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Mad Merlin
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Joined: 09 May 2005
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 Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:14 am Post subject: New hardware time - quad core and 4-8G RAM (need input) |
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One of my older machines finally gave up the ghost (motherboard died it seems), and I'm looking to replace it. Right now my main requirements are a quad core CPU (Q6600 or Phenom 9x00), and 4-8G of RAM. The machine will be headless, so video card/SLI doesn't matter, though I would like a minimum of 6 SATA ports. The machine will, of course, run 64-bit Gentoo. I will not be overclocking.
Does anyone have an experience (good or bad) with any setups like this? In particular, it's difficult to find reports about motherboard compatibility with 8G of RAM. Basically I'm undecided on the motherboard, once that's picked it'll dictate the CPU to use and the rest are easy to pick. I'm partial to ASUS motherboards, as I've had good experiences with them in the past, but I'm open to other suggestions, though the motherboard should be passively cooled (ie, with heatpipes).
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Monkeh
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Joined: 06 Aug 2005
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Location: England
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:08 am Post subject: |
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I use the DP35DP with a Q6600 and 4GB of RAM, it works beautifully. No heatpipes, but as long as there's airflow, it doesn't need them. There's also the DG33FB, which is basically the same, minus two SATA ports (who cares? Get some port multipliers), with onboard video, PS/2, and floppy controller (the DP35DP is legacy free).
I'm unsure on 8GB of RAM, but it should handle it. Some other boards (I believe some ASUS ones are known to be trouble) do not work with more than 4GB of RAM properly at all. |
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Mad Merlin
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:59 am Post subject: |
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| Monkeh wrote: | | No heatpipes, but as long as there's airflow, it doesn't need them. |
My primary concern with an actively cooled motherboard is that the tiny fans on them are notorious for:
a) dying
b) being loud
The motherboard you mentioned doesn't appear to have any fans on it though, just heatsinks, so that would work too. Though, my main concern is with good 8G RAM support, as it seems everybody is still stuck 'dozing in 32-bit...
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Monkeh
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Location: England
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Mad Merlin wrote: | | Monkeh wrote: | | No heatpipes, but as long as there's airflow, it doesn't need them. |
My primary concern with an actively cooled motherboard is that the tiny fans on them are notorious for:
a) dying
b) being loud |
Yeah, been there, done that, won't be buying anything with 40x10mm fans again.
| Quote: | | The motherboard you mentioned doesn't appear to have any fans on it though, just heatsinks, so that would work too. |
Yeah, no fans, just heatsinks. They run fairly warm, but safe.
| Quote: | | Though, my main concern is with good 8G RAM support, as it seems everybody is still stuck 'dozing in 32-bit... |
I run x86_64 on mine, works beautifully, and should work fine with 8GB. |
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BitJam
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Joined: 12 Aug 2003
Posts: 2513
Location: Silver City, NM
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Take a look at this thread. |
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Mad Merlin
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:23 am Post subject: |
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Yes, I knew of the stability issues with the Phenoms and Barcelonas. There's supposed to be a BIOS update (with a performance penalty) that solves the problem, though.
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gruven
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Joined: 18 Jan 2005
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Location: Arkansas
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 11:10 am Post subject: |
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I have an Abit P35 Pro motherboard with a Core 2 Quad Q6600. It is running 8 GB of GSkill DDR2 800 Ram. It has been running like this since the day they delivered it. No problems whatsoever with Gentoo x86_64 except that you will have to use a newer livecd to install it because of the ICH9 chipset.
The motherboard even has 6 internal SATA 3.0GB/s ports, and 2 eSATA ports. |
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Mad Merlin
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| Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:04 am Post subject: |
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| gruven wrote: | I have an Abit P35 Pro motherboard with a Core 2 Quad Q6600. It is running 8 GB of GSkill DDR2 800 Ram. It has been running like this since the day they delivered it. No problems whatsoever with Gentoo x86_64 except that you will have to use a newer livecd to install it because of the ICH9 chipset.
