I have a small amount of linux experience, including some terminal configuration so I am not a complete n00b but I dont want to have to struggle through days of configuration to get my hardware to work. Here is a list of the components that make up my system.
Computer
(2)Samsung Spinpoint 1TB Sata HD
(3 x 2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600
(1) ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 motherboard
(2) MSI 275GTX TwinFrozr PCIe x16 video cards (would like to run SLI)
(1) Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66Ghz Quad-Core Processor
Monitor
HP LP3065 DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
Peripherals
Belkin N52 game pad
Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse
Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 webcam
Logitech Momo Racing wheel
If I could get it set up enough to use the game pad and run steam games with SLI support, that would occupy about 90% of my computer use (including word processing, browsing…the usual stuff). I would probably dual boot with windows 7 to run everything else that I was too lazy to configure in opensuse.
The hardware should not be an issue the gamepad and the wheel are going to be tricky you will have to find the right drivers under a different setup( might have to program as a flightstick instead of a racing wheel) the rest should be fine.
The Belkin N52 I think is the Nostromo N52? If that’s the game pad i know people have gotten it to work in Ubuntu with some success but I’m unsure on OS.
I would say the hardware was fine the SLi shouldn’t really be an issue (it can be a pain I’ve been told but is manageable), plus maybe the newer 195.xx.xx driver’s may help out there as they seem to be increasing support for a lot of the newer cards.
Iirc i had a Logitech DFP wheel attached for Nascar2003 waayy back in OpenSuse 11.0. OpenSuse installed a generic driver for it as there is no specific linux driver for the wheel. The only change i had to do with the wheel when setting up, was to turn left when asked to turn right because the wheels axis is reversed.