming.

[baigsabeeh]

Counterstrike will work, Warcraft 3, Guild Wars, Prey (Pretty sure), GTA: SA, yeah

I'll post the good stuff in a few minutes.
_________________
BSD > SysV > Linux
BSD FTW!

[Phenax]

What's the point when virtually every game you listed is Windows-based? My rig is pretty much gaming-based and all of the games I play are Linux-native.

Socket AM2 Athlon 64 3500+ (OC'd to 3ghz)
GeForce 6600GT
2gb of DDR2 667 dual channel RAM

etc. etc.

[baigsabeeh]

[Mesimeris]

Obviously I am out looking for Linux-native games, but at the end of the day, why does there have to be a point to doing this? I just want to have fun, try something new, and see what happens.

However the topic is not what games will I be playing, but rather what software/install will best improve my gaming in Gentoo? What would the average gamer want in their OS and Window Manager? A little widget that tells them what is playing on their favorite servers, or how much game-time they have accumulated?
What would be best to compile in one's kernel to up one's performance?

All those sort of things. That's what I am interested in.

[baigsabeeh]

So, that is what I have to play with, now I need your help.

I want to know from the Gentoo Gaming Community - What should I do with Gentoo on this machine to make it as awesome a gaming rig as possible (software wise, what you see above is all I can afford )

I will be doing a Gentoo AMD64 2006.0 universal CD install (I also have the AMD64 package CD)

I am open to any suggestions you might have. Here are a few examples of what I mean:

- What sort of partition table shall I use? I have 100gb partitioned for this experiment (on one hard drive) - how shall I divide it up?

Do the standard Gentoo setup except make a separate partition for your /home so that you aren't limited by the root partition taking up space and so forth. That's where your Cedega/WINE stuff will be kept.

- What shall I compile in my kernel?

I didn't need to compile anything special.

- What Window Manager should I use?

I play in KDE because that is what I like. That will do or anything lite will work. Try Fluxbox or something to minimize memory usage.

- What Window Manager customizations will be cool and aid the cause?

FBDesk if you use Fluxbox, the standard KDE stuff off of Kde-look.org, but the more eye-candy the higher the memory usage there is.

- What additional software shall I install?

You would want Cedega of course as well as WINE. WineTools maybe nice as well. Make sure to get emul libraries.

- I have games installed on an NTFS partition on the same drive for Windows, should I just use those with Wine/Cedega, or should I install fresh copies within the Gentoo system?

I would do a fresh install. Make sure you check the cedega wiki and the games database on cedega's webstie to make sure your games work. Give them a try anyway. If they do work, then add it to the wiki. Also, it will take some tinkernig though, after the 5 or 10 min of tinkering, I never have to tinker again.

- Anything else you could possibly think of to create the perfect software-base for a Gentoo gaming machine.

Nothing much, oh make sure you limit the number of drivers that X 7.0 pulls. I only put in nv, vesa, and vmware.
_________________
BSD > SysV > Linux
BSD FTW!

[Buddman]

I game a lot. One thing I can say is that you'll have a hard time with ATI (as I have) and getting a lot of games to work in Cedega. But it's fun and challenging, and most games I have gotten to work. Native linux games I have pretty much 0 problems with (Quake 4 runs incredibly well).

But ATI and Cedega have been working together, so watch for improvements. Games I play:

UT2004
Quake 4
Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
ZSNES (about every SNES rom out there)
Oblivion
Warhammer (with Winter Assult Addon)
Half-Life 2

My only disappointment with the above games is that Half Life 2 and Oblivion don't look as well as they do in Windows (Oblivion looks like Morrowind, and Half-Life 2 uses DX 7 or 8 instead of 9). But they are still playable.

For installing Gentoo I used the Conrad guide (do a search for it if ur not sure what it is). However, it's very experimental and I had other reasons for using it (resier4, to try it out, latest kernel and experimental patches - really just want to test new things out). Make sure no matter what you end up doing you are using the latest ATI drviers (if you're not using the open source ones, can't say much for them as I never used them). You should also check out compiz and Xgl if you want a nice desktop - I use KDE 3.5 with compiz and have to say it's really nice.

Well, good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[piercey]

[hackerError]

[ravalox]

Three words: Nvidia, Nvidia, Nvidia. ATI drivers in linux are not very good. Take their windows performance and divide by two and that's where you're at. Nvidia's linux drivers are almost as good as their windows drivers.

[Lloeki]

[deadstar]