Newbie Repairing/Upgrading Dead System

[kevinbenko]

Background:

It's time to fix the dead desktop computer.
Motherboard is hosed, and it's one of those damnable proprietary integrated motherboards.
The computer fixit places seem to be charging vital parts of my anatomy to fix the thing, and I am under the delusion that I might be able to buy the parts myself and assemble them correctly.

I'm planning to replace the overpriced proprietary motherboard with separate motherboard, graphics card, network card, etc...

The only things I'm keeping are two hard drives (1 IDE and 1 SATA), the power supply, and the memory.
I imagine that I need to make sure the new motherboard+processor is compatible with the power supply.

**IMPORTANT**

It's a GNU+Linux system, and I need to make absolutely certain that the motherboard+BIOS is compatible with the Linux kernel.

I know that there are some motherboards and BIOSes that will not work with the Linux kernel. Can anyone give me a general rule of thumb of those manufacturers that do not support the Linux Kernel?

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Also, I've looked around on this website but couldn't find any in-depth documentation on building a system from scratch. I probably overlooked it.

Any suggestions?

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How difficult is it to make sure that all my parts will be compatible with eachother?

Thank you for taking to time to read this post, and have a swell day.

 

[Proximon]

You'll have to ask in a Linux forum about compatibility.

Whatever drives you have are fine, but we'll need to know about the memory and PSU before we can say what might work.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice

 

[kevinbenko]

Memory: I've got two 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM 1G memory cards (total of 2G RAM)(PC4200 (@ 533 Mhz))

Power supply: it looks like 480 Watts (if that makes sense) Logisys
1 SATA connecter
1 ATX power connector (supports 20-pin and 24-pin)
1 12V P4 ATX power connector (4-pin)
4 large power connectors (4-pin)
1 Small power connectors (4-pin)

So, I guess that from this, I need to make certain that the components don't pull more than 480 watts.

 

[jitpublisher]

I would simply dump the old case as well and get a new one....the new motherboard might be a problem fitting into the old case. And yeah, I would check the Linux forums for a compatable motherboard for your OS.
Check out the ASUS boards, most of them are available now with "Splashtop", which is a preinstalled Linux OS directly on the board, so the system boots directly to this right out of the box. Check here for details:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/712/1026712/asus-ship-motherboards-linux

 

[Proximon]

So, I guess that from this, I need to make certain that the components don't pull more than 480 watts.

I'm afraid it's worse than that. This is not something I enjoy, but you'll need to replace most everything.

-Logisys is a very low end PSU that is best used as a door stop. It might provide 200W as long as the ambient temp is cool and you aren't picky about the occasional crash due to voltage ripple. Here is the updated "Tiered Power Supply List" which shows where Logisys ranks. It's the lowest, tier 5:
EggXpert Tiered List
Now, I realize it's been working, although not as well as you may think, for some time. It's dangerous as well as just junk, and could destroy your components if it hasn't yet.

-The memory you have is 533Mhz. This means it will only run on a 266Mhz front side bus. While it's possible to still buy a CPU that will run that slow, I'm not sure you want to do that. Especially since RAM is so cheap.

You would think that the ASUS P45 boards would be compatible with Linux, yeah.

You don't seem to need a great deal of power. Let me recommend a few things:
Gigabyte P43 motherboard
Q9400 Maybe you don't need a quad? That's not clear.
4GB G.Skill DDR2 800
Sapphire low profile 4650
Antec Sonata III case with Earthwatts 500W PSU This is a good case with a great PSU. More wattage than you need perhaps, but it's a good deal.