Advice?

[factodude]

Ok, after a bit of saving and after being a gentoo only user for about a year, I've decided to build a new system. I was hoping for some advice about it as I've got school coming up and I don't have that much time to research all of the issues that I might have. The hardware is:

Processor: AMD 4800 Toledo (64bit, dual core, 2.4 ghz, 1mb x2 L2 cache)
Ram: 4 gigs of Coirsair Ram
MB: Asus A8N-SLI Premium (Bios version 1005)
HDs: 2x 250GB Hitachi, 2x 160GB Hitachi
Vid Card(s): 2x 7800 GTX
Other PCI Cards: Audigy 4 Soundblaster, Hauppuage 500 pvr (w/ the 2 expansion brackets), Gigabyte super G (GN-WPEAG 108 Mbps) wireless card

Questions:
I've looked over the forums, and I see mixed reviews about the Asus MB. Some say they have zero problems, and others don't stop cursing about it. With that bios version, do you believe I'll have such problems?

I've also researched the AMD64's and it seems that most everyone who has one says that it runs fine if they put their accept keywords as "~amd64". Although, some users seem to be indicating that they can now run fine w/o the accept keywords or any packages added to package.keywords.
Any users have some up-to-date feedback about this? What about 32bit emulation: besides enabling 32 bit in the kernel, emerging the emulation packages, and running some programs like mplayer, firefox, and openoffice from binary are there any other quirks I should know about? I ask because I do run cedega to emulate for several windows only games.

I know that the emk101 (i think that's it, but it's something along those lines) package gives support for the soundblaster cards, does anyone know if there are any problems with the Audigy 4?

The hauppauge card I've heard is near impossible to get working at this time, but it can be done. Where would be the best place to talk about this card if I cannot get it working, Gentoo or the ivtv mailing lists? In fact, does anyone here have experience with it? Would a simple emerge ivtv & following the wiki guide work with this card?

Concerning the 2 nvidia cards, I've read that SLI is supported in linux, but I cannot find any additional information. I'm currently an ATI owner so I have no experience whatsoever with the nvidia cards. All I know is that their drivers are much better in linux than ATI's. How difficult is it to setup? Any advice on configuring those cards?

The wireless card I believe has the latest Atheros chipset in it and works well with the ndiswrapper, but I've not seen any posts on this forum about it. Does anyone have experience with it?

Any thoughts about the general system?

[Taladar]

I don't know what you plan to do with the system but my 2 GB RAM (AMD64 too) is almost never fully used and you might want to try less RAM (while keeping open the upgrade path for more) first and see if it is enough.

AMD64 doesn't create many problems except for browser plugins (you need a 32 Bit browser for 32 Bit plugins to work) and mplayer 32 bit windows dll codecs (32 bit mplayer exists and works, but occasionaly it breaks, like this week when some of the needed libraries where removed from the emul-linux-x86-base package temporarily). Everything else I use works fine including the nvidia drivers (PCI express, one card). I have cedega installed but don't use it much (dual booting is easier for games) but I tried at least a few games and they did behave similar to the descriptions on the transgaming homepage (slower but mostly playable). I am not aware of any additional problems due to 64 Bit but don't take my word for it as I don't use it too much.

I have the Asus A8V-E Deluxe and everything works with a vanilla kernel except for the onboard wireless lan (didn't try that, might work) and the Gigabit Ethernet chip (needs newer driver version that is not in the kernel at the moment, works fine with that). You might want to check the exact hardware on your board. I guess most components are the same since Asus doesn't seem to have that much variety in their board components last time I checked.

I believe you might run into problems with your ndiswrapper needing card because AFAIK it doesn't work with 64 Bit kernels and 32 Bit windows drivers.

[factodude]

The main reason I have that much ram in the system was because I got it via a local contest; It was free But, as far as the other issues, thank you.

I'm not as concerned about the hardware on the board as I've owned other Asus boards and, as you said, most of it is the same. I am concerned about the added peripherials. Do you know if the emulation packages will permit the ndiswrapper to run? (I know nothing about how the emulation packages work, anyone have a site or link with more information about them?) Also, did you ever try the gentoo-sources kernel? Is it on par with the vanilla sources as far as the AMD64's go?

[tsunam]

GOOD GOLLY

Well that'll be a smoking fast machine.

The one thing I'd probably do different is have a couple of raptor drives for primary instead, use the larger drives for storage type situation.
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I'm not afraid of happy endings, just afraid my life wont work that way.

[factodude]

I was planning on striping the 250 gig drives instead of going that route. The 160 gig drives would be for data. The only reason I'd stripe the 250's over the 160's is because the 250's are SATA II and according to their specifications are faster.

[pjp]

Don't eat yellow snow.
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Quis separabit? Quo animo?

[AdShea]

What contest did you win? I'd like to win one of those. You shouldn't have any problems with the hardware. amd64 is really coming along nicely. As for the tuner, look at www.video4linux.net.

[darker]

somebody has money to burn...

I would suggest using ~arch, as I have never had problems with it. All the 32bit emulation works automagically for me.
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