What Computer to Buy?

[ubuntu at rio.vg]

Gregory Piñero wrote:
> This looks promising for dual core support.
> http://global.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SD31P.asp
> 
> Will this one be compatible with Ubuntu?  Any ideas?  If I add a
> graphics card will it confuse X that there's an onboard card and the
> one I added?  This seemed to happen in my currrent old computer
> (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/50883)
> 

If you're a gamer, I would recommend against using shuttle cases.  There
simply isn't enough airflow to cool modern graphics cards under high load.

If you're just interested in an office or workhorse machine, shuttles
are great.  When you add a graphics card, usually the internal one turns
off, that's what happens to the shuttle I have.  However, mine is an
older model with a different chipset.

Integrated graphics also often use the system ram for video memory,
which is obscenely slow.  If you do any graphics AT ALL, you'll want to
dump it.  I bought the shuttle to build a PVR, recording and viewing
video from TV, and the internal graphics card just couldn't handle it.
It isn't anything 3d, I think it just tried to off-load too much onto
the CPU, and just didn't have the bandwidth.

I've never had a positive experience with graphics that were integrated
into the motherboard.