Need Help: Building x86 Box from scratch

[arensdg]

I am currently seeking information on building a machine to run Gentoo Linux and my goal is to select components that are compatible with this distrubution. I know nothing works right the first time but let's face there are many of you out there running Gentoo successfully. I just want to avoid purchasing components that are incompatible.

I have decided to build a Intel P4 system and was wondering if anyone has experience with running either of these mainboards:
ASUS P4B533WA or
EPoX 4G4A+
These are both boards based the Intel 845 Chipset and I haven't been able to determine if this chipset is compatible with Gentoo.

I am open to recommendations at this point. My desire is to put together a high performance configuration. In addition to the mainboard I am looking for a video card that is compatible and performs well with XFree86. Any recommendation on the amount of memory to configure would also be appreciated. I know that more is always better but I don't think my budget will permit 2GB.

I have run Linux in the past, Slackware and Manadrake on PI and Celeron processors respectively, and still found it diffucult to break free from the power of the Dark Side. (I don't dare mention their name in this forum)

I appreciate any help you, the Gentoo community could provide.
Thanks,
_________________
Gary Arensdorf
I believe in Christ like I believe in the Sun,
Not because I can see it but by it's light I can see everything else. - C.S. Lewis

[pilla]

Well, first of all, you should be concerned if it would run with GNU/Linux in a first instance.

About the mainboard, I don't know EPoX but ASUS mainboards are usually of good quality IMHO. I doubt the intel chipset won't work with Linux, but this is a guess.

About the video card, it looks like some nvidia cards have some nice support (ebuilds) for them... maybe you could try a search on nvidia in the forums to find out more about it.

About memory, I'm using 512 MB in my P-III and it runs very fast... a lot faster than with 256 MB, because most files are kept in the memory after the first access (caching).

Don't forget to buy a good and fast hard drive.

May the Force be with you

[zen_guerrilla]

Gentoo runs fine on intel chipsets. However I'd suggest that u should buy an Athlon XP with a KT333 mobo (ASUS A7V333 is great) and 512 mb DDR333 memory and install gentoo-1.4RC1 with -march=athlon-xp. Ultra speed without spending lots of money. For video try a GeForce 2 of 4, since currently they have the best support for 3D on linux (although not open source ) . As for hard disk I really like the Seagate Barracuda ATA IV series since they are totally silent, but also the WD JB series with 8MB cache are really fast, your choice here

p.s. : I don't work for any of these companies, I' m just a hardware freak sysadmin