Rocking machine needs fastest Linux OS, Which one?

[Mikeiver]

OK, I have done a bit of looking but nothing really answers my question. It is rather long and is actually more than one. I am not a total Linux noob but feel like it right now so here goes.

First off I am nearing the end of a new computer build and want the fastest Linux distro for it. I will be using it for gaming, mainly Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Tournament III if they ever get around to releasing it this decade. I know that UT2004 runs on Linux since the server is hosted on a Linux box, my worry is how much hell am I going to have to go through to get it to work. Also will be using it for audio and video editing from time to time.

The hardware should be compatible, I hope.

Two Opteron 285 processors (2.6GHz dual core)
Tyan K8WE MB with LSI U320 SCSI
8GB RAM
Video is a PNY 8800 Ultra
73GB, 10K SCSI drive for multi boot.
500GB SATA for backup of the Array and boot images.
Mylex eXtreme RAID 5000 Hardware FC-AL RAID controller
Five 36GB Seagate FC-AL X15 drives in a RAID0 off of the Mylex card
SB Audigy2, soon an X-fi card Fatal1ty game card.
PS is a Tagan 1100Watt unit.

It has been about 2 years since I have run Linux on the desktop, It worked OK for about 8 months and then just started to crap out on me. I am hoping that this time it will take. The top candidate so far is Gentoo, I know it is a bit daunting to install but....

Second is the question of the drivers for the video and audio cards, are they there yet?

Third, does Vista play nice in a dual boot setup? For the mean time I will be running Windows 2003 server for the windows OS, at least until MicroShaft takes it out of beta and releases the patch. I know, it sucks but windows is still the standard.

Any nudge in the right direction you can give me would be great and thanks.

Mike

[bigtomrodney]

Running a system like that, any distro will be fast. The only thing that sticks out is the Audigy. I remember in the past there was trouble but I think this might be fixed now.

I would be more concerned with your own experience. If you are a 'Linux noob' then Gentoo probably isn't a gret choice. It will be frustrating and time consuming. For an experienced user it can be extremely worthwhile, but if you were to look honestly at it how can you optimise something that you are unfamiliar with the inner workings of? Debian and Ubuntu both have huge repositories and huge community support. You didn't mention your Graphics Card, I would recommend an nVidia one.

Your disks are very quick. Sure it's a powerhouse of a machine and a geek's dream (I'd like one) but if you are not putting a lot of data back and forward on the disks it might be wasted. Seven harddrives? I think you will be sacrificing a lot in terms of power consumption , fan speed and ambient noise for a possibly unneeded data write boost. In short, no amount of UT will utilise that much disk I/O, even alongside several other large applications.

For the money Intel are ahead chipwise at the moment. Two Quad Xeons would be a much better investment. They are built on the 65nm scale rather than the 90nm of the Opterons above and twice the number of CPU cores.

Also have you calcculated the price? I'd say you're looking at almost

[Mikeiver]

Thanks for the reply,

The card is in there, a PNY 8800 Ultra. Nvidia 8800 chip running at 648MHz with a memory clock of 2.2GHz, an 8800 GTX on roids!

The 73GB drive is simply for booting and basic programs. The 500GB drive is only for backup of the array since it will be running RAID0 (don't want to suffer the I/O hit of RAID5) and boot drive partitions.

I don't mind the Complicated install of Gentoo, I had already kinda settled on it since it is from source. I just wanted to make sure that it was one of the faster distros out there.

As far as processors, I bought the MB about a year ago and have been collecting parts for even longer. The Core Duo etc. were not even on the horizon at the time I started this. Too bad, I would have gone with a pair of core2 Extreme processors. One of the major problems was the RAID card being PCI-X 133MHz/3.3V and also wanting dual 16X PCI-E SLI as well. The Tyan MB was the only one to offer the interfaces needed.

Cooling is not a worry, I have a pair of radiators with two 120mm fans each and a pair of Swiftech MCP655 pumps (turned down slow to be quiet but still get the volume from the pair) to cool the processors and the video card. All the fans are 120mm, 7 bladed and slow spinning so they are quiet. Five in the case and four in the radiator tray.

As far as using the HDD array, I will not only be using it for the game but also for non linear audio and video editing. It may actually be a bit shy on performance, I hope not though.

The Audigy worked for me last time I was running Linux, took a bit of noodling but I got it to work. I am really wondering about the X-fi card and weather it will be supported. I am not a total Noob!

Thanks again,

Mike

[bigtomrodney]

Sorry I cross read the SCSI with Ultra and missed the GPU. I'd say that 5 15Krpm drives in a stripe is more than enough. Let's just see if your bus can supply data fast enough . In retrospect maybe it was the X-Fi and not the Audigy that caused problems.

I don't see any problems there off hand. Maybe some of the other members can give you a second opinion on it but it looks fine. Even with the RAID because you are using hardware RAID it should be pretty much transparent.

Good luck with the Gentoo build too

[Mikeiver]

Oh, you can count on seeing me in the Gentoo section soon! I will need plenty of help I am willing to bet. The good thing is that i will learn ALLOT about Linux and Gentoo from this.

Thanks for the help so far,

Mike

[IsaacKuo]

I don't know anything about Gentoo installation, but I have installed Debian 4.0 on a preinstalled Vista system (a stock Dell). It installed GRUB with fully functional dual-boot menu out-of-box.

I used Vista's built in partitioner to shrink its NTFS partition. Then I used the Debian installer to do the rest, installing Debian 4.0 in the freed up empty space. There were no issues at any time.

Therefore, it's perfectly possible to dual boot Vista and linux, using GRUB. As with dual booting in general, install Windows first, and then Linux.

[oz]

Slackware and Crux have always felt faster than any other distro I've tried, so you might want to give them a go. They aren't the easiest distros to work with for some folks, but they certainly feel fast.

Have fun with Linux!

[Mikeiver]

Never heard of Crux, have to give it a look and load it on one of my other machines. Slackware is another matter, that distro has been around for years as I recall but I never played with it. Maybe it's time to.

Much thanks guys,

Mike

[machiner]

How 'bout you just install 4 or 5 of your top choices and then pick your favorite. You can tweak any Linux distro to run minty-fresh on your rig.

Vista will be a pain in the ass -- nuke it. Or not -- decisions, decisions.....

Have fun.