New AMD 64 Machine

dbeer · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 82

Hi All,

I am after some advice. I am considering upgrading to a 64 bit machine. I will be upgrading my current machine so i will be planing on keeping mos t my exsisting hardware.

I am really looking to be replacing my motherboard, processor, memory and possibly graphics card. I have a small problem in that I can't afford to do this in one go, so i will be doing this in stages. I am not sure on what motherboard would be best especially stable and good under linux. My other problem is that i don't know how much of the new graphics technology is uspported under linux.

My exsisting graphics card is a AGP 4x and needs upgrading anyway. I don't need a top of the range card just one that works and will allow me play games well when i want to. Although i do prefer ATI to NVIDIA, but if drivers are a problem then i am open to suggestions. I don't do much gaming more development and surfing the web.

Should i try and upgrad to a PCI-E or and AGP 8x graphics card as there are few which support both technologies and well.

As you can see i have lost touch with what hardware is what lately and which is best.

Thanks in advance.

David

ikaro · Advocate Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 2527 Location: Denmark

Hi,

Since you say you don't do much gaming, id recomend a nvidia card with agp8x, going to use SLI or PCI-X its a waste of money just for web browsing
and desktop usage, and even which games are already using all the bandwidth that those cards have, and can you play them with linux? - and nvidia seems to have better OS drivers than Ati - sue me if im wrong.

It seems that the nforce chips are the way to go - so if you cant afford a nforce5 go for nforce3/4 motherboard.
DFI, MSI and just some brands that seem popular.
cpu get what fits in your budget.
memory - i can recomend corsair, but if thats too much - I think kingston value ram its a good have a good ratio price /performance.
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linux: #232767

XhwMikey · Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 5:24 pm Post subject:

dbeer,

Probably a ton 'o posts with suggestions somewhere in this forum. But here is what I'm running (happily, and quite stabilly (if that's a word...)). Cost was a concern when I went 64 bits as well. So here goes.

ASUS A8V Deluxe (the older version *NOT* pci-x! only 8xAGP). At the time of purchase there was much pci-x vaporware, and while it sounded good, was not viable. I would not consider myself a gamer - occasional forays of home lan based bzflag, neverputt, tuxracer, and xgalaga - all fantastically acceptable on my rig. I knew from past experience that nvidia was the way to go with Linux (of any flavor), so I purchased an fx5900 based board from gainward. It is plenty fast for me, but if you play more intricate games, you may want to bump that up to the next level. From your post, I don't think I would go through that next level into pci-x. While I think this (pci-x) will be the future, I dont think you need that added expense for the smallish (IMHO) gain in performance. I put in 1G of ram, Kingston, and I'm glad I did. AMD Athlon64 (Socket 939) 3500+ CPU with the supplied heatsink. SATA disks are the way to go, but if you have PATA they'd be fine. GET A GOOD POWER SUPPLY - if you have some extra dinero, put it into a good power supply - I have a 500W (Antec - I think) that was rated well on the web - as I've heard the AMD chips don't like voltage hash.

Beyond that, just peripherals. I use the on board audio - works good enough for me you may want more (or better). And I have a Haupauge PVR-250 Video Tuner card for my Myth-TV setup. Life has been very good so far. Every once in a while I bump into a 32 bit-only plug-in or codec issue, but these will be resolved in time. Other than that its nice here on the 64 bit side of the fence. Welcome!

HTH

MikeyB
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The Flogging will continue until morale improves.

crazycat · Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 9:10 am Post subject:

pci-x is not pci express. Just sayiing it cause you can run in some misunderstanding there. Pci-x is an inudstry-standard 32/64bit 33/66/100 mhz parallel bus which was there for ages. Pci-expres is relative new serial standard. pci-x is used in servers cause it has much more brandwidth than normal pci and you will not find normal consumer hardware for that bus. Most high end scsi/lan controllers are made for it.

dbeer · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 82

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the suggestions. It is really good to know about the drivers issue. I think i will be keeping my 64MB ati graphics card for a bit longer and just upgrade the motherboard and chip on my exsisting machine. I will probably add some extra memory. I think i will stick with AGP until i either need to upgrade my graphics to the new standard.

But for now i will keep as much as i have and re-use componets.

Unfortuantely most of the games i play are on the Windows platform so i will have to keep up to date with what windows is doing as well.

But thanks for all the advice.

Any more suggestions are welcome.

David

dbeer · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 82

Hi Guys,

I have a small question related to graphics cards. I currently have a ATI Radeon 8500 64MB AGP 2x/4x compliant card. Will this card work on a 8x Mobo.

Thanks guys

andrew_j_w · Guru Joined: 28 Jun 2003 Posts: 534 Location: York, UK

Yes, AGP 8x is fully backwards compatible with earlier versions.

HTH,
Andrew

dbeer · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 82

Thanks for the reply