[NTLUG:Discuss] (somewhat OT) AMD mobo/chipset recommendations?

[Kelledin]

On Tuesday 17 June 2003 04:19 pm, Darin W. Smith wrote:
> What I'm looking for:
> Support for a single Athlon XP 2600+  (I would also consider
> something that would support dual MP processors, in case I
> ever want to add the 2nd one-- but right now, I have little
> need for 2 procs)

An nForce2 motherboard would do great for uniprocessor support.  
Early-rev nForce2 motherboards sometimes have trouble sharing 
dual-channel 333MHz (PC2700) memory with the integrated 
graphics, but you probably won't be using 333MHz FSB or the 
integrated graphics.

If you think you might want duallies one day, the AMD760MPX 
chipset does rather well, but it will probably never support 
333Mhz FSB.  My advice for duallies would be to go for Tyan's 
S2466-4Mbit (760MPX chipset, working onboard USB 2.0) or an Asus 
A7M266-D.  Stay away from the original Tiger MP (S2462); some 
(all?) revisions of that board have known AGP problems handling 
high-powered Geforce cards like yours.  The Tiger S2466 
_without_ the 4Mbit doesn't have working USB ports but may 
include a USB 2.0 PCI card.  The original Tyan Thunder MP 
(S2460) has a non-standard ATX connector that you may need a 
special PSU for.

Also, when using a dually motherboard with 760MPX chipset, you 
may have to force the 64-bit PCI bus to 33MHz mode.  If it's 
allowed to run at 66MHz, devices on the 32-bit PCI bus will have 
bus-mastering troubles.  Keep this in mind.

> USB 2.0
> IEEE1394 not essential, but nice to have
> at least one NIC (LAN)

Most (all?) nForce2 motherboards have at least one 10/100 port, 
and often two.  None I know of have a GigE port, though. :(

Many 760MP/MPX motherboards have one onboard GigE-over-copper 
port.

> supports DDR RAM, say at least a Gig

Easily satisfied.  Pretty much every DDR motherboard in existence 
meets that requirement.

> H/W RAID supported by Linux is a plus

Don't set your hopes too high on this.  I'd advise that you 
forget about this and get offboard RAID instead (or just use 
Linux soft-RAID, which works about as well for RAID0,1, and 10).  
Linux support for IDE RAID cards isn't too great, especially the 
onboard ones--and the onboard ones are usually pretty 
stripped-down variants of the offboard models.

> It looks as if there are quite a few candidates out there that
> would fit the bill.
>
> I see the BioStar M7VIT, Epox 8RDA+, and A-Open AK79D-1394 and
> the Asus A7N8X Deluxe

EPoX 8RDA+ and Asus A7N8X Deluxe are both good choices.  My 
sis-in-law has the A7N8X deluxe and seems to like it just fine, 
though not with Linux.

> I guess my biggest worry is the Nforce2 chipset on some of
> these boards. Anybody here using it?  Experiences?

nVidia makes partially closed-source drivers for their onboard 
LAN, onboard video, and onboard sound.  I don't use them myself, 
but those I know who do say the Linux drivers work quite 
well--using them is about the same as using the nVidia Geforce 
Linux drivers.

If you choose not to use nVidia's drivers for the sound, the ALSA 
snd_i8x0 driver also works (though not supporting all the 
features).  IIRC LAN only works with nVidia's driver, although 
it's based on some kind of RealTek chipset.  You obviously don't 
care about the nForce2 video.

> If there are no big problems, the A-Open and Asus boards would
> probably be my leading candidates.  The AOpen has the 1394 and
> the Asus has the RAID, so if the RAID is Linux-friendly, I'd
> probably prefer that to the 1394, as I have no 1394 devices
> laying around yet.

Again, see my comments on onboard IDE RAID.  I don't know how 
well the Asus onboard RAID works, though.

> Plus, the Asus has Serial ATA, so maybe it is a little more
> future-proof? (Right...)

I don't normally get excited over IDE (I'm a SCSI elitist), but 
Serial ATA is COOL.  Support for more than two devices per 
chain, designed for easy hot-swap with the right connectors.  
Unfortunately, these features would probably lie fallow for a 
while, as current 2.4.x kernels don't handle them all too well.

-- 
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does 
it still cost four figures to fix?"