Best choice for mb?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ***** charles
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***** charles

Hi all,

I have come into the posession of an ECS K7S5A Pro
with an XP1800+ and 512M (2x256M) of SDRAM
on it. Problem is, the motherboard is blown but the
cpu and ram are still good. So my question is which
ASUS mb would you recomend that I use for the cpu
and ram. Reliability is the main factor. I would like to
dual boot it to XP Pro and Linux.

thanks,
charles.....
 
Use a 2nd hdd for Linux. I had a partition blown with a Mandrake
distro so it can happen. Lucky my MS Win was partition uno so my
data was intact.

The question should be which chipset not which manufacturer. That is
question nr 2 after Q uno is resolved. Check the Linux sites for what
does not / does work.

arthur
 
***** charles said:
Hi all,

I have come into the posession of an ECS K7S5A Pro
with an XP1800+ and 512M (2x256M) of SDRAM
on it. Problem is, the motherboard is blown but the
cpu and ram are still good. So my question is which
ASUS mb would you recomend that I use for the cpu
and ram. Reliability is the main factor. I would like to
dual boot it to XP Pro and Linux.
Click to expand...


Well I would probably recommend either VIA KT880 (A7V880) or nForce2 chipset
(A7N8X-E Deluxe).

Both Dual Channel.
Both have a (working) PCI clock lock

nVidia board probably has better sound output.
VIA has integrated SATA, but the A7N8X-E does have SATA, but is limited by
PCI bus bandwidth - only a problem with 2 very fast drives in RAID, really.

If SATA RAID is a serious features that you will use to it's full potential,
I think VIA has the better architecture.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/via-kt880_9.html
http://www.pctuning.cz/default.aspx?ArtID=19710&CatID=236&LayID=2&ChapID=5599

Not much in it. The nForce is maybe a smidgen faster. The VIA doesn't have
tweaked drivers, maybe.

Now, with that out of the way, Linux Support: nForce2 must be pretty well
sorted now, last time I tried it you needed to turn off ACPI and APIC to get
it stable, but as long as you know that, no problems. Might have changed in
the last 3 or 4 kernel releases. No idea about the KT880.

So ther eyou have it. Not much in it unless you want Gigabit Ethernet or
SATA RAID. However, this doesn't take into consideration Linux support.
The KT880 is quite different from previous KT series chipsets, whether that
requires different drivers, and whether Linux supports it well is unknown to
me.

Good luck.

Ben
 
Ben Pope said:
Well I would probably recommend either VIA KT880 (A7V880) or nForce2 chipset
(A7N8X-E Deluxe).

Both Dual Channel.
Both have a (working) PCI clock lock
Click to expand...

I was hoping to use the 512M of ram I already have.
Both of the mb you mention have DDR, not compatible.

charles.....
 
I was hoping to use the 512M of ram I already have.
Both of the mb you mention have DDR, not compatible.

charles.....
Click to expand...


I had the same problem.

I would sell the SDRAM - it's very slow.

I had over 3 Gb of PC133, but I am now down to a single stick.

PC133 RAM costs more than PC3200 at the moment. :)
 
AN A7A266 would use the ram and you could also use DDR in it as well. The
board is old but it can use the ram and is extremely stable. Check for Linux
issues but realize that you would have little headroom to upgrade the CPU. I
saw one for 50 bucks on pricewatch.
 
Michael-NC said:
AN A7A266 would use the ram and you could also use DDR in it as well. The
board is old but it can use the ram and is extremely stable. Check for Linux
issues but realize that you would have little headroom to upgrade the CPU. I
saw one for 50 bucks on pricewatch.
Click to expand...
I would use an ASUS A7V8X-X - in fact, I AM using that board on a dual
WinXP - Linux system. Stable and upgradable to an Athlon 3000 if it
suits you. Mine has an Athlon 2400 with 512 MB of PC2100 ram. Runs like
a champ. This board is about $60 brand new from Newegg.
 
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