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

[Paul Drew]

Howdy,
I am an AMD guy myself, and I have been using Soyo products for a few years 
now. I am VERY VERY happy with my Dragon boards. I have an older Dragon 
Plus! board which is 266mhz fsb. The newest version they sell has everything 
you are looking for including the onboard raid. I have had 0 issues 
installing Mandrake, and Redhat on them including messing around with the 
raid functions with no issues encountered.

I in fact have 2 of the Dragon Plus! boards, and I love them. I had my 
original one, and then I managed to screw up my bios in a Power Supply 
failure (long story), and I had lost the reciept and had no way to return 
it. (I had been using it for about 10 months anyways). I found another just 
like it, and I replaced mine, and was back in business quickly. After being 
a nerd and not giving up, I was able to repair the bios on the original and 
bring it back from the dead. (Some very nice features built into the board) 
I am now using it as my Linux box which I learn, test, and geek on.

If I sound like a fanatic about it, its because in a way I am. I have been 
very happy with AMD because I have not had to upgrade my mobo each time to 
get the new speeds. I have in fact been able to use a 600mhz duron with this 
board, and now its got a xp2000+ in it. The new Dragon Ultra and others they 
sell with all the snazzy features will suport to the full capacity of the 
2600's and are completely backwards compatable with the the old chips like 
my 600 duron. The features on the boards speak for themselves, and the level 
of granular control in the bios is astounding. I tweaked my ram settings to 
get about a 30% boost in performance after running 3dmark2001se. You can 
overclock it 1mhz at a time, usb2.0, and onboard lan, onboard dolby digital 
5.1 sound (hardware). Tons of other features are on it too. I suggest at 
least looking at Soyo, but I know that alot of other manufacturers have 
caught up with them. This board was revolutionary 2 years ago when it came 
out. Good Luck with whatever you buy. Have a great day, and take care.

Paul Drew


>From: "Darin W. Smith" <darin_ext at darinsmith.net>
>Reply-To: darin_ext at darinsmith.net, NTLUG Discussion List 
><discuss at ntlug.org>
>To: "discuss at ntlug.org" <discuss at ntlug.org>
>Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] (somewhat OT) AMD mobo/chipset recommendations?
>Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 16:19:27 -0500
>
>I have a dying drive on my box at home, and the prospect of replacing it 
>has led me to consider upgrading other parts of the system...
>
>So, I'm looking for recommendations and warnings for/against motherboards.
>
>It has been a couple of years since I went seriously mainboard shopping, so 
>I'd like to hear what folks think is good and bad these days.
>
>I'm an AMD guy, so that narrows the scope some...
>
>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)
>
>USB 2.0
>IEEE1394 not essential, but nice to have
>at least one NIC (LAN)
>supports DDR RAM, say at least a Gig
>H/W RAID supported by Linux is a plus
>I don't care about sound and video--I'll be recycling my SB Live and 
>GeForce4
>
>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
>
>I guess my biggest worry is the Nforce2 chipset on some of these boards.  
>Anybody here using it?  Experiences?
>
>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.  Plus, the Asus has Serial ATA, 
>so maybe it is a little more future-proof? (Right...)
>
>Opinions?
>
>--
>D!
>Darin W. Smith
>AIM: JediGrover
>"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite 
>you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." --Mark 
>Twain "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"
>
>_______________________________________________
>https://ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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