Motherboard recommendations?

blixel · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:02 am Post subject: Motherboard recommendations?

I'm done with my motherboard. I can't deal with these endless crashes (under Linux only by the way) any more. So...

Can someone recommend some good boards? Boards that you have personally had long term success with? As opposed to "I just setup this system yesterday and it runs great!" Motherboards are pretty much all in the $50 - $175 range ... that being the case, I don't care how much it costs.

From my own experience, and from what I've read, it seems that nForce2 based boards are the worst for Linux.

hds · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:05 am Post subject:

i am running 3 different EPOX boards here, and am happy with all of them.

blixel · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:06 am Post subject:

hds · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:08 am Post subject:

well, as you can see from my signature, they are not UpToDate. however, i think the EPOX support is excellent. you will get BIOS updates and such regular, you could check out at http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/index.php

i am using VIA chipsets btw.. they are supported well in linux (lm_sensors, etc..)

blixel · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:17 am Post subject:

gringo · Advocate Joined: 27 Apr 2003 Posts: 3793

I bought several asus boards three years ago and they work very nice with linux, no problems so far. And at home, im running gentoo on an Abit IS7-G for a year right now and i had no hardware related troubles til now.

MSI and Aopen boards are very nice too, and not as expensive as abit or asus. Check out their webs!

cheers
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blixel · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:02 am Post subject:

gringo · Advocate Joined: 27 Apr 2003 Posts: 3793

blixel · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:21 am Post subject:

micmac · l33t Joined: 28 Nov 2003 Posts: 996

Hi,

I myself bought an ASUS A7N8X-X for my TV-PC some time ago. It's very basic, but that also makes it quite easy to set up with linux. The drawbacks:

- IDE transfers are fast only with kernel 2.6. With 2.4 things like burning DVDs are painful
- I heard there are probs with onboard sound. I can't tell much about that because I don't use it.

Other than that the board runs fine.

Laters
mic

P.S.: One of the main reasons I bought this board was that it itself activates "AMD Powersavings". Normally you would have to use tools like setpci and/or athcool for that and often things break. This one does it on its own

zhitch · n00b Joined: 30 Aug 2004 Posts: 39 Location: Dayton, Ohio

My 2 cents...Ive got an ATI 9700 Pro and an Nforce 2 Mobo and all I can say is Ive never had a problem with Gentoo. Other distros had something that didnt work that was supposed to..but I can websurf..runa webpage..create documents..even game on Gentoo and not have hardlocks. The gaming performance sucks..but thats mainly due to the lack of good drivers on ATI`s part. The Nforce drivers have solved most if not all the problems I had with the 2.4 Kernel..and Nforce2 is supported in the 2.6 so all my hardware including the network adapter is supported in-kernel.This was NOT the case 6 months ago however. If you can afford a brand spankin new Intel or Asus mobo and the fastest Pentium 4 go for it. Im happy with my setup tho

ewan.paton · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 12:26 pm Post subject:

just a thought but have you considered a socket 940 board, the low speed opterons cost the same as amd64s but you as do the boards but the get a very high end workstation board that suports ecc ram and should have server build quality
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feld · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 593 Location: USA

I say also GO FOR EPOX! I have had a board of theirs for a while and it RULES!

Epox 8RDA3+ Socket A Nforce2 Ultra Mobo = I have NO problems at all with this board. I have NOT tested onboard sound, though, as I have an Audigy 2.

http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/products_content.php?ps=230

Gah tried to get a link to newegg but cant get their site rite now - its cheap like 70-80 dollars

check out all its features you'll be impressed!

Also ROUND IDE Cables included! :twisted:

-Feld

blixel · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:53 pm Post subject:

jonnevers · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 4:00 pm Post subject:

whats wrong with nforce2?

I have a nforce2 board and I swear by it, the support for nforce2 under gentoo is great... the only hitch in the giddy up is, forget about the built in sound. BUT that hitch is for a lot of other motherboards with built in sound based on the AC'97 codec, the intel8x0 alsa driver just dosen't support hardware mixing and it blows, bad.

nforce2 is a great performing chipset and well supported by linux, maybe you need a newer kernel... but as far as I know all of the nforce2 drivers have been merged into mainstream 2.6.

but as far as brands go, Abit, all the way.

Their boards are top notch, perform well and are stable.

