Time for a new motherboard
 

OK, folks. The usual thread. :)

I'm looking for a new mobo for my office desktop. Just asking for model numbers being happily used by other Slackers. I don't need detailed specs. Just list your board if you are happily running Slackware and I'll do the leg work.

I am not looking for bleeding edge or flaky drivers. Just something newer and faster. Anything I buy will be a noticeable performance boost. That said, I want quiet more than muscle.

Current system is an AMD 5050e Brisbane with 8 GB RAM. On-board video. Slackware 14.2 64-bit. Been a decent system for 10 years, but I run VirtualBox VMs on this thing. Kind of sluggish. :)

I prefer on-board video. Intel only. No patience for Nvidia or AMD video. I'll consider a separate card but only Intel and fanless.

Thanks for sharing. :)

Edit: I forgot some specs: at least one PS/2 port for my keyboard and DVI-D for my monitor. I have a DVI-D to HDMI converter, so a DVI-D port is not critical. :)

Edit: Also need 6 SATA ports. I use the office desktop for experimenting and use drive bays. :)

Edit: While I am firm about avoidng Nvidia and AMD video, I am not particular about the CPU. I think quad core will fit my needs and then some. I think modern CPUs are power efficient at idle (run cool and pull low watts), which my office desktop pretty much does except when I run VMs or compile.

Based on limited personal experience and a lot of posts on the forum, newer Intel video (if memory serves correctly, Skylake and newer) tends to be quite problematic. You have to try and get the right combo of kernel and video driver to make things work properly, and if you don't manage that, you may end up with a frustrating experience.

That being said, I have a Gigabyte B150M-D3H-CF motherboard running a Skylake-based Intel Pentium G4500 (this is a temporary system until I build my AMD Ryzen system). I had serious video issues with the onboard video, the biggest being every time my monitors would go in standby, X would somehow forget that I had two monitors attached and when I would wake up the system, all open windows would show up on one screen and there'd be a crash/dump listed in my logs/dmesg. I tried troubleshooting and using a few different kernels and video drivers and eventually decided it wasn't worth the hassle and I put in my old ATI HD3870 (before ATI was purchased by AMD). That works flawlessly.

I have no fan/voltage sensors working using kernel 4.9.26 and lm_sensors-3.4.0, but my temperature sensors do work (although, I don't believe they worked under the 4.4 kernel from 14.2, but I don't remember for sure).

Realistically, if you are against binary drivers from Nvidia, your best bet is a few generations' old AMD video card. It should be well-supported by the radeon or amdgpu driver and will likely give you much better performance than an any onboard intel video could with much less hassle. You really only run into support issues with their newer cards, since it takes time for the support to trickle down to the kernels and mesa versions install in OSes.

And if you knock out the requirement of the likely problematic onboard Intel video, the AMD Ryzen platform may become more attractive with their impressive performance numbers. Just something to think about, but feel free to stick with Intel only :)

last year at work I had to request a quote for my own desktop and, looking around just a little, I opted for an Asus Z170-A.
it's working pretty fine since they shipped it here (I run current) attached to a Asus PB287Q.
about the sensors I too have just the cpu temperature detected with kernel 4.12.x and lm_sensors-3.4.0.

EDIT: I can't hear pretty much anything (the case is a Cooler Master Silencio 352 and the power supply a Cooler Master B700)

I'm happy with Supermicro X11SAE-M and Xeon E3-1275v5. My aim (just for fun) was a computer without moving parts, so SSD and no fans. The case is HDPLEX H5.

I have no problems with video (Intel HD Graphics P530), but I don't use 3D or KDE. For video driver (in /etc/X11/xorg.conf) I use "modesetting" (not "intel").

I'm very happy with the MSI 990FXA Gaming motherboard I have, if you are considering sticking with AMD CPU's. I currently have a Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition CPU, but looking to upgrade to the highest FX processor it can handle within the next year or so.

link here: https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/990FX...#hero-overview

Greetings
I haven't owned an OEM PC since my first one, a Tandy 8086, and I've built, modded, and repaired hundreds since then. For a long time I used nothing but Asus and they're still high on my list but a few years ago I tried out an Asrock Z77 and I've been very pleased. However there are only 2 motherboards I've ever owned that really stick out in my memory and that is the ancient Asus P3Bf with the venerable 440BX chipset and a SuperMicro S370 Dual CPU server board.

I still have 2 SuperMicro servers running while the Asus gave up the ghost years ago, so I am determined to buy a SuperMicro enthusiast board for my next mobo. I'm aiming very high, expecting to spend nearly twice what I've ever spent on a single mobo so I'm lusting for the MBD-C7Z270-PG or whatever replaces it, as I don't expect to buy it for at least 6 months.

Why? The Supermicro BIOS was the most feature-full yet simple and solid I've ever had the pleasure to work with and I'm expecting similar attention to detail and options for UEFI and I'm going to need that as I plan to use Legacy BIOS Mode for as long as I can hold out. Unless some major change occurs I see no compelling benefit/reason to switch to UEFI since it's benefits mostly suit Windows 10 which I will never use. That said, if UEFI adds features good for Linux I want to be able to switch with confidence and no low level formware has ever impressed me more than SuperMicro's. They are still completely designed in the US and that is another major Plus to me for many reasons. SuperMicro gets my vote and my money this time.

