Here is a follow-up on my earlier post in this thread about the ASUS M2A-VM. Last night on a whim I downloaded Debian 4 net install, thinking that I probably would get nowhere, since Debian is known for stability rather than leading edge support. After a couple of tries with different install boot parameters, it installed without a hiccup. Once installed it booted up perfectly.

So the ASUS M2A-VM is perfect for what I need to use it for. I have 2GB, Athlon X2 4200+ (dual core), 80GB IDE for my main OS, and 4 250GB SATA drives for my fileserver. I will be using evms for a raid5 with 3 drives in the active array and a spare. The system will be used primarily as a community webserver. That's why I am very glad that I finally found a solid and stable distro that would work on the mobo.

my MSI board works fine under all teh flavors of linux i have tried.

You guys are great! Thanks for this input, and for the links provided above by farslayer -- I'm having a look shortly.
I didn't realize the Pentium D was 'getting on' but will keep that in mind, and check other CPU's. I'm a big (Intel) P-4 fan, so my CPU will definitely be an Intel; as to which one, I'm not certain now. From what I can see the "newest" Intel CPU's seem to have relatively low speeds; now, where it might be a core-2 or duo or whatever, I don't know how a (for example) C2D 1.8 Ghz would compare to a P4 3.4 Ghz. The math tells me that the P4 is faster, but maybe I'm not up to snuff on the capabilities of the newest CPU's..
I am checking VERY thoroughly on the chipsets and other hardware onboard, infact I have stacks of printouts here and a whack of info to sort through, but I "think" I have the selection narrowed down to one of about a dozen boards. As much as I like Intel, I dislike Via, so the chipset I will most likely be using will be SiS or Intel (based on the corporate cooperation and compatibility/support between SiS and Intel, as well as some online benchmarking comparisons/results).
I agree with many about ASUS and GIGABYTE; based on reviews they look very good. However, here's some of what I'm looking at, in approx. order of likely hood:

1 - Abit GD8-M
2 - Abit SG-95
3 - Asus P5LD2-VM/SI
4 - AOpen i945Ga-PLF
5 - ECS RC410L/800-MGF V2.0
6 - Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH

So, the first 3 there are WAY atop my list; they look "perfect" for what I want, and compatibility with my existing peripherals and hardware, as well as having enough 'new technology' to keep me happy till my next upgrade.
I also have a selection of boards mixed in with these, from 'Albatron'; they have some really nice feature filled boards too, but I need some help finding a distributor/retailer/mail-order place. If you can help with that I would appreciate it, as all I can seem to find so far is the manufacturers website itself. Remember they must ship to Canada, so if you have a favorite mailorder house, please tell me.
Newegg, Tigerdirect, Mwave all have no Albatron products.
OK, I'll check in again later, maybe even with an update on the processor situation - and more info in that department would also be helpful, for example, why are the core speeds so low on the 'new fancy-dancy" CPU's?

Well, It's down to fine details between the Asus P5LD2-VM/SI and the AOpen i945Ga-PLF. If they were otherwise identical, I'd probably go with the Asus -- it has a better warranty for one thing. It also has a TPM chip, which I REALLY HOPE will act like it isn't there basically.

So, back to processors: taking into account the likely price of these boards, and my budget, a C2D CPU is not on the menu. It'll be:

P4 640 3.2GHz 800FSB 2MB (HT EIST 64) OR
PD 940 3.2GHz 800FSB 2x2MB (2core VT EIST 64).

Opinions anyone? pros/cons?? Also, I haven't investigated the 'Linux-friendliness' of either of these yet, but neither did I consider that when switching to Linux to begin with, so I think I'll be ok.

Keep in mind the Bugs that were recently identified in the Intel Core 2 Duo line of CPU's...

http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=118296441702631


Then also look at some processor performance comparisons.. don't forget to compare price along with performance
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/index.php
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

Thanks farslayer I've been to tomshardware a few times; quite helpful. I wasn't aware of the C2D bugs, but again, I think they're off the menu. But wow, that's quite a scary bug report :O
Well, it seems I have a keen ability to want things I cannot have -- from men who aren't single, to motherboards that aren't made anymore so I have had to widen the search a little again. Seems my top 2 selections (AOpen i945Ga-PLF & Asus P5LD2-VM SI) both are discontinued and on back-order or totally-unavailable everywhere.
Newegg.com has the AOpen model, but it's an 'open box' which I am very leary of; it isn't the missing items that worries me, but rather the reason why it was opened/returned/etc and what's it been through since being opened.. Of the missing items, all I would really miss is the rear panel plate, but I can deal with that.
OK, well off I go to have breakfast, check out those CPU benchmarks, and maybe find something to do in the--- Yes folks, the 'big scary wide outdoors'!!! It's sunny and nice out, and we don't get much of that around here..
Ciao for now.

Well then.. Must adjust the plan again a bit. Newegg.com nor TigerDirect.com nor MWave will ship to Canada. TigerDirect.ca has higher prices and less selection.
Luckily I have a good Asus dealer in town here, but still, I'm on a new tack at the same time: Foxconn.
Of course I avoided the never-before-heard-of cheesy name 'Foxconn' and low prices at the start, but though fairly new to manufacturing & retailing motherboards, they are (a/the) main Asian supplier of motherboard and PC components to the rest of the major manufacturers, and decided to start producing their own boards.
So far, reviews and tests I have read are very positive, prices are better than name-brand stuff, components and chipsets are the same as everyone elses, and I found a Canadian retailer who stocks a bunch of them, one of which has quite everything I want

..if motherboards were bacon, I'd be laughing :/

I used to use Gigabyte but after two failed, I have avoided them. I use nothing but ASUS now. I have three computers with ASUS mboards and am very happy with them.

