X2 motherboard recommendations

[arkyfedobolan]

hi,

i'm looking for a nice, dependable motherboard for an X2. i've spent a
while shopping and comparing and starting to feel i'm drowning in a sea of
motherboards.

this is a replacement for a recently-built system;
essentially, i tried to do lots of research already, and ended up
accidentally buying a gigabyte motherboard without dual-core support
took months to even realize that something wasn't right, and in any case
now must remedy the error.

system is a 3d workstation running suse linux. only needs 1 hard
drive (files are NSF served, so big and fast storage isn't a priority).
rest of specs:

antec p160 case
PCIe nvidia quadroFX 1300
needs:
SATA
PCIe
front panel connectors for USB, audio, power, etc (do all motherboards
have this?)
as quiet as possible
COM port
Gb ethernet would be nice

don't need SLI, don't plan on heavy overclocking, don't need 8-channel
audio.

should be $75 or less.

i see a bunch of options on newegg, but i'm hesitant particularly because
it seems like for every motherboard there, half the reviews report it DOA
or Dead within 6 months. are this many boards really faulty? or are those
just the people who post reviews? or are people overclocking them wrong
and messing them up? help!

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

--arky

 

[Merrill P. L. Worthington]

hi,

i'm looking for a nice, dependable motherboard for an X2. i've spent a
while shopping and comparing and starting to feel i'm drowning in a sea of
motherboards.

this is a replacement for a recently-built system;
essentially, i tried to do lots of research already, and ended up
accidentally buying a gigabyte motherboard without dual-core support
took months to even realize that something wasn't right, and in any case
now must remedy the error.

system is a 3d workstation running suse linux. only needs 1 hard
drive (files are NSF served, so big and fast storage isn't a priority).
rest of specs:

antec p160 case
PCIe nvidia quadroFX 1300
needs:
SATA
PCIe
front panel connectors for USB, audio, power, etc (do all motherboards
have this?)
as quiet as possible
COM port
Gb ethernet would be nice

don't need SLI, don't plan on heavy overclocking, don't need 8-channel
audio.

should be $75 or less.

i see a bunch of options on newegg, but i'm hesitant particularly because
it seems like for every motherboard there, half the reviews report it DOA
or Dead within 6 months. are this many boards really faulty? or are those
just the people who post reviews? or are people overclocking them wrong
and messing them up? help!

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

--arky

ASUS A8N5X

 

[Skipai Otter]

hi,

i'm looking for a nice, dependable motherboard for an X2. i've spent
a while shopping and comparing and starting to feel i'm drowning in a
sea of motherboards.

this is a replacement for a recently-built system;
essentially, i tried to do lots of research already, and ended up
accidentally buying a gigabyte motherboard without dual-core support
took months to even realize that something wasn't right, and in
any case now must remedy the error.

system is a 3d workstation running suse linux. only needs 1 hard
drive (files are NSF served, so big and fast storage isn't a
priority). rest of specs:

Okay.

1. What model number is the board?
2. Is it a socket 939 board, if so, then have you updated the bios on it so
that it will accept a x2 chip? That may be all that is needed to activate
it. Some of the 939 boards were out before X2 cpu's came out but there are
BIOS updates out there on the Gigabyte website that will enable support for
them. I would check that first before buying another board.

Unless you have checked and it can't then do so but that would be the first
call I would do.

 

[arkyfedobolan]

Okay.

1. What model number is the board?
2. Is it a socket 939 board, if so, then have you updated the bios on it so
that it will accept a x2 chip? That may be all that is needed to activate
it. Some of the 939 boards were out before X2 cpu's came out but there are
BIOS updates out there on the Gigabyte website that will enable support for
them. I would check that first before buying another board.

Unless you have checked and it can't then do so but that would be the first
call I would do.

good suggestion. it's a GA-K8VT890-9, Revision 1.0. The "Revision 1.0"
is important, apparently. There is a BIOS update for the -Revision 1.1-
board that DOES provide dual-core support, but not one for the Revision
1.0.

arrh! curse you, Gigabyte! it's too bad because other than that it is a
great motherboard. actually all 15 are great. except for the lack of the
..1 revision.

and curse you, Monarch Computing, for your build-it-yourself configurator
allowing me to shoot myself in the foot to the tune of around $30,000, and
forcing me to try and hide the mistake from the hordes who would all too
gladly say "See, you should have bought those Dell Pentium D's or Apple
G5's like we told you." (gnashes teeth).

i'll check out the Asus ... i hear all these other dire things about Asus
boards' bootup power timing conflicting with certain power supplies unless
you do some kind of power draining voodoo on them; how serious is this?

thanks,

--arky

 

[DP]

and curse you, Monarch Computing, for your build-it-yourself configurator
allowing me to shoot myself in the foot to the tune of around $30,000, and
forcing me to try and hide the mistake from the hordes who would all too
gladly say "See, you should have bought those Dell Pentium D's or Apple
G5's like we told you." (gnashes teeth).

$30,000 for your computer?

 

[Merrill P. L. Worthington]

good suggestion. it's a GA-K8VT890-9, Revision 1.0. The "Revision 1.0"
is important, apparently. There is a BIOS update for the -Revision 1.1-
board that DOES provide dual-core support, but not one for the Revision
1.0.

arrh! curse you, Gigabyte! it's too bad because other than that it is a
great motherboard. actually all 15 are great. except for the lack of the
.1 revision.

and curse you, Monarch Computing, for your build-it-yourself configurator
allowing me to shoot myself in the foot to the tune of around $30,000, and
forcing me to try and hide the mistake from the hordes who would all too
gladly say "See, you should have bought those Dell Pentium D's or Apple
G5's like we told you." (gnashes teeth).

i'll check out the Asus ... i hear all these other dire things about Asus
boards' bootup power timing conflicting with certain power supplies unless
you do some kind of power draining voodoo on them; how serious is this?

thanks,

--arky

I've never had a problem with an ASUS board. Lots of builds lots of
configurations. Lots of different power supplies.

 

[arkyfedobolan]

$30,000 for your computer?

hehe. no no, for 15 of them.

--arky