hello all...

im looking into buying a socket 939 motherboard. this computer will EXCLUSIVELY run linux (ubuntu 5.04 to be presice)

if you have a socket 939 motherboard (or know a lot about a particular board)
tell me about it

how does it run linux?
do all the components function properly?
any advanced configuration?
how do you like it in general as a motherboard?

i look forward to discussing this,
-the.rip

ps... yes i know what the hcl is, and yes ive looked through it

i got 2 (well actually one is my dads, one is my brothers), and well, i have tried it in 64 bit mode and about the only difference is you get a speed boost at the penalty of almost all binaries not running natively, apparently any program should run natively you just have to recompile it but that is not an option for most games, flash, and mplayers dlls, ut2004 is the only game i know of that releases it for a 64 bit OS

i installed FC4_64 on one of them and you have to install firefox as a 32 bit version and make that run in 32 bit emulation to get flash and all video formats as those are binaries that you cannot get compiled for 64 bit (at least not yet) and then you cant run America's army or enemy territory natively because there is no 64 bit version, again you have to run it with 32 bit emulation, so i finally decided to just run a 32 bit OS on it and now it just runs everything as 32 bit, its much easier

but if your don't need to use any closed source programs then just about all other programs should just recompile fine for a 64 bit OS

other then the closed source programs not working right there is no noticeable difference in usage (except what you can do when programming), it will work fine with any 32 bit version of linux and would probably a bit easier for you to use, and it will work fine with a 64 bit os and you get a speed bump for that but then some things are a pain

I'd like to extend the original question... I'm looking to build a new small-box (probably a Chenming 118 cube case) AMD64 system and not spend a whole lot of money. Socket 939 (Venice) or 754 (Sempron 64 Palermo) are both good CPUs. And since I have a Sony camcorder, Firewire IEEE 1394 would be nice too. But a lot of otherwise-attractive MATX motherboard seem to have Linux problems, and I want to be able to run both Windows and Linux.

What Athlon 64 Motherboards and chipsets are working okay on Linux now? I'm seeing a lot of negative postings on the ATI RS480 Radeon Xpress boards, though I saw one mention of 2.6.12+ fixing something or other. Is that now Linux-passable? It packs a lot of punch for Socket 939. I doubt its built-in video will work well in Linux, based on reports that most people can't get ATI's driver to work, but it would be nice if it could.

The SiS 760GX chipset is also nice, with cheap full-featured boards. I can always use a cheap AGP card (I'm not a big gamer but want TuxRacer and the like to work) if necessary, but if it has other issues I'd want to avoid it. The Winfast (Hon Hai/Foxconn) board looks like an especially good deal.

The K8M800 is the common low end chipset, with poorly-rated Unichrome video and AGP, but Via chipsets seem well supported. Only a handful have 1394 though. Is this or the K8T800 good in Linux?

The nForce3 is rare in MATX, and nForce4 needs a fairly costly PCIe video card, but I'll consider either if the right one comes along.

Suggestions, anyone?

my brother has this one (i think)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186066

its a amd64 and micro atx so it will fit in those mini cases, and we have never had any problems with drivers for the board, the sound card works out of the box and everything else that we care to use, also using a nvidia geforce 6600 vid card

so the things that dont work are hardware raid drivers (well i didnt bother to look for any, but it is not supported out of the box), i have not tried the firewire but i assume it works

I'm still struggling with Debian because of my nforce4 mobo. It seems these days you need old and out of date hardware to run Linux...

Slymat, that's interesting, because the nForce4 board that edman mentioned was precisely the "costly but safe" choice I was thinking about! For the most part nVidia has a good reputation, and I have MEPIS working an nForce2 (32-bit Athlon) IGP board. And I'm leaning now towards holding out for another month, because the nVidia C51 (nForce4 with IGP) chipset is due out on September 20; with any luck, a number of nondisclosed boards will be in the pipe by then. (As well as the Biostar wee-tiny board that leaked.)