The motherboard even has 6 internal SATA 3.0GB/s ports, and 2 eSATA ports. |
Hmm, is this the one? http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=6222
Looks like a good choice to me...
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gruven
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Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Posts: 25
Location: Arkansas
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| Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:26 am Post subject: |
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| Mad Merlin wrote: | | gruven wrote: | I have an Abit P35 Pro motherboard with a Core 2 Quad Q6600. It is running 8 GB of GSkill DDR2 800 Ram. It has been running like this since the day they delivered it. No problems whatsoever with Gentoo x86_64 except that you will have to use a newer livecd to install it because of the ICH9 chipset.
The motherboard even has 6 internal SATA 3.0GB/s ports, and 2 eSATA ports. |
Hmm, is this the one? http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=6222
Looks like a good choice to me... |
That would be the one. It even has support for Intel's new 45nm chips. It maxes out at 8GB of RAM though, so if you are going to need more, you may want to look around. 8GB does just fine for me though. |
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Monkeh
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Joined: 06 Aug 2005
Posts: 1656
Location: England
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| Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:30 am Post subject: |
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| gruven wrote: | | Mad Merlin wrote: | | gruven wrote: | I have an Abit P35 Pro motherboard with a Core 2 Quad Q6600. It is running 8 GB of GSkill DDR2 800 Ram. It has been running like this since the day they delivered it. No problems whatsoever with Gentoo x86_64 except that you will have to use a newer livecd to install it because of the ICH9 chipset.
The motherboard even has 6 internal SATA 3.0GB/s ports, and 2 eSATA ports. |
Hmm, is this the one? http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=6222
Looks like a good choice to me... |
That would be the one. It even has support for Intel's new 45nm chips. It maxes out at 8GB of RAM though, so if you are going to need more, you may want to look around. 8GB does just fine for me though. |
What NIC does it use?
E: Never mind, I can see on the pictures, two Realtek NICs. /me adds that board to his blacklist |
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gruven
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Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Posts: 25
Location: Arkansas
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| Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 10:01 am Post subject: |
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| Monkeh wrote: | | gruven wrote: | | Mad Merlin wrote: | | gruven wrote: | I have an Abit P35 Pro motherboard with a Core 2 Quad Q6600. It is running 8 GB of GSkill DDR2 800 Ram. It has been running like this since the day they delivered it. No problems whatsoever with Gentoo x86_64 except that you will have to use a newer livecd to install it because of the ICH9 chipset.
The motherboard even has 6 internal SATA 3.0GB/s ports, and 2 eSATA ports. |
Hmm, is this the one? http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=6222
Looks like a good choice to me... |
That would be the one. It even has support for Intel's new 45nm chips. It maxes out at 8GB of RAM though, so if you are going to need more, you may want to look around. 8GB does just fine for me though. |
What NIC does it use?
E: Never mind, I can see on the pictures, two Realtek NICs. /me adds that board to his blacklist |
Actually, I haven't had any problems with the Realtek NICs on this board. They both work very well with the r8169 kernel module. No disconnects, nothing out of the ordinary. |
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Monkeh
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Posts: 1656
Location: England
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| Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:10 am Post subject: |
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| gruven wrote: | | Actually, I haven't had any problems with the Realtek NICs on this board. They both work very well with the r8169 kernel module. No disconnects, nothing out of the ordinary. |
I've had enough trouble with Realtek to just plain avoid them. They're not worth my money.
e: Try 2.6.24-rc6 and tell me if they work. |
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gruven
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Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Posts: 25
Location: Arkansas
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| Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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Ok, running 2.6.24-rc6 with the r8169 module loaded and no problems.
Seems to be fine to me with this Realtek chipset. YMMV |
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CooSee
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Joined: 20 Nov 2004
Posts: 1540
Location: Earth
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| Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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ho, ho, ho,
here purrs a ' GiGaByte X38-DQ6 - QuadCore 6600 @ 8 GB RAM '    
everything worked out of the Box using zen-sources-9999 and never get problem with the NICs
... goodbye ASUS and welcome GiGaByte ...
every cent worth
mary Xmas 
CooSee ' Ya
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