I like abit the best because they have the best help forum of any mfg. MSI is my 2nd choice. I have used & like Asus, but they seem a little overpriced. Same with DFI.

I have tried Asus, ECS and Gigabyte. ECS was full of bugs. even after repetitive bios new version flash it didnt work well with my Geforce 256 (before Geforce2). Asus was OK, but not very customisable BIOS and boot options. My last 3 mobos are all Gigabyte. Not changing away. Very good customisation possibilities now in BIOS (few years ago with jumpers on board). I can change speed of processor, ram, FSB, PCI independently. I can boot off of anything that can be connected. But one minus is there - support is kinda not best. Thanks PC-God I havent had necessity to call them, but new drivers are rarity and not long time after release, they think only of newest models. But who needs them anyway, if everything is as it should be.

The only motherboards I would steer clear of totally would be Biostar. They are cheap, but I have only heard bad things about them. They are also sold under several different names as well.

ASUS And Gigabyte are both good and MSI iffy in my experience (Debian, its derivatives and Slackware are the only Linux distros that agree with my current hardware, which include an MSI motherboard).

EDIT: this thread is the first time I've heard people say good things Biostar. I guess these things are so variable, you get really bad boards from respected manufacturers as well.

to Grapefruitgirl, i recently bought a rther nice ABIT board for $95 it supports your p4 and DDR2 memmory, up to 2 gigs, it has Cross fire support, 8 channel audio, giga lan, a serial port, support for 12 USB's and 4 PCI slots,i cant remember the model off hand but il try to scrape it up for you



-Best Wishes
-Oby
PS do u kno how to get dual display support in ubuntu 7.04 64 or 32 bit? i have an N-Vidia 7300 GS with an athalon 64, bit XP 4000 Processor (single core) with and ECS k8ns1 lite mobe, n a couple hdds n 2 burners, plus 512 ram, with a SCSI card attached, ANY help would be nice

Hi Oby, thanks for the info and uldics too, thank you for that info.
Oby, I probably have seen or even printed out the specs of the crossfire board you speak of, there are a number of them. I am not an ATI fan, but my budget is limited and the options I am seeking are very specific, which is proving very difficult to locate.
I use an nVidia AGP card, and I am pretty much seeing that unless I buy a not-so-high-tech board, AGP support is rare. Therefore I have resorted to looking for a board with atleast *some sort* of onboard video. As well, it would be EXTREMELY handy if there were two IDE connectors.
Trying to find a somewhat modern Intel-chipset board, with Video AND 2 IDE/ATA connectors is ridiculous -- I don't know what these manufacturers think, but not everyone is willing/able to up and replace their storage devices AND video device the minute their mobo goes tits up so I am having a hell of a time. Short of buying a bunch of PATA-SATA adapters, AND/OR replacing some of my optical drives with a combo drive, AND replacing my video card, my options are few, and my absolute favourite finds so far are discontinued models .

As for your dual display issue, I can't speak to the 64bit issue, but the situation ought to be basically the same whether it's Ubuntu or any other distro -- the important part is the video driver. Somewhere around here, if you browse threads posted by me, you will find a number of them where I talk about dual monitors, particularly the Xinerama set-up that I use, which works very well. My Xorg.conf file is posted more than once around here too.
Best of luck; if I can help with further specifics, just start a new thread and email me the link. Meanwhile, search LQ for 'nvidia dual display' threads -- there are MANY of them

Sasha

PS - for curiousity sake, the most delightfully perfect boards I have so far identified, are from AOpen, Asus, and Foxconn. The Asus and AOpen models are discontinued.

if u dont have the MOBO or anything yet may i reccomend the KN! SLI Lite, by ECS, its sports any socket 949 AMD Processor, i baugt my board for 100, my 64-bite single core XP 4000 Processor for 125, and then 512 MD of DDR 400, for 60, and an N-Vidial 7300 GS Video Card for about 80, totall it was a GREAT DEAL, the MOBO has 2 IDE, 4 SATA< and 1 FDD, support for 12 USB's and Crossfire/SLI, however u would have to dump a lil extra cash if u want a Crossfire/SLI Video cars cuz the 7300 Doesnt Support them...again the MOBO is by ECS, i t has 8channel sound an all that good stuff, Ubuntu loads right up on it and works GREAT!!!!! i LOVE it, sadly though it doesnt have built on video, just a TV out on the MOBO...



-best wishes
-Oby

my personal preferance for MOBO's is Gigabyte, but unfortunately Fry's doesn't carry very many so im stuck with ECS, which works pretty ok, but doesnt have to customization options like Gigabyte does..., oh does anyone know how to boot offa SCSI drives? i have about 6 40Gb Ultra SCSI3 HDDS and a few 18 gigers, i cant quite figure it out, any help would be great, my SCSI card is made by adaptec, though i think i might get a better one, and my MOBO is the ECS KN1 SLI Lite, with 512 ram and an XP 4000 64-bit CPU, thanks in advance!!!! oh n my current setup is tri-boot on an OLD IDE Drive, im doin WInXP Pro with SP2, n Ubuntu 7.04, 64-bit and 32-bit, help with dual screens would be nice too, cuz everytime i try to download the NVidia drivers it totally screws up my comp...


-Thanks a BUNCH
-Oby