I guess I should resist flaming Linus about this. One of Linux' weak points is drivers, and that happens because Linus insists that they be provided in source form. Vendors hate that. Linus forces the issue by gratuitously changing the binary driver interface in various releases, forcing a recompile. Windows does a far better job of preserving binary compatibility, though the 64-bit Windows XP apparently is incompatible and thus very weak in driver support.

I have a DFI "LANPARTY UT nF4-D". A socket 939 using nforce4 chipset.
Works well with Slackware*** (yes I know it is only 32bit but I run several closed source games that don't play nice with 64bit). I am even booting from my sata drive. I do like the board with a few reservations: first the bios is very involved(lots of choices and complex), and the location of the chipset leaves a lot to be desired; why?......with a full length board(mine is a 6800gt), the video card pushes down on the chipset fan. I had to be very careful as not to jam the fan(push down too hard the fan wouldn't spin). But after looking around it seemed that the layout of the chipset is fairly universal(right in line with the pci-express slot) with in the family of nforce4 chipsets. Could be that it is an over-sized fan? Otherwise it is a very stable and fast setup. Every thing works as well, the only things I don't use is the on-board audio and the second lan(but the lan is recognized). Been running it for about four or five months now without issue.
***Slack with a home rolled 2.6 kernel(now 2.6.12.4) but installed fine with 2.4

I bought a compaq that came with a Socket 754 Salmon/Asus SiS760 mobo. Can't get NVidia drivers to work without crashing the system. Tried lots of things I read here to get it to work, even tried different distros, finally gave up. Fedora 4 was unstable even with the generic driver and system would die in just a few hours.

I bought a VIA chipset mobo from ABit and it should be on it's way today, I'm hoping for better success with that board.

mwales,

Someone posting on newegg last week wrote this about the Asus 760GX board. Apparently with the supplied BIOS, it didn't work right in Windows, either, but it works with the new BIOS. Did you try updating that? Also, did you try Windows on the system, or just Linux?

Here's what was posted:

With a video card like a Radeon 9600 the board rocked and gave that video card performance like a 9800 Pro with the AGP driver they supplied - and this is an SIS chipset. But when I went over to a Gforce 6800 there were major vidoe problems related to the bios. Somewhere along the line they fixed the problem as the solotuiion hten was to just not load the GART (AGP) driver. The new BIOS ver 1013 handles the problem completely and the board is very sweet.

I suggest ABIT A8N Ultra. It is cheap and it uses no fan for the nForce4 chipset. It uses heat pipe to cool the chipset which is the only way to go if you do not want fan noise. You need active cooling for nForce4 motherboards or else you will get problems.

Stay away from SIS and ATI chipsets.

Debian is old and out of date. Try downloading the latest vanialla kernel.

isdnip: re MicroATX mobos

I have the MSI RS480M2-IL, which is an ATI Xpress 200 based 939 mobo, with a AMD 3000+ in it. Running Knoppix right now, but will probably shift to Ubuntu later. Kernel = 2.6.11.9-chw-2

I can't say that I really recommend this mobo. It's been a pain getting everything going. I'm starting to get it to work however. In detail:

• The OS loaded up perfectly and recognized my Seagate Barracuda SATA HDD and Lite-On DVD RW.
• I have been able to load the ATI 8.13.6 (I think) video drivers, so that's OK. The newer 8.14.x drivers don't work. Haven't tried it in 3D tho.
• Analog sound works; not sure about digital sound out through the S/P-DIF port. So far no go on that, but I've never worked with digi audio before, so I could well be screwing something up there...
• My Linksys WUSB54G USB wireless network adapter worked for a while, but now is failing again with bizarre messages.
• The clock runs twice as fast as it should. Apparently upgrading to 2.6.12 kernel helps, or using a kernel patch (timerhack). Will try that later today...
• It freezes on boot if any USB devices are plugged in. Apparently this is an APIC problem.

