Intergrated cards...

[AliOop]

Awhile ago, on another post, I raised the question about SFF (Small Form Factor) PCs. Got some good responses. This goes hand in hand with that post. Intergrated cards: whats your take on them. I know that for the gamers and purist on this forum, that is a no-no. But for most folks, like me, I don't see a problem especialy if one has enough ram. A small foot print is what I"m looking for. I don't need nor want the typical Full/Mid-tower. Nor do I need to expand once I've have a PC up and running. My needs are simple. Surfing the internet, emailing, IMing, a word processor and of course fooling around with Linux. If I go in that direction - SFF/mATX- I will make certain PCI/Video slots are avalible just in case. My only concern is the compatiblity with Linux OS. Any problems in that department? I'd like comments from pople who have or are using a Linux OS with intergrated components. One other thing, how do I go about checking Linux hardware compatiblity? Is there a site I can key in what I'm looking to purchase? Thanks.

[ewdi]

i have 1 SFF (Shuttle SN85G4V2) running with Athlon 64 3200+, everything works great, but this one does not have built on vid card, however my network card, and etc that coimes with this system works well in RHEL 3 update 3

[imdeemvp]

i used ati most of the time under rh8-9, fedora, mandrake, college linux, (and gentoo detected them too but never installed gentoo):

voodoo 3 pci video card

ati radeon 64mb ddr presently USING

ati rage lt pro agp

ati xl 8mb in my micro atx pc p3 1ghz (backup pc)

a similiar sound card

they all work fine for me and as you can see you can buy them very cheap on ebay.com

[crackers]

If it works, I use it. If it doesn't, I'll either not buy the system if it's not fully expandable or shut off the on-board and install an actual card that does work. I've not had any problems with the embedded network cards, occassionally with on-board video, and hit about 50/50 with on-board sound chips. The only reason I'm using an older SBLive card right now is for my trustworthy, ancient joystick - the mobo doesn't have a game/midi port.