First Linux Rig - how should I build it

[TheGoat Eater]

I want to build something that can be a server for Battlefield 2 when it comes out and also be a media server to my home network -store a ton of my media files- and do it on a budget because I am building this for my college course that is pretty much a intro to linux class for network administration.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Most decent parts should work. Avoid nVidia motherboards, they're junk.

 

[Concillian]

If Battlefield Vietnam is any indication of how BF2 will perform, your needs will vary on number you plan on hosting. If planning on a LARGE server, be forewarned that the BFV dedicated server performed considerably worse on linux than on Windows Server 2003. I don't know why or whose fault or whatever, I just know that fairly convincing results were discussed on planetbattlefield and other battlefield sites that showed the linux server was not nearly as good. And I do not have a windows bias, in fact I tend towards a linux bias. 16 players was not a problem for BFV on a linux server of like an AXP2500+ / 512MB, but a 32 player server becomes significantly more hardware intensive (mostly CPU, BFV didn't have heavy memory usage, in my experience anyway). If your plans are modest, for something like a 16p server, you should be able to get by with minimal hardware expense.

somewhere between 16 and 32 players, hardware starts becoming more critical.

Just put together what you can comfortably afford and tailor the max # of players to what your machine (and connection) can handle.

This forum should help too:
http://bf1942.lightcubed.com/forum/inde...p?sid=7e566d9683f2793513e1002df522c0b0

 

[TheGoat Eater]

I was reading the requirements(red hat 9) and it says it needs a pentium class cpu / system to run - so what I can't go AMD - i look all around at Athlon 64 motherboards specs/download/home sites an i see no linux drivers/support- I know SUSE has a Athlon 64/ Operton compatible 64 bit version of linux ?so WTF-no linux drivers/support? I don't get it, can I build a red hat 9 system/ what components can I use?

 

[TheGoat Eater]

should I use an old pentium system like a compaq and just wipe the HD and do the install, for starting out with red hat 9

 

[n0cmonkey]

Don't use RH 9. It's dead.

 

[Transition]

IMO try using Slackware..

 

[TheGoat Eater]

-need to learn for my college class - will see if I can use SUSE

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: TheGoat Eater
I was reading the requirements(red hat 9) and it says it needs a pentium class cpu / system to run - so what I can't go AMD - i look all around at Athlon 64 motherboards specs/download/home sites an i see no linux drivers/support- I know SUSE has a Athlon 64/ Operton compatible 64 bit version of linux ?so WTF-no linux drivers/support? I don't get it, can I build a red hat 9 system/ what components can I use?

I ran Red Hat 7 on an AMD chip, I'm sure RH9 works just fine.

I suggest Gentoo as an alternative, though.

 

[tami]

gentoo is not great for beginners. dependency issues can arise -- that was my experience, at least.

redhat is a good distro. it's too bad that it's gone, but it was replaced by fedora core, which you may want to try out instead. i'm currently upgrading to that -- so far, so good.

as n0cmonkey stated, most decent hardware works. i got mine working on a tyan trinity kt-a motherboard (model 2390B) with a 3com NIC and a geforce2 mx400 video card. no problems there (see sig for more details). i don't use it heavily for anything except for ssh/web/learning about linux. regardless, it runs pretty well with what it has on it.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: TheGoat Eater
I was reading the requirements(red hat 9) and it says it needs a pentium class cpu / system to run - so what I can't go AMD - i look all around at Athlon 64 motherboards specs/download/home sites an i see no linux drivers/support- I know SUSE has a Athlon 64/ Operton compatible 64 bit version of linux ?so WTF-no linux drivers/support? I don't get it, can I build a red hat 9 system/ what components can I use?

"pentium-class" refers to a performance level. Pentium/5x86/K6, etc... as a minimum amount of CPU power.

I am running a relatively old version of Mandrake (which was originally based on RH code) version 10 on an AXP.

Linux users tend to be very price conscious, which means AMD support is generally at least as good as Intel support. Any reasonably popular chipset will work out of the box with no special drivers or anything.

As has been stated, RH is dead. Fedora is the closest thing to RH out now, from my understanding.

 

[TheGoat Eater]

so I guess in the case for my my class using Rh9 and the RH9 bible to get the understanding about how linux works - the basics-

 

[TheGoat Eater]

if I want to use SATA wiil that work w/ RH9 or do I have to go w/ ATA?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: TheGoat Eater
if I want to use SATA wiil that work w/ RH9 or do I have to go w/ ATA?

You will probably have to use PATA. RH9 is SEVERAL years old at this point, DON'T USE IT.

 

[TheGoat Eater]

When was RH9 released - anybody know?

 

[kamper]

March 31 2003

Ancient history!

 

[tami]

i actually upgraded my machine from RH9 to Fedora Core 3 last week. it was really simple, and there are a lot of pages that will teach you how to do it. it's also a good learning experience in itself, since it will teach you a bit about commands.

this is what i used but i ran into a few problems on the way -- nothing major, since i had FC3 up by nighttime.

FC3 = the new redhat. as i said, i think it would be a good learning experience for you to start with RH9 and proceed from there.