Since I had seen a lot of Asus boards for PII-350s working
just fine and Asus had (has?) a good reputation, I thought I'd try Asus instead of MSI.
I should say that I have not used every consumer/enthusiast mb out there, I can only report on those I have used. I tend to use ASUS boards because they work for me.
That doesn't mean that they aren't capable of producing a lemon/dud now and then. Every manufacturer is capable of that.
Also, they (ASUS) have been overpricing for some time now. Paying US$500.00 for a motherboard and *not* getting a CPU with it is ridiculous.
That said, for Windows Vista, the P6T Deluxe V2 works well. For Debian, it still works okay, although there are a few bits and pieces that are not well-supported yet. But that is true for all X58 boards, not just that one.
If you want a board for Linux, you might want a little bit more mature platform. Anything AMD should be fine.
Sorry I can't be more specific, Ron. I do read some of the tech blogs and testing sites, but they are not generally specific to Debian or Linux, usually, so I can't point you to a best choice.
Mark Allums