Off topic - mobo recommendations

[Dave Stevens]

On Saturday 02 May 2009 12:12:44 pm Robert L Cochran wrote:
> In my eyes AMD has fallen way behind the times. The Phenom X4 quad core
> processors don't have much on-die L2 cache and the different package
> profiles are a real pain. I don't know what is selling better for AMD,
> their ATI-branded graphics boards or their processor lines.
>
> http://products.amd.com/en-us/comparison/DesktopCPU.aspx
>
> I just priced a very nice Dell Vostro 420 system. The Intel Q6600 quad
> core processor offers 12M of L2 and based on my work with slower
> versions of the Q6600...that is a lot of speed. It's probably cheaper
> and more gratifying (in terms of real development products you produce)
> to buy one of these rather than going with a self-built AMD system. Most
> of my exposure is to the low end of both Intel and AMD consumer-focused
> processors. I don't think I've worked with either Opteron or Xeon
> processors for example. I wanted to build an Opteron system for myself,
> but then I became really interested in building circuits and physical
> computing.
>
> I don't know if the AMD Opteron processors are any better than the
> Phenom X4. It's hard to get through the hype on AMD's website and look
> at some Opteron comparison charts.
>
> Bob
>
> On 05/02/2009 02:40 PM, Tod Thomas wrote:
> > I'm shopping for a new developer machine for which I'll be using
> > Fedora as the development platform.  Its been about about 7-8 years
> > since I built a machine from scratch but since then I've accumulated a
> > lot of parts that ultimately could contribute to a nice box if I had
> > the right motherboard.
> >
> > I'm partial to AMD chips.  I'm not a gamer but I do like nice visuals
> > and decent sound.  I've got a good video and sound card now but they
> > are both 7-8 years old.  I suspect things have changed a lot and
> > almost wonder if newer motherboards don't offer better on board now.
> > I plan on taking advantage of virtualization so I imagine memory and
> > processing speed would be indicated.  Over the long run I always seem
> > to run out of PCI slots or USB ports so that would be a premium.
> > Economy is also a bonus.  I don't mind paying for performance and
> > extensibility but if I could get something pretty decent at a low cost
> > maybe I could buy a couple and replace another older board I have
> > running.  I also like BIOS's that are tweak friendly.
> >
> > Right now the fastest machine in my fleet is an Intel Pentium M 1.4
> > GHz running on a dell laptop.  My desktop (development) is running an
> > old AMD Thunderbird which I don't even think breaks 1GHz and has only
> > .5Gb of onboard memory.
> >
> > Sorry for off topic, just thought this might be the best place to get
> > an idea of what everybody else is using since we all share interest in
> > the same development platform.  Flame me directly, spare the list :)
> >
> >
> > Thanks - Tod

I use a self-built system with a Tyan s2932 motherboard. This is a dual 
opteron box with room for 64 gigs of RAM. I started using it a year ago with 
one cpu and 2 gigs. I wanted to not need to change the system for at least 5 
years except by adding to a working unit. So this way I can add a socket F 
cpu and lots of RAM. The socket structure is the same one used for servers so 
is stable. The AMD vs Intel controversy is producing more heat than light but 
what I especially like about the Opteron design is that they behave well   
under extreme loads, they degrade gracefully when maxed out.

I've been pretty happy, too with the TJ-09 case, it is roomy and aluminum is 
an excellet cooling material, unlike steel. Will hold six drives in the case 
in snap-out enclosures. I'm using an Antec Trio 600W supply, ATI graphics. 
Everything works well with F7, just about to go to F11 next month.

Dave


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