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

[Richard Humphrey]

I have had good luck with AMD and FIC mainboards. Like you though, I
havent shopped around in a few years so I cannot vouch for any of the
newest boards. Might check into it though.

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at ntlug.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at ntlug.org]On
Behalf Of Paul Drew
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 8:24 PM
To: discuss at ntlug.org
Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] (somewhat OT) AMD mobo/chipset
recommendations?


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"
>
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>https://ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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