Other than that, things are OK so far. But far from a seamless install.

I'd be very interested to know what you turn up for good microATX 939 mobos, because I'm going to make another one of these, and would definitely be open to using a better mobo.

BTW, I've got an Aspire X-QPACK case, which I think is the same as the Chenming 118 you're thinking of. It's really nice. No problems at all so far. Fairly quiet, although not totally silent. Runs cool too, although I don't have a video card in it yet. The case internal frame is fairly strong, but the sides enclosure is thin. And try not to scratch the windows when building it.... it scratches very easily.

Electro, the A8N-Ultra is a bit to, well, ultra for my taste. The heat pipe is clever, but it takes away the legacy jacks, and I wouldn't feel comfortable without them (though I don't use them regularly any more either). Also, it's a full ATX, and I am looking for a micro. Good point about noise though. I do want quiet!

K-Bob, the RS480 looks really appealing, except for its Linux issues. Tons of capability in a small package. I think the timer bug is finally fixed (of course it does mean updating the kernel from whatever I start with) but the USB bug sounds annoying -- I suspect the APIC is tied to both bugs. I've been googling around for comments on that board to see how the Linux bugs are getting addressed. I guess it's gone from worse to merely bad. The SiS chipset seems a notch above it, Linux-wise, though not where it should be. Electro, I think I know what you mean about that; nVidia and VIA get better Linux support. The SiS does in general benchmark well, so I don't really see it as an el-cheapo part, though it prices out that way, and I generally do like bargains!

ATI's lack of support for 3D Linux video on it is unfortunate. I suspect the nVidia C51 will do better in that regard.

The Chenming case isn't quite the same as the Q-Pack, but you have to look hard. The Chenming is about $10 less, but its P/S is only rated at 300W (vs. 420, though some commenters are suspicious of that number). It's about an inch wider and an inch shorter. I could go either way. A 300W P/S should be adequate for a Venice or Palermo chip, though not a Prescott or X2. I have no intention of putting in a high-power video card, though I might end up with a relatively low-end (passive cooling, I hope) card, if the motherboard video thing doesn't work out.

isdnip, I did not mean you in my previous post. SIS chipsets are pathetic. The benchmarks are for Windows, so picking based on benchmarks is not smart. Again stay away from ATI and SIS chipsets. The 939 socket motherboards are for gamers, power users, braggers, etc. so the ABIT A8N-Ultra is light on features to keep the price down. An ABIT KV-80 comes with firewire ports and ABIT is a lot better brand than Foxconn, MSI, Biostar, ECS although its an socket 754 board. I do not suggest using nForce4 chipsets in small boxes because it does dissipate a lot of heat. You should not leech off of someone else thread.

Electro, I don't know why you think it's wrong to "leech" by joining an existing thread on the same topic. Many discussion boards I'm on (and I've been on them for well over 20 years, pre-web) complain when you start a new thread if there's an existing one on the same topic. To avoid confusion, some boards have "in reference to" types of pointers, but this one doesn't, so it's confusing if you don't say who you're directly addressing. I guess you can't please them all.

The KV80 is nice "but" only has two PCI slos, a gratuitous admission given that it has room for three; I think it was crippled to please the low-end oems who want to promote costlier uncrippled systems. 3-PCI+AGP K8T800 boards in mATX are rare as whales' feet. NForce3 boards are in the same category. The problem is finding "quality" boards in that form factor.

Sorry, I do not like leechers. They are inconsiderate of other people. I should not have to direct a response, because the person that started the thread has the spot light.

MicroATX boards are crippled. They are designed for people that are going to use it for web, email, office products, music, movies. They are not designed to have loads of hardware. If you care for the amount of PCI slots, get an ATX board. PCI Express boards are not more expensive than AGP. Some PCI Express boards cost less than AGP boards. The KV-80 gives you enough room add more memory without having to take out the video card.