Forget Asus, i've had three of their motherboards crap out on a friend of mine... one crapped out after a day of use.

if you don't want nforce2, go with an intel setup, a p4 with an intel chipset, that will be the best supported in general terms.

intel themselves make damn good motherboards but they tend to be more conservative. DFI on the other hands makes good boards that are more cutting edge (in terms of performance). But really I recommend Abit, high performing, customer oriented mother boards (overclocking ability, etc) + all the latest bells and whistles in some of the most stable long living boards I've seen.

neonik · Guru Joined: 08 Oct 2003 Posts: 501

If you want a number of features and high stability, there are Gigabyte and MSI mainboards. Chipset either i865 or i875, for a P4, Celeron and P4-EE on a 478 socket. But I guess you've got an AMD Athlon CPU, anyway see the links below.

Check there:
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/index/index.html#g
http://tomshardware.bizrate.com/buy/products__cat_id--419,keyword--Gigabyte,rf--tom026.html
http://tomshardware.bizrate.com/buy/superfind__cat_id--4,keyword--MSI,rf--tom026,sfsk--1.html
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LynZ · Apprentice Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 220 Location: MIPT

I vote for ABIT. Had got 4 mobos of em.... all of em are PERFECT in overcloacking and stability, complectation and support...
Yes they're quite expensive.
Don't buy ASUS, it's the worst nforce2 board for linux... and other boards... i don't know anyone who prefers ASUS, at least noone who is really smart =))

I have an NF7-S from ABIT. Had lockus after bios 2.4 upgrade, but since 2.6.6 nothing more.. and great performance. DUAL DDR, overcloacking, net.
Used built in sound via alsa.... not bad.... but u have only 2 speakers playing...
Since i got SB Live! i don;t need it anymore

RESUME:: GO ABIT OR EPOX AND NFORCE2
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KingPunk · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:12 am Post subject: Re: Motherboard recommendations?

goulash · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:17 am Post subject:

no probs with nforce2 here o_O

AnXa · Apprentice Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 250

I can warmly recommend ASUS. I have used nVidia, Ali and via. Most workable was Ali, but I think that Via chipset will work best.
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oggialli · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 12:56 pm Post subject:

Nowadays ABiT and MSI seem to have the best voltage regulation (both have 3/6-phase in almost all boards ?) which counts to both overclocking and even more to stability.
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feld · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 593 Location: USA

Gigabyte is CRAP!

I hate them now!

After 6 months of standard use for no reason the P1 connector MELTED on my motherboard. MELTED!!!! i had to cut the power supply cable to get them apart! It also fsck'd my AGP slot! I sent it in to warranty and they sent it back with a replaced P1 connector on the motherboard. They didn't even bother to replace the DEAD Northbridge fan that happened in all this. Also, they sent it back with the AGP slot all screwed up. I sent it back and bought another Gigabyte board. I received it DEAD. Sent it back and told them to shove it and went and bought an EPOX which has worked flawlessly.

BTW it wasnt my powersupply being cheap because it was an expensive Antec and thats what I got again. Antec rules the PS department.

-Feld

woZa · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:11 pm Post subject:

Had several via based boards (KT133 & KT266 - abits) and all had audio problems.

Now running an epox 8rda+ v1.1 nforce2 based board. Had very few problems other than crackling audio - an old pentium 1 heatsink on the southbridge soon cured that.

Depending on your budget I would recommend an nforce2 based board. They are fully refined as they have been around for a few years and all the bugs have been ironed out, cheap and loaded with features. Then you can get a Barton pretty cheap these days too.
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JackDog · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:27 pm Post subject:

I used to be a computer builder in college. Brand name wise, Epox and Gigabyte where the best. I highly recommend Epox as I only remember one bad board out of ~1000 that was dead. Gigabyte was more like 20 out of ~1000. Asus and Abit were 50-60 per ~1000. I think they all make pretty solid boards, comes down to probability and revision number. Epox had the lowest return rate and didnt suffer from release problems (when released too early and bios/driver/timing problems occur). I built many a server on Epox boards, rock solid. They are very underratted.

As for the chipset, nForce all the way. VIA is ok, SIS is borrible horrid. Nforce3 is a great board and every component on mine works perfectly under linux. nVidia is becoming a major linux player so I think their support will only get better.

Anyways, just my observations.

KingPunk · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:07 pm Post subject: