Hi all,

I am really pulling my hair out on this. I am looking for a motherboard for a MythTV Home Theatre PC setup.
I already have the processor: AMD 64 X2, AM2 socket.
Looking for a motherboard in a MicroATX size, that will have everything I'll need.

Does anyone have experience getting the AMD 690G/V chipsets working under Linux? I'd prefer this to nvidia's chipsets since I read the reviews from Phoronix. But I'll have no problem falling back to nvidia if support is still lacking.

I had my eye on a few motherboards, but there were problems for each of them:
* Gigabyte's GA-MA69VM-S2 --> no/little overclockability, mixed reviews.
* Abit's NF-M2 nView --> Discontinued and hard to find!!! If anyone knows where to find this new (besides eBay) let me know please!! This is my first choice (despite it being an nvidia chipset). If anyone knows anything wrong with it, let me know too, otherwise I've heard only good things about it.

Any other motherboard suggestions would be more than welcome. Here are my requirements:

* microATX size
* AM2 socket
* Wake On Lan capability
* Overclocking a big Plus
* SATA II (I only have SATA drives)
* Silent Fanless cooling solution
* 10/100 Ethernet (Gigabit optional)
* Firewire port
* USB 2.0
* Audio onboard HD with SPDIF in/out
* PCI-E slot for nvidia video card
* 2 PCI slots (both will be used)
* Compatibility with Linux (using Gentoo)

I know, tall order, but I'm more surprised how rare all these features are. Most manufacturers don't include any SPDIF in compatibility, others lack Firewire, or they'll only include the features only in an ATX size.

Thanks for reading this, I very much appreciate any input
Sam

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=&srchInDesc=

that returns 8 results at first glance (1 out of stock). I don't use AMD (I'm and intel person, myself). not much, but it's a place to start. You could probably narrow those down somewhat (based on brand/north bridge/number of RAM slots), or just google "MOBO_NAME Linux" to find compatibility info. That's always worked for me.

Thanks very much for the reply. I know I'm asking quite a lot, and LQ isn't really the place to be asking these questions.

In your list, StargateSteve, I saw the DFI Infinity. Looks like a good candidate. I'll check up on the reviews for that board. Don't know how that slipped past my radar.

I suppose the clincher is the SPDIF in/out functionality. Not many manufacturers make these, now, including the popular ASUS. I recall SOYO and Chaintech making these years ago, for the ix86 processors.

Anyway, here's a more LQ-compatible question:
How well supported are these new chipsets by AMD, the 690 G/V? I've searched the Internet, but there aren't too many testimonials about their compatibility in Linux.

Also, how well supported is the Nvidia's chipset GF6150/NF430? The latest news I've heard from that chipset is from posts dated back to 2005 by users with problems.

Thanks
Sam

All motherboards should work in Linux. You have to do your homework what hardware the motherboard contains. Stay away from Marvell NIC and SATA. Also stay from JMicron IDE and SATA.

nVidia motherboard chipsets for AMD processors are a lot better than the models for Intel processors.

If the kernel does not have support for a particular chipset, it will use software that is most compatible with the new unknown chipset. I do not suggest buying motherboards based on AMD 690.

mATX motherboards are not design for overclocking. If you want to overclock, buy an enthusiast model. If you do overclock, inside the case will too hot for fan-less setup.

+1

MythTV requirements aren't that high so UNDERCLOCKING a recent cpu is a rather efficient way to have a nice fanless setup.
I used to run an Athlon XP 2600 (2.2GHz) at 900mhz fanless and its absolutely sufficient.

I came here as a last resort, so I did do as much homework as my taxed brain could manage. With the new chipsets out there, there was relatively little I could go on, especially with the AMD's.
Sometimes it's just difficult to cross-reference 50+ motherboards + accessories, and I needed a bit of a helping hand. At this point, I can't use anymore doubt if the hardware is supported or not.

But thanks Electro and Rootbear, you've kind of eased my mind about it. I'll stay away from the AMD chipset then. I was considering overclocking, but really only just to see if I could do it. I figured that I'd want a motherboard that would give me flexibility in that department. >sigh< I guess concessions must be made for the greater good. I'm already whittling down my choices too much.

Appreciate it,
Sam

I recently bought this Biostar mobo and put it in a HTPC case with a dual core Athlon 4400+:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138074
It idles at 39C with ondemand frequency scaling, overclocks very well, and has four DDR2-800 slots. Everything works with the latest distros EXCEPT the onboard video. So plan on buying a card or making due with the VESA driver for a while.

The 7050 version comes with an onboard HDMI port instead of DVI-D, by the way. I haven't tried it with Linux though and to best of my knowledge (and googling) nobody else has either. So you could be the first... please.
http://www.nforcershq.com/article7879.html
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2111

I'm not sure why you think overclocking your machine is important. It shouldn't be. Keeping noise to an absolute minimum is however.

I can say that picking the right CPU is more important. Stay away from some of the lower rated AMD CPUs, because some don't have scaling implemented. I got burnt there and it still annoys me.

From a motherboard perspective, check whether it supports timers. I found that to be very useful in a myth setup. Contrary to what you might think, it is actually fairly trivial to get myth to schedule automatic shutdown and restart and that should be a fairly big energy saver for you. I've found it to be very stable under Gentoo, with not a single failure over a year running with it. Beware of DST changes however!

Note that many articles mentions nvram but I found that my DFI board worked happily with the real time clock alarm, thus saving me any major hassle with the nvram stuff.

I mentioned this because I wanted control of processor clocking. Never having encoded cable content & HD before, I wouldn't know if the processor would be up to it, or if it would be an overkill. Since the processor was the first purchase I made, I was stuck with it, so I wanted flexibility in other areas.

How can I tell if the processor supports scaling? Not that I can do anything about it now, but this is the one I'm using http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desk...=ADO3800IAA5CU
Please don't laugh, you 5000+ users. I'm working on a budget.

Instead of timers, I planned to have it wake through an IR event or WOL. I'm already looking at some hardware for the IR. I don't want this machine operating 24/7 either.

Hi Crito, Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I don't have any HDMI components in the entertainment center, so I wouldn't be able to test it anyway, though my goal is to get advice on what is tried and true, and not to be testing anything .

I have another question. I'm using two hard drives, one is a special read-only flash drive, that will have a majority of the OS on it. Since it will be read-only, I need to put the directories that Gentoo and MythTV will regularly write to on the other large capacity drive. Does anyone have a good idea what these directories would be?

Thanks for all your help and support,
Sam

Its an asus with nvidia chipset, but works great with gentoo.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...ct=3823&cat=37