Re: OT:Motherboards and Processors
On Sat, 13 Jan 2001 12:44:06 -0800
tjm <tmollica@silcom.com> wrote:
> Computer show today and looking for any recommendations
> for stable motherboard and processor combinations in the
> 700-800Mhz range, 133 Mhz bus and it doesn't matter whether
> it's AMD or Intel for the chip.
Hi, Tony.
The AMD Duron 800MHz processor is particularly good value at the moment and is well supported by Linux. It outperforms the nearest Celeron by a wide margin. I have a Soltek SL-75KV2 motherboard which uses the VIA Apollo chipset (KT-133). It is an ATA 100 board and the 2.2.18 kernel, patched with the ide-patch, supported ATA 66 easily. I currently use the new 2.4 kernel which only configures the hard drive at ATA 33 - but as soon as an ide patch is available for 2.4 I fully expect to see ATA 66 again.
Some KT-133 boards use the Promise IDE controller and I have read of difficulties installing Linux on these unless UDMA is turned off, or a non-ATA 66 ribbon cable used temporarily.
I have built a few machines using the above components and where ther has been a stability problem one one machine it was completely down to the power supply - AMD processors are very particular about the PSU - and as soon as this was replaced the machine was completely stable. The symptoms were spontaneous rebooting, freezing, and occasional refusal to boot at all. AMD have a list of approved PSU/Cases on their web site, but as long as the spec says Athlon or AMD approved all should be well. It is not necessarily down to the output of the PSU either - a 300 watt unit is not OK just because it is 300 watts.
Hope this helps a little.
--
Phillip Deackes
Using Storm Linux 2000
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