Motherboard for AMD64?

[pjo123]

Hi all

Am in the process of getting a new PC. Will probably make it myself and am trying to make sure it's all 100% Linux compatible.

I want a AMD 64 3200+ processor and have searched the web for motherboards and the only one I see recomended is the Asus K8V.

I was sold on this MB until I searched to find the cheapest price. Then I came across the following site:

http://www.mozillaquest.com/Linux04/Asus_Sucks_Story-01.html

This has obviously rung a few alarm bells. What MB does the panel recommend please?

best

Phil

[madcompnerd]

If their tech support is that bad... who cares what they support, I don't like putting up with jerks. Busy is fine, but rude means I stop buying from them.
Now if you find me an anti-tyan article, then I'll be hurt.

[melojo]

hello pjo123

I have a msi k8t8m and amd 64 3000+ and have had no issues with this board. I am running fedora core 2 x86-64 2.6.8 kernel and lindows with 2.4 kernel it is a very solid system. Linux picked everything up including the onboard sound.

melojo

[CptKrf]

I have a ASUS K8VSE and a Gigabyte K8VT800M and both work fine except...

The only problem I have is with the ASUS and the 1gb ethernet adapter. Any driver I have found so far to run at 1gb causes frequent BSODs. However, the same thing happens with PCI Dlink 1gb cards so I doubt that the MB Ethernet port is the problem.

I like both MBs.

Make sure your heat sink is big and properly gooped and your fans are good. This chip doesn't like overheating.

CptKrf

[pjo123]

Thanks all

Asus is definately out of the question.

Will have a good look at the differences between the Gigabyte and MSI boards. Have had very good experiences with MSI products in the past

best

Phil

[amgeex]

I'm going to buy the AV8 Abit MoBo for my linux box. Anyone has had problems with it?

The AV8 is ABIT's version of the VIA K8T800 Pro performance chipset based on AMD Athlon 64/64FX Socket 939 K8 CPU platform. With SATA RAID, Dual DDR400, AGP8X/4X, IEEE1394, Gigabit LAN, and uGuru techniology, this board is the performer of the year. Using the groundbreaking Hyper Transport Technology and gushing with extra capacity and peripherals support as well as first class onboard sound, this board can easily be your foundation for a superb system.

Features:

Processor
- Supports AMD Athlon™ 64 / Athlon™ 64 FX 939-pin processor
- 2000MHz system bus using Hyper Transport™ technology


CPU Integrated Dual Channel Memory Controller
- Four 184-pin DIMM sockets (Un-buffered Non-ECC DIMM)
- Supports Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266 (Max. 4GB)


Chipset
- VIA K8T800 Pro/ VT8237 chipset
- Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
- Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP 8X/4X


SATA 150 RAID
- Supports SATA 150 MB/s RAID 0/1


GbE LAN
- On board 10/100/1000M LAN PCI Ethernet Controller
- Operation support ACPI & Wake on LAN


IEEE 1394
- Supports 3 ports IEEE 1394 at 100/200/400 Mb/s transfer rate


Audio
- 6-Channel AC’97 CODEC on board
- Professional digital audio interface supports optical S/P DIF In/Out


Internal I/O Connectors
- 1 AGP 8X/4X slot
- 5 PCI slots
- Floppy Port supports up to 2.88 MB
- 2 x Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 Connectors
- 2 x SATA 150 Connectors
- 2 x USB headers, 2 x IEEE1394 headers
- 1 x FP-Audio header
- 1 x CD-IN, 1 x AUX IN


Back Panel I/O
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 Mouse
- 1 x Serial, 1 x Parallel, 1 x S/P DIF Output, 1 x S/P DIF Input
- 1 x Audio connector (Center/Subwoofer, Surround Speaker)
- 1 x Audio connector (Line Out, Line-in, MIC-in)
- 2 x USB, 1 x IEEE1394 Connector
- 2 x USB, 1 x RJ-45 LAN Connector


Package
- User’s Manual x 1
- Quick Installation Guide x 1
- ABIT uGuru Handbook x 1
- Jumper setting label x 1
- Support CD x 1 / SATA Utility Disk x 1
- USB 2.0 cable x 1 / IEEE1394 cable x 1
- SATA cable x 2 / SATA power cable x 1
- ATA133 Round cable x 1
- FDD Round cable x 1
- I/O shield x 1


Miscellaneous
- ATX form factor (305x245mm)

[Frox]

I'm glad I saw this because I was also considering the Asus board.

Tom's Hardware liked the MSI K8T:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20031201/index.html
That may be the way to go.

[pjo123]

Yep I tend to agree.

Although Toms hardware says it supports 3GB Max Ram and the UK MSI site says it supports 3GB DDR 333 but only 2GB DDR 400.

Not that it will make any difference to me in the forseable future :)

I might change my mind though. I was going to fork out for a GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB. But I could save £100 and go for the GT version.

This will give me enough to get a 3500+ CPU and MSI K8T 939 MB and only be £7 more than the Ultra card, 3200+ & 754 board.

Decisions decisions

best

Phil

[amgeex]

I'm getting an ati x800 Pro, a 3500+ cpu, and a 250 gig SATA HD (do they work right?)!! :p :p I'm happy!

[bwkaz]

pjo123 -- you may be able to overclock the GT card (possibly even up to Ultra speeds).

BFG sells a 6800 GT overclocked to (and tested at) 370MHz core, with the standard 1GHz effective memory clock (500MHz GDDR3). The standard GT core is 350MHz. You might be able to get that up to the Ultra's 400MHz core / 1100MHz (550 GDDR3) memory speeds, if you're lucky.

However, the BFG 6800GT cards are pretty scarce right now -- your best bet if you want to look for one is to get their bundle (the card, a BFG 550W PSU, and Doom 3) for $100 more than the plain old card. But it's a pretty good deal if you need the PSU anyway (BFG support says my 6800GT requires about 110 watts all on its own -- add in an Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) at 90W, 3 7200RPM hard drives at 35-40W each, and a couple random PCI cards, and I need about a 450W power supply according to them, to be "safe").

Alternately, head to your local Best Buy or Fry's and see if they happen to have any in stock there (this works a LOT better if you live in an area where very few people know what a good video card is, like I seem to -- I was amazed that they had any in stock at the Best Buy here, but they did).

(Of course, then there are rumors of a 6800 Ultra Extreme card, which is supposed to have a 450MHz core clock and 1100 memory -- I'm not sure if any of those exist yet, though.)

[GnomeProject]

I stick to Gigabyte and Tyan (for server boards) and never have I once had an issue with them....

-Adam

[cozmo]

I bought one of the first dual athlon boards from Tyan and had nothing but bsods from both windows and linux for several months. Tyan blamed it on nvidia's drivers and I did try every beta for about six months. Funny thing was that only the stock windows xp nvidia driver didnt crash. After a few months they had a bios update and in the change log it talked about a compatibilty problem with radeon cards. The ironic thing is that their support site suggested to change to a radeon to avoid the issue, and before I sold the board on ebay I contemplated switching to the radeon. Tyan is known for making quality server boards, but if you ever want a quality graphics workstation I would suggest looking elsewhere. I have yet to have a problem with MSI or Gigabyte.

[pjo123]

Thanks bwkaz

Now more confused than ever :D

I've never come across BFG before here in the UK but a quick search showd the `6800 Ultra OC` with 530w power supply and water block for £380 at PC world.

It also showed the '6800 GT OC' for £270 but no power supply supplied. Both cards say they're 400Mhz RAMDAC and 256 MB GDDR3 memory.

Both say they are overclocked out of the box but apart from both cards saying they're 400MHZ RAMDAC and 256MB GDDR3, the site doesn't supply any more info about memory speeds.

If I look at another site in the UK (Dabs) it has the MSI 6800 ULtra for £368 and says it has a memory clock speed of 1.1 Ghz.

However on the same site, if I look at the GT version (£280), there's no mention of memory clock speed so I cant compare.

As a rule, I've always found PCWorld to be expensive compared to online retailers in the UK but their `BFG 6800 GT OC` looks very reasonable. If only they would supply more info.

I just used my brains and searched for BFG's web site to find more details, They say quote:

>> GPU NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 GT

>> Bus Type AGP
>> Memory 256MB GDDR3
>> Core Clock 370MHz (vs. 350MHZ standard)
>> Memory Clock 1000MHz (effective)

So I've also gone to Aopens site and to MSI's site but neither of these give the memory clock speed in their GT specs.

I thought buying a graphics card would be a fairly simple process lol

best

Phil

[bwkaz]

I believe the standard nVidia memory clock for a GT card is 1000MHz (1GHz). I haven't seen anybody overclock that, though I haven't looked much. I would guess that the other GT cards are 1GHz memory also, but I'm not sure. It might be possible to call the retailer...

I know the standard nVidia-specified memory clock for an Ultra card is that 1.1GHz number you saw. However, I'd be wary of that water block, if it means you need to run a pump to cool the card at all (unless you have water cooling already? ;)). If it means it doesn't have a normal heatsink and fan, I'd stay away from it myself.

The 400MHz RAMDAC really only determines the pixel clock rate (and I believe it only determines that when you're using analog video). That just puts an upper limit on the resolution you can run at a certain refresh rate (or the refresh rate you can run at a certain resolution).

[pjo123]

Many thanks bwkaz

I'm begining to understand now.

I will avoide the water block.

best

Phil