I'm considering building a new system with a server motherboard... Would going with something like S5000XVNSATA Dual 771 motherboard vs a quad core single cpu socket be better? As far as linux is considered which is better, 2 771 sockets or 1 lga 775 with a quad core cpu? This system is to handle large volume of ssh connections with a variety of server services running. I know there's alot of server motherboards out there and even a desktop motherboard would do but I specifically am interested in server motherboards. Let me know if you guys have any experience or knowledge with this. Thanks. Also I wouldn't want to go over 4gb ram or else I would need 64-bit linux os to make use of it and I dont like 64bit yet because of the applications not being compatible yet 100% for 64bit.

I'm going to say the 2 771 sockets. But only because there is some info out there about quad-core problems in different situations and drivers. Being that linux isn't neccessarily the most up to date in terms of driver support it could be a problem.

Although.. linux does support it so this may really be moot.

Beyond that I can't think of any reason not to go with the quad-core. Just from a stability issue I'm saying the 2 771's. Its a known to work quantity.