My Slackware (v 7.1) box has developed a problem and I think I need to change out the motherboard. What I need to know is which ones have Linux drivers for the on-board peripherals, things like VGA and LAN, so I can use them. I want to pick up a cheap motherboard if possible but I cannot figure out where to look for Linux drivers. Can anyone give me guidance or pointers? thanks.

I'm afraid you won't be getting many useful answers until you mention which type of motherboard you are looking for. Which CPU? which socket?

Regarding the video card, I think cheap mobos won't give you much trouble. I think that a cheap onboard video would probably just use the standard vga driver, so no problems there. Regarding LAN, Linux support for LAN is very good in general. I'd just pick a mobo that looks good in terms of capabilities and price, then check for any Linux issues.

Hmmm. I think I want a celeron or an AMD cpu, whatever is cheap, and with a socket to match the board. I must be missing something here because I don't care about those things. As far as type, I have a desktop PC with a 630CF motherboard which features SiS chips and I want to replace it, ie, IDE drives, PCI slots, and whatever CPU matches the new board. If there is one without on-board peripherals but enough slots, that will do. I basically am running LAMP and writing PHP apps on the machine, while using it as a server on a LAN, low performance, software development. Is that useful info?

Ah, so you'll be replacing the CPU too, that's the kind of information that is needed. I have to say I have good experiences with and AMD3800 and an Asrock mobo. Not the most expensive but they work really well.

Btw, has it occured to you that you may also need to get different RAM? If you use the AM2 socket, it will require DDR2. One of the advantages of AM2 is that if offers more choice: the previous AMD socket (939) now only supports single core CPUs while AM2 supports both single and dual core. Speaking of which, the prices of dual cores have been dropping fast over the last weeks. Entry level models just aren't all that much more expensive than single cores anymore.

Maybe you should look for a few online computer shops so you can get an idea what is within your budget.

939 has both single and dual core capability. I am running a 3800+ X2 right now(asus a8n-5x). The price difference between a 939 and a AM2 cpu does make it (AM2) a much better deal. Personally I see a lot of issues with motherboards using SIS,VIA chipsets or even certain intel chipsets. I have had good luck with Asus. A good place to look for motherboard reviews (even if you do not buy from there) is newegg. Make sure you read a lot of the reviews because there are a lot of issues complained about that are more user errors than motherobard problems. The other thing to consider is while the better chipset motherboards are a little more expensive up front($), they are a lot cheaper in the long run (fewer headaches).

Good Luck
Lazlow

I too would echo the recommendations for newegg and asus. Both have always served me well.

lazlow,

939 did support dual cores but that option was dropped a few months ago. I have been looking around since I was considering updating my AMD to a dual core but I just cannot find any dual cores for 939 anymore, only single cores and even those will be abandoned before long. Maybe if you're lucky, you may find a small shop that still has one of those in stock but I wonder whether it's a good idea. And already AMD is planning an AM3 socket...

Btw, ASUS is expensive and although things have settled by now, I can assure you that the ASUS mobo in my main computer was a tremendous pain in the a* until Linux caught up a few months ago: no internet, SATA issues, etc.

Jay

Here are 9 from newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...name=Dual-Core

I got my a8n5x when FC5 came out, internet worked fine, sata worked (had to shuffle an update). Biggest problem I had was configuring LMsensors.

lazlow,

I think that only confirms what I said. 939 dual cores have officially been dropped by AMD and it's only some sellers that still have some for sale. I'm more or less sure you would find it much harder to find, say, a 4800 or 5000, let alone a 5600 or a 6000 (which were never made for 939 to begin with afaik). And althoug it's tempting, I seriously wonder whether I would see any performance boost at all. The 3800 is quite fast actually and I wonder whether the entry level X2s could really keep up with it.

Jay

I think by the time you add motherboard + cpu you would come out ahead with the AM2 (way ahead). But to say 939 X2s (in general) are not available (this is the first mention of the high end speeds) is just untrue. The single core / dual core thing really comes down to wether the app you are running is multithreaded or not. If it is multithreaded then the x2 3800 will out run the 3800. If it is not multithreaded I would suspect your 3800 would out run a 4400 X2 (just a guess). It all boils down to what you are doing. If you run a lot of small tasks at one time then X2 will work quite well. If you run one non-multithreaded task at a time then X2 will work relatively poorly.

lazlow,

don't forget I'm talking about the situation in Europe. I have checked online shops in several countries here and none have any 939X2s left anymore - not even the 3800. Don't ask me why, it's just what I have found.

btw, the performance question arose because I am running a Core 2 Duo 6600 as well and with the current state of software, performance really isn't all that much better, in spite of all the promising benchmarks that motivated my choosing Intel intead of AMD. Sure, if I feed it some really heavy stuff, I do get to see the difference, but most of the time I don't.

Jay

Never noticed your location.

Yeah, the number of multilthreaded apps I use are very few. Avidemux2 is probably the best example I can name. The last couple of k3b version had a DMA problem due to something not being thread safe (was cleared up in 1.01?).

On your problem with asus, I would bet it was more a matter of chipset (see post#6) than a problem with asus. Most of the 965 chipset motherboards had the exact same problems as you regardless of who made the board.

The sad/funny thing is for about 50% of my daily task I do not see that great of a speed advantage between my X2 and my old PIII 1ghz. Yes, there are lots of apps that I do see a HUGE speed difference.

This is really confusing. I don't know whether I'm making progress or not. From what I'm reading I think there is a cheap combo:
ASUS A8V-XE Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD board,
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Venice 2.2 Ghz Socket 939 cpu model ADA3400DAA4BY
for $79. But it seems the above comments are dissing VIA and 939. So I'm wondering, does this seem like a viable combo for my Slackware machine? Sorry to be so dense but this is confusing.

And another thing: I have no idea how to select RAM for this thing. Are there diff speeds and if so, how fast does it need to be?

rdx

I think to some extent we all are a little unsure about ram types. A good website to check what memory is appropriate for a specific motherboard is: http://www.crucial.com/ . Their memory advisor tools is quite handy. Just because you used their tool does not mean you have to buy from them. From what I could see that motherboard uses pc3200 memory. This is very common with a lot of different manufactures/models to choose from.

The easiest way to see if a particular motherboard is problematic would be to do a search of the forum and see if a lot of people have had problems with the motherboard. If you do not find anything it may mean that there is no problem or that no one has posted a problem with it. A google search may also provide useful information.

Wherever you priced that cpu is very high. Newegg lists that same processor for $40. It also lists a 4000+ for $64. They also list your motherboard for $55(to give you an idea of the basic area the price should be in).


Good Luck
Lazlow

Edit: I miss read your post and thought the price was just for the cpu, sorry.