I need help choosing a board. I just had to return a second PC CHIPS M-811LU back to newegg. The first one ran for 2 minutes. The second ran for less than 21 hours before dying.
Even the best manufacturers sometimes turn out lemons so I would prefer recommendation for exact boards (and revisions if applicable.)
This board will end up in a headless machine in my basement. It will run linux (Debian stable) and serve files over ethernet. It will be on 24/7 with little downtime.
My #1 top priority is a RELIABLE board. I don't want to deal with any more RMAs and I don't want this thing to die on me after six months of use.
My second priority is price. I'll be buying a new retail processor to go with the board. The processor and motherboard need to be around the $100 range. More than $150 is too much.
I'm open to any AMD processor but it seems that the socket A stuff is drying up. Also, it looks like I can get a 754 Semperon for not much more than I'd pay for a Duron 900 setup. Am I wrong in assuming that 754 is the way to go?
Would it be dumb to buy a budget 754 today with the Geforce 6100/6150 and nForce 430 boards on their way?
How is the Linux support for the Athlon 64 chipsets? I'm happy to compile a recent 2.6 kernel but I will not run closed source binary drivers for anything other than graphics. Are there any chipsets that I should avoid? Does any chipset have outstanding Linux support? I know there were issues with Linux support for the socket A nforce chipsets early on... Do the newest nforce chipsets (3 & 4) work on a stock Linux 2.6 kernel?
Ok, now on to the specifics...
These are the things I absolutely need:
- low DOA rate
- stability over the long term with the machine running 24/7
- solid linux support for the chipset (and if applicable the nic & sata controller) NO CLOSED SOURCE BINARY DRIVERS!
- availability from a reputable retailer like newegg
- no chipset fan
- two ide ports (do all boards still have them these days?)
- must be from a company who will actually replace/fix my board if it dies under warranty
These are things that would be nice to have:
- onboard nic (gigabit is a big plus)
- >1 year warranty [**1]
- sata ports - the controller should be compatible with Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS drives [**2]
- onboard video with stable linux support
[1] Someone mentioned that Epox is offering a 3 year warranty on at least one of their boards.
[2] I read that some SATA chipsets had problems with some Segate sata drives. Dunno much more than that...
I couldn't care less about this stuff:
- overclocking
- sound
- firewire
- onboard raid
Thanks for reading!
