Planning amd64: what chipset?

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canadian_psyko · Post by **canadian_psyko** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 5:21 pm

I'm planning to upgrade my computer over the next little while, and I'm planning to go with a 64. I know mostly what I want to use, with the exception of the m/b.

I know I want PCIe, which (iirc) gives the option of either an nforce 4 board, or a Via kt890.

Just curious about support for the 2 chipsets. Which one is less hassle, etc.

I tried searching, but couldn't really find anything.

Also: options on ati vs nvidia card?

Thanks

Cam

nitroburn · Post by **nitroburn** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:09 pm

nvidia definetly, besides if you get a board that supports it you can use SLI! I would also wonder if SLI works in linux...that would be amazing!

MSI mainboards are the best and most reliable - IMO

Jim

qwijibow · Post by **qwijibow** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:28 pm

i dont know about Nforce4, but nforce3 works great on my system. (use the open source drivers than come with the kernel rather than nvidia's own drivers..Nvidia's own drivers for sound are OSS only.. no ALSA)

for graphics cards, its a hands down no contest Nvidia ! purely for excellent Linux Driver support from nvidia.

canadian_psyko · Post by **canadian_psyko** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:41 pm

I think I remember reading that SLI will work with linux.

But I can't find anything to prove or disprove that in a short time frame I'm on right now.

qwijibow · Post by **qwijibow** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:42 pm

Nobofy thought to look at the Nvidia website ???

http://www.nvidia.com/page/pg_20040624928832.html

What operating systems will be supported?
32-bit and 64-bit Windows and Linux OS (when available).

crazycat · Post by **crazycat** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:53 am

The best about nforce is their integrated lan. But else they are imo overpriced since the main performance issue -> nnorthbridge is already on the cpu, u dont have to worry about performance anymore. I would suggest u look for benchmarks or features u need like sli or just best price/performance (which atm are via's on socket 754)

canadian_psyko · Post by **canadian_psyko** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 2:01 am

Well, at the moment, the Asus SLI board is what I'm aiming for, I like the idea of 8 SATA ports.

Even thoguh I have no drives yet, I can upgrade.

Though I have to look more, I really like the Abit 3rd Eye in my friend's computer I just built. And DFI looks interesting.

fourhead · Post by **fourhead** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:52 pm

Definitely NVidia they have great Linux support imo. Just installed Gentoo on a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum yesteday, and everything worked right from the start - LAN, SATA (also booting from SATA) etc. For a graphics card: Go NVidia - definitely! ATI is good but their Linux drivers really suck, sorry.

Tom

slugworth · Post by **slugworth** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 6:06 pm

As much as i love ATI on windows, its holding me back on Linux. Its a real shame. Im trying to use E17, its usuable, but lag is pretty visibal. Im also not planning on playing any games anytime soon.

slugworth · Post by **slugworth** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 6:15 pm

As much as i love ATI on windows, its holding me back on Linux. Its a real shame. Im trying to use E17, its usuable, but lag is pretty visibal. Im also not planning on playing any games anytime soon.

magnesium · Post by **magnesium** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 6:38 pm

From what I've read on hardware review sites I'd have to say go with the NVidia NForce4 chipset. I'd also recommend purchasing an NVidia video card as ATI is terrible at support for linux.

[rant]After lying to the linux community for over a year saying that they were comming out with linux drivers for amd64, when they finally did come out with a driver they said they would update those drivers every month. STOP THE LIES!!![/rant]

um... I might be a little sore on the issue, but I assure you it's for good reason.

Also, make sure that you get a mobo and CPU that are socket 939, and spring for the extra cache on the CPU (go for 1M not 512K). Also I'd suggest getting a mobo that supports SATA2, as from what I understand there are actual speed benefits with SATA2 and it's not all marketting hype.

Hope that helps,
|Mg|

P.S. Don't bother with SLI for a linux box. bIIIIIIIGGG waste of money. Linux frame rates are not as good as windows frame rates on newer video cards because vendors don't invest as much time in supporting development of the drivers.

hvengel · Post by **hvengel** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 7:28 pm

canadian_psyko wrote:...
Though I have to look more, I really like the Abit 3rd Eye in my friend's computer I just built. And DFI looks interesting.

I have an Abit AV8 which is the same basic board as the 3rd Eye minus the temp/fan/voltage display that would make it a 3rd Eye. For the most part it is a very nice MB. But there is one short comming when running Linux. The chip that is used to read the sensors and control fan speeds (named uGuru) is not supported under Linux. Abit has not made kernel modules available and does not intend to make them available and will not give the information needed to create these to the lm-sensors team. So you can not use lm-sensors or any other Linux program to monitor temps, fan speeds and the like. But I have a question. Does 3rd Eye work in Linux?

