motherboard with good support of linux
 

hi

after some time i have decided to go to a new mobo, because my current one (asus m2a-vm) is unstable i have to use all kinds of parameters when booting (acpi=off nopica irqpoll ...). i have used debian unstable, but i dont think it should have been that unstable. so i would like to ask you which one do you can tell you have good experience with stability, support of drivers for linux and such (good performance is also welcome).

parameters:

- am2/am2+ socket (amd athlonX2 processors)
- 4 RAM slots
- no need of onboard gfx (i will be using ati hd 3870)
- should be not too big, so it will get into HTPC

but if you think it should not be in mobo, but in user (me,hah) then any other tips and hints are welcome :)

thanks everyone

From personal experience I can strongly recommend the excellent quality
Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 which uses solid capacitors.

Most other users rate it highly and it works perfectly in Linux.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128081

Do not be put off by comments about the Northbridge running hot. A lot of motherboards do this.

I use a Noctua Chipset Cooler (NC-U6).
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p...chipset_cooler

I'm using Asus M2V with Debian Sid (Fedora, Centos, Studio 64) and haven't had any problems with hardware. Onboard souund, no gfx, up to 8GB RAM, AM2. The problem is that afaik it doesn't support AM2+. The other disadvantage is that BIOS does not support network booting.

Check these two places:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php/cat/8
http://hardware4linux.info/

Built a machine with a Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 and an amd 4800x2 and am pleased, but I under use its capacity. What kind of a load are you going to put on it? Server, overclocked gamer, small case with marginal cooling?

Everything works on mine with openSUSE 11.0 problem free. When I purchased, everyone was saying that Asus had fallen off in quality and Google told me that this one worked well with my prefered linux distro. It was available in Dk, not too dear, and even German users gave it no complaints... In Germany things are expected to work, De still has a living, demanding industrial culture.

Progress and change can be problematic with linux. I purposely bought something that had been on the market a while, and might now no longer be available, opting for good support in linux as against the newest.

I too looked at hardware sites, but found they were mostly outdated if I were buying new, though useful if foraging. Good Luck on your choice.

beachboy2 posted newegg. Great place to read reviews and many will say if and how linux works. I, too, went with Gigabyte last time. motherboards.org is another good source. Many of the ppl in forum are linux users and they know hardware.

If you are going with AMD chipsets, pick motherboards with 700 series for the south bridge. The reason is better performance for I/O. nVidia chipsets should also be good.

Just about any motherboard works in Linux. It all matters what hardware the motherboard contains that Linux supports. If the kernel has more mature modules or drivers for particular hardware, it will be more reliable and stable. Hardware to stay from that might be included in the motherboard is Marvel/Yukon NIC. Marvel storage controller, Silicon Image storage controller, JMicron storage controller, Promise storage controller. Not always ASUS motherboards are good. ASUS assigns their hardware with different registers, so the modules in Linux may not be able to control it correctly or may not be able to detect it properly.

Motherboards using heat pipe to cool off the chipset is better than just using a heatsink.

When picking micro ATX motherboards, you will have to know the maximum power the desire model can handle. AMD processors are up to 140 watts.

It might probably be a user problem. You may have wrote to the optical disc too fast instead writing slow assuming the integrity of the image is good. The memory probably is an over clocked version because there is a lot of them. If the memory have to be set at a high voltage like 2 volts to handle DDR2-800, it can cause some instability problems in the future because its life span is getting thin. Another problem could be the processor is not a B3 stepping if using a Phenom version. The power supply could be the problem if it is a low quality type.

Motherboards and devices using capacitors with solid electrolyte should last long.

An MSI DKA790GX Platinum can fit in an HTPC depending on your definition of size of a HTPC. An LIAN LI Lancool PC-K7B is a good case to go with it to minimize noise although I would remove the fans and use PWM fans that will hook up to a special circuit to adjust the speed relative to the temperature that is inside and outside of the case to provide the most efficient cooling at low noise.

FYI, everybody wants hardware to just work. This is hard to do with complex hardware that are out in the wild and manufactures are not following the rules.

Thanks i will sure check this!

Thanks for reply, i have already a pc i am just exchanging motherboard, it has mostly passive cooling, system is stable i am using 45W processor (4850e). i am not that much gamer anymore but sure i would like to play something from time to time. I was building this pc for mainly linux education. It is a small case Asus Vento M2. And i want to use debian not OpenSuse.

well i use a AMD AthlonX2 4850e, now Nvidia 7300gs (the big instability started when i used a nvidia kerner 2.6.26-1-686) but i am going to buy a ati hd 3870 from a friend. so i hope the drivers for this card are going to be stable :) And yes i definitely going to look for 700 chips. This board i have has 690 and thats the problems with acpi...

well i have only 45W processor which i am cooling with heat piped passive cooler.
The disc should be ok, i used that mini disc with network install (debian) the instability was just because of that i have not used those parameters with booting. I have just raised the fsb, and not too much. The frequency on rams is 900mhz only. Processor is Athlon. And the supply, dont remember the name yet, but i know its not some noname.

Thanks everyone for replies!