The Linux Convert - moving from closed to Open Source

The Graphics Card and the Monitor

You need two very basic things. A monitor and a video card. This should all go with out saying!

Monitor

I wont really go into any great detail about the monitor as it isn't really different buying a Linux Monitor as opposed to a Windows/Dos/Mac/OS2 (etc.) monitor. The fundamentals are to go for the best quality, biggest screen you can afford. In this respect, it is worth spending as much as possible now as you will spend a LOT of time staring at the screen and the more inches here the more data you can see at any one time! In most respects a 17" monitor capable of 1024 x 768 is the bare minimum (£58.74).

You have a choice between CRT monitors and TFT monitors. The CRT monitors are the old style ones, have a very big "foot print" on your desk and are very cheap now. TFT monitors are the "cool" looking modern ones, take up a lot less space, are more energy efficient and cost more. Roughly speaking, a 17 inch TFT monitor will have the same display space as a 19 inch CRT monitor so this is where we will start our investigation. An average price for 19" monitors capable of 1600 x 1200 resolution is about £115, although you can get the GNR Haier HV900CS for £93.99 from Ebuyer and Watford have the Ares 22178 for £82.29. 17" TFT monitors start at about £140 and go up.

Deciding which to go for will very much depend on your personal preferences. For our purposes, a little bit of cool is required and we are going with the Relisys TL766 17ins TFT from Ebuyer (£153.71).

Video Card

This is actually quite a hard bit. Linux can be very choosy about what it will recognise - you will be able to get the console working on anything but if you want XFree86 to play then you will need a card that is supported.

To begin with take a look at http://www.xfree86.org and see what is on the compatibility list. As a rule of thumb, nearly any video card will be workable to some extent but check to make sure and if you can get a card that has a dedicated XFree86 server then it will be a lot better than spending loads of money on an all singing super video card that is using a basic, generic server - if you have to do that, just get a basic video card.

It is often a good idea to get the graphics card after the monitor so you have some idea of what screen resolutions you will be running at. Try not to get a card than can do things your screen wont accept - or that will put too much strain on your screen. I once made the mistake of running a cheap 14" monitor at 1024 x 768 in true colour and it really shortened the monitors life! (Plus the whistling from the screen was hell!). Unless you are planning some very high end work (game design or the like) then we can get away with a fairly middle of the road graphics card. Most intensive games havent been ported to linux yet anyway :-)

Graphics cards range from about £15 upwards depending what you need. As our motherboard supports up to 8x AGP, and we suspect 128 Mb ram will suffice ATI Radeon Cards are probably the best place to look. The ATI Radeon 9200 (Watford) and the 9550(Dabs) are about £30 and the 9250 is around £35 (Ebuyer). Any of these will be more than suitable, all are AGP 8x and have DVI-I (all but the 9550 also have TV out).

In total - going for the TFT monitor and the ATI Radeon 9200 will take £183.71 off our budget. This leaves us with £251.68 to play with.