On the other hand uGuru's fan speed control can be setup in the BIOS making it OS independant. But the down side is that the control range is very limited. On my Zalman 7000 Alcu CPU cooler the slowest fan speed I can get is about 2100 RPM and it maxes out at about 2700 RPM. If the BIOS allowed a better range of speeds I am sure I would be able to get the Zalman fan to work well at speeds below 1000 RPM. You can control up to 3 seperate fans this way linked to 3 different temp sensors. So if Abit fixed the limited control range problem this would be a great feature.

So yes this is a good motherboard but there are a few problems that Abit needs to address for this to be a great motherboard.

GNUtritious · Post by **GNUtritious** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:00 am

hvengel wrote: So yes this is a good motherboard but there are a few problems that Abit needs to address for this to be a great motherboard.

First off, for the PCI Express, you'd need the ABIT AN8 (NVIDIA) or AX8 (VIA), not the AV8. Concerning the AV8, the lack of support for the sensor chip can be a problem if you plan to rely solely on the motherboard's temperature feedback for overclocking. Personally, I've found that the temperatures given by "uGuru" are anything but accurate. Addtionally, there's a compatibility issue with a large number of Antec power supplies and there may be a few vendors still selling older AV8's that lack BIOS revision 17, which is needed for 90nm support. I also own an ASUS A8V, and IMHO, it's no better than the ABIT.

Concerning a chipset, I'd suggest NVIDIA, even though I own two 64-bit VIA boards.

Concerning a motherboard, I wish I knew a 64-bit manufacturer worth recommending. In general, the best boards I've ever owned were Tyan (though costly and lacking features).

d4rk74m4 · Post by **d4rk74m4** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 5:22 am

magnesium wrote:From what I've read on hardware review sites I'd have to say go with the NVidia NForce4 chipset. I'd also recommend purchasing an NVidia video card as ATI is terrible at support for linux.

[rant]After lying to the linux community for over a year saying that they were comming out with linux drivers for amd64, when they finally did come out with a driver they said they would update those drivers every month. STOP THE LIES!!![/rant]

IIRC ATI *never* said anything about updating fglrx every month. What they *did* say is that there will be a release every *two* months. We had 8.8.25 in January (was late, supposed to be December), 8.10.19 in February (keeping on track with the two month cycle).

And I wouldn't say that ATI is *terrible* since 8.x.x, in fact, things seem to be progressing nicely. You can't expect a change overnight.

UberLord · Post by **UberLord** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:49 am

slugworth wrote:As much as i love ATI on windows, its holding me back on Linux. Its a real shame. Im trying to use E17, its usuable, but lag is pretty visibal. Im also not planning on playing any games anytime soon.

I'm playing Doom3 on my 3500+ 1gig RAM ATI 9800 pro (256 meg)

Whilst the fps is almost half that of Doom3 on Windows XP on the same machine, Doom3 is still playable. I would also say it's more enjoyable as the sound is perfect under Linux whereas it can be very crackly at times under Windows.

caravela · Post by **caravela** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:07 am

i got a Nforce3 (MSI K8n neo2 platinun) and a AMD64 3000+ 512mb (333 ) anmd quite happy with the system run very fast and smooth, minor problems with the onboard sound card that is pure crap.

GNUtritious · Post by **GNUtritious** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:57 am

caravela wrote:minor problems with the onboard sound card that is pure crap.

A nice feature of the ABIT AV8 (and possibly AX8) is that the VIA AC97 controller has hardware mixing support in ALSA and sounds great. However, you'd have to weigh this against the problems I mentioned above.

Poe · Post by **Poe** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:36 pm

Hmm... I'm planning to buy this mainboad - Abit Fatal1ty AN8 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 196&depa=1 witch nVidia nForce4 Ultra. How do you thing about this mobo? Any 'special' problems with this?

+ athlon64 3200+ socket 939, 2x512ram, any gf 6600 or 6800 series on PCI-e and Segate barracuda 200/250gb SATA... IMHO it's good PC

greetz

GNUtritious · Post by **GNUtritious** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:48 pm

Poe wrote:Hmm... I'm planning to buy this mainboad - Abit Fatal1ty AN8 ... How do you thing about this mobo? Any 'special' problems with this?

I don't know if it has the same issues I mentioned above (e.g., power supply incompatibility and no sensor support), so you may want to look over the abit forums before making a purchase.