My Linux Workstation

ClariorHincHonos

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
1,972
Just bought the following today, as I am tired of dual booting:

AMD Athlon II X4 620
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO
2GB Kingston DDR3 1333
Cooler Master 330 Elite
Corsair 400W 400CX
WD 320GB AAKS
Sony Optiarc DVD-RW

Going to install Ubuntu 9.10, unless something better comes my way. What do you guys think? I use Handbrake a lot, and general browsing/email/etc.
 
Last edited:
Sounds nice. I have been wanting a dedicated box to play around with ubuntu.
 
This came in earlier in the week and I got it built up. So far running pretty damn smooth. I'll try to take some screen shots and pics of the system soon.
 
Specs look good. Don't care much for the flavor but thats your preference. Hardware should be lightning fast!
 
Specs look good. Don't care much for the flavor but thats your preference. Hardware should be lightning fast!

I support CentOS at work, and that just about as much as I do ubuntu, but I'm not sure how great of a desktop that would make. I've tried Arch, but I honestly didn't like the install process. I've read about Mint a little, seems to be popular. Might look into a bit more.
 
That reminds me-is there a bug for the gvfs stuff? I noticed when I was adding music to Rhythmbox from a network share it started sucking up a lot of memory.
 
I don't want to turn this into a thread about favours because that's old but CentOS is great for work and nothing more. Otherwise its dated and vanilla but that is why it works so well. It's stable because the packages are so old.

Ubuntu is eyecandy but the bugs are a dime a dozen. USB latency and kernel issues are just too frustrating.

Once I installed Arch three times I could do it with my eyes shut and I actually prefer it now because I know what I have installed and what the system is doing. Debian is my next choice!

Either way you're using Linux so you're set!
 
I don't want to turn this into a thread about favours because that's old but CentOS is great for work and nothing more. Otherwise its dated and vanilla but that is why it works so well. It's stable because the packages are so old.

Ubuntu is eyecandy but the bugs are a dime a dozen. USB latency and kernel issues are just too frustrating.

Once I installed Arch three times I could do it with my eyes shut and I actually prefer it now because I know what I have installed and what the system is doing. Debian is my next choice!

Either way you're using Linux so you're set!

How does Debian compare to Ubuntu? I like Ubuntu because it seems like no matter what I need, there is some solution out there, usually many of them as well. I also like how it's easy to get them running. I can install stuff via cli, but the packages kick ass.
 
I am sure you know Debian is Ubuntu however I find Debian to be more flexable and configurable. It may not be as pretty out the box but IMO it's faster and more reliable. If you use 'Testing' you get all the bleeding edge like Ubuntu. I love Debian over Ubuntu.
 
Having one hell of a time with flash based websites. Any info/tips on how to get this running correctly? Does Ubuntu just have poor support, or is it Linux wide?
 
No it's just Ubuntu. You need to go to 'System' > 'Preferences' > 'Appearance' and disable 'ALL' visual effects. Compiz has a known bug and fucks up Adobe Flash Plugin.
 
Bah. Killing that kills AWN, which I like. Hmm, seriously considering Debian at this point.

LinuxWS.jpg
 
No it's just Ubuntu. You need to go to 'System' > 'Preferences' > 'Appearance' and disable 'ALL' visual effects. Compiz has a known bug and fucks up Adobe Flash Plugin.

I have no problems with flash and I have compiz on ubuntu.
 
I have no problems with flash and I have compiz on ubuntu.

Which version? I think he's right though. I remember seeing that mentioned somewhere else. I will tell you that if I have too many windows with flash open, it starts to run like crap.
 
using ubuntu 9.10, compiz 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu2.
I am using an 8800gt with the proprietary drivers, That may help. Im new to linux but ive had no problems with flash in ubuntu so far.
 
Running Ubuntu 9.04 with the closed source NVidia drivers, and the only Adobe Flash trouble I have is that some more intensive Flash games (I.E. Darkorbit) and some HD streams (and the rare Hulu 360p) don't play well by default because Speedstep isn't reacting to their load. With all three cores of my Phenom II x3 710 proc at 800Mhz, more intensive Flash stuff bogs it down (Flash only uses a single core at a time). The workaround I've used is to either disable Speedstep entirely, or to enable CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor to control CPU speed and then have one tray icon for each processor, and then switching all three cores to Performance mode (Flash seems to get bounced from processor to processor) whenever Flash isn't being handled well.

Edit: Not running Compwiz.
 
Last edited:
Running Ubuntu 9.04 with the closed source NVidia drivers, and the only Adobe Flash trouble I have is that some more intensive Flash games (I.E. Darkorbit) and some HD streams (and the rare Hulu 360p) don't play well by default because Speedstep isn't reacting to their load. With all three cores of my Phenom II x3 710 proc at 800Mhz, more intensive Flash stuff bogs it down (Flash only uses a single core at a time). The workaround I've used is to either disable Speedstep entirely, or to enable CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor to control CPU speed and then have one tray icon for each processor, and then switching all three cores to Performance mode (Flash seems to get bounced from processor to processor) whenever Flash isn't being handled well.

Edit: Not running Compwiz.

CPU was throttled to 800MHz. I set it to 2.6GHz and things have been much smoother since. Thanks!
 
Why dual boot - VM's are the way to go!

VM's are nice, but I use Handbrake a lot, so I need space and it's just better to do that kind of thing on a physical box in my opinion. Besides, a physical box is an investment and thus will be ignored less ie. I spent money on that, I'm gonna use it. VM's are kind of out of site out of mind.
 
Ended up adding 2GB of RAM to make it 4GB total. As for the flash issue-I turned off Cool and Quiet and that greatly improved the performance. After all of that it's been much smoother. :)
 
Back
Top