Francesco Pietra wrote:
Hi: My old K7S5A (SiS735 chipset) Athlon i386 lenny desktop has died and I am wondering how to set up a new one for the same service (running 32bit graphic scientific programs, besides office use, and establishing scp connection with my amd64 computing machines).
That machine has been around for a while, yes?Looking at the specs and a review that mentions that they would have liked to see the AMR slot removed in favour of another PCI or perhaps even an ISA, I'm going to guess this isn't what one would call an insanely fast machine. :-)
Absolutely no need of multicore, rather, a single fast processor would be of use for scientific purposes as parallelized codes are rare stuff. I thought to by a second hand single-processor motherboard but it might result as a bad jump into the past. Also, I have a couple of unused 150GB Raptor WD HDs that could only be used if nthe motherboard has SATA connections (better two, so as to set up a RAID1). Any suggestion on which motherboard (or motherboard type if you prefer to be uncommittal about brand) would be greatly appreciated.
Motherboard manufactures all have good and bad designs and runs, so recommending a brand isn't such a good approach IMO.
Anyway, (and I'm sure that you probably already know this) virtually any board easily available today is going to make use of DDR2 memory, will have SATA ports (usually 4, but I've seen some very low end ones that only had a pair), and may require a 24-pin power supply (some will still run with 20 pin or you might be able to get away with a 20 to 24 pin adapter).
Another thing to consider is PCI slots. I do not know how your old system is set up, but that board has five PCI slots. That many PCI slots is becoming hard to find on current motherboards with the average being three, perhaps four, sometimes as low as a single slot.
Myself, if I had a system similar to what you listed at the beginning, I'd find one of those low-end cpu/motherboard combo deals that show up at Fry's or newegg every so often. These usually consist of a Core2 based Celeron and an ECS (sometimes biostar) board. In my experience, the Core2-based Celerons running at around 2 Ghz (or less) are every bit as capable as a P4 3 GHz, but use considerably less power and generate a heck of a lot less heat.
If I needed a bit more CPU grunt, I'd get a CPU that is built on the Core2 platform that isn't a Celeron. IMO, there isn't much point in not getting a multi-core CPU. Looking at Newegg for example, a 1.8 Celeron single core and a 2.2 Celeron dual core has a price difference of 10 US dollars, and just about any CPU commonly available is going to have 64-bit capabilities, not that you have to us them.
Ultimately it depends on what your budget is, what is available in your area, and how much you want the newer board to do. But unless you are going to look at a machine that is about the same vintage as the old system, you are going to have to pick up more than just a new board.