Quality? Combined -All server grade with attention to cooling and speed needed by extreme gamers which has an extreme benefit for non-gamers - They run extremely cool and quiet and essentially forever (in PC time anyway)

Here is an in-depth review at chip level. The reviewer is quite young so be prepared for lots of "awesomes" but he is also very knowledgeable about individual chips and gives an excellent review that demonstrates where the money goes and why it is likely valuable to you.

-- Excellent In-Depth Review of Why SuperMicro Excels --

This isn't the exact board I want but it is common to the design attention SuperMicro provides and may help anyone decide if such quality, reliability, stability and performance appeals to you.

To OP - While this may be more than what you were looking for please note that not only does it retain a PS2 port (either mouse OR keyboard compatibility) but even has an onboard COM port. A few here undoubtedly recognize how that can be important for networking, control consoles, diagnostics, scientific work (like MATLAB) and a host of other low-level controls few bother to provide anymore. This is the legacy from server boards - wide ranged support, built like a tank.

FWIW - I have zero connection to SuperMicro other than as an extremely satisfied user. I'm betting on the quality and versatility affording me a minimum of 5 years use and possibly as much as 10+ years. After all I still get use from 2 systems now 15+ years after their introduction. Seems a pretty safe bet.

Member response
 

Hi,

Depends on which processor that you want to use. I chose the ASUS M5A97 R2.0 for my last build. This motherboard supports AMD socket AM3+ multi-core processors with unique L3 cache. Better overclocking capabilities and less power consumption.
I wanted to have a water cooled system to lower the noise and allow better power control. This new system sits quietly in my Den office 24/7 with Slackware64. I am very happy with this board and running with no issues for a year now.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

mini-itx
 

I have used some M-ITX motherboards to try to minimize the desktop footprint of some machines.

My personal machine is "luggable" unit arranged on a wood frame that fits into an medium-sized carry-on bag. The present motherboard is a ASUS ROG Strix Z270I (mini-itx) with a i7-7700k Intel chip, 8G 3200 MHz G.Skill ram. It boots from an on-board Samsung 960 NVME m.2 chip. I only have Slackware64-current -multilib on my personal machine.

I used an Asrock Z87m-itx with a i7-4770k and a Samsung mSATA for 3 years but recently used that motherboard to replace the motherboard and chip in a older home desktop box unit used by my 13 year old daughter. At that time I also upgraded it with an MSI single-fan watercooling unit which has eliminated any thermal throttling issues.

I got really good service out of that unit and i first upgraded my personal machine with another Asrock motherboard since the first one had been so reliable. But after fiddling with the new Asrock z270m-itx I found it to be faulty and sent it back to the mail order supplier and bought the more expensive ASUS strix board locally as I was then pinched with downtime. I would say the ASUS Strix board is superior to the Asrock boards in several aspects but cost 30% more.

I now want to add watercooling to my luggable unit which presents some conquerable challenges for mounting the fan...

Power supplies have been an issue for me, perhaps because of variations in voltage as I travel in Asia. What finally worked for me is a Great Wall 1000W power supply which solved my power supply burnout issues quite reliably after frying several locally made power supplies and even an imported Antec power supply.

I am running a Gigabyte ga990fxa - ud3
I have a 8 core AMD FX cpu that I cannot recall when I bought but its lasting me great time. no plans to upgrade anytime soon. belive my FX 8 core cpu is a 8125 3.10ghz overclocked to 4 ghz any the cpu stays ice cold.

Gigabyte used to feature dual bios a safety feature incase main bios gets taken out somehow. not sure if they still offer it but is nice.

You folks running LGA 1151 mobos are not having issues with Skylake?

LGA 1151 with KabyLake i7-7700k no problems with Slackware64-current -multilib.

Fast, crisp, fluid, no glitches.

My luggable machine has a standard sort of cpu fan right now, so I am running a modest overclock.

With the processor? No. Things work as it should. I had a lot of issues with video running -current right before 14.2's release. The biggest being that once the displays would go to sleep, when they'd wake up, I would experience a core dump and one monitor would be temporarily disconnected (which meant all open windows would move to one screen). Once the system recovers (within a few seconds), both screens would be available and I could use them normally, until they went back to sleep.

I think the newest kernel at the time was an RC for 4.7, which didn't solve any problems. However, 4.9 or newer might have fixes that weren't in the older versions.

Unfortunately (for you, not for me), I've switched to a discrete AMD card around the time 14.2 was released and I haven't tried the intel video since. Things may have improved with the latest -current, but it might be hit-or-miss on 14.2, depending on the specific hardware combinations you're running.

I get the feeling that if I select a Skylake mobo I should use Slackware Current or wait until the release?

@upnort

You are kind to specify your current motherboard make and model? This one driving that low power processor, sluggish with the virtual machines?

I have my reason to ask; you know, there are many ways to skin a cat... ;)

I just built a PC around a MSI 880G-E45 that I picked up for $50. It's a little older, but 32GB PC3 G-Skill Sniper RAM OC'd @ 1600MHz and a AMD Phenom II X6 1100T make it quite the powerhouse. The onboard graphics chipset is "unsupported" as it is a ATI Radeon HD 4250 but the X drivers work fine for it.

EDIT: It also has a single PS/2 port, HDMI, DVI and 6 SATA ports.

But if you don't want AMD, well, I don't know what to tell ya. This thing kicks some serious butt.

My only complaint about it was that it doesn't have onboard USB3. But a simple PCI-E 1x card with a front expansion fixed that for me.

EDIT2: Oops, it only has 5 SATA ports, my bad.