AM2 Motherboard advice

douglase7 · Post by **douglase7** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:01 am

I am looking for advice on what to buy next for my next custome build.

I curently have:
AMD Athlon X2 4200 Socket AM2
Antec P150 case

I am wanting to use my system for dual boot with windows XP and linux.

I am looking for advice on what motherboard, Memory and hard drives people on here would recommend before I proceed any further

Any thoughts greatly received

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:27 am

I'd assume you don't plan to do any serious gaming? If this is the case, anything with nVidia 6100 or 6150 would be your best bet IMO. Good performance (as far as integrated video goes, at least), low power, affordable, and should be well-supported in Linux. 6100/410 is also a good minimalist chipset because it doesn't seem to include a lot of features that most people don't need. The southbridge has just the essentials, two SATAII ports, 10/100 ethernet, etc.

For a specific board, check out the Biostar Tforce-6100.

vfrex · Post by **vfrex** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:13 pm

Well, I can advise you on what NOT to get. I just built an AM2 system with an Asus M2N-E (nforce4), and there are lots of issues in Linux. I couldn't get the integrated NIC to work, and sound is spotty.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:20 pm

That's odd, nVidia is supposed to have excellent Linux support. Have you downloaded the latest Linux drivers from nVidia? Are the LAN and audio functioning using nVidia's integrated controllers, or 3rd party controllers installed by the motherboard manufacturer?

vfrex · Post by **vfrex** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:28 pm

I don't remember exactly. It has been a couple of weeks since I've worked with it. However, I did try googling around, and I am not the only person with the ethernet issue.

edit: I should say, I am not particularly knowledgable when it comes to dealing with driver issues in Linux.

brokejumper · Post by **brokejumper** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:51 pm

Can anyone suggest a quiet AM2 board without onboard video?

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:55 pm

brokejumper wrote:Can anyone suggest a quiet AM2 board without onboard video?

There is no reason not to get onboard video. It costs nothing, and, if you don't use it, it doesn't slow anything else down.

If Biostar's AM2 Tforce 6100 is anything like the S754 version, it may be the best AM2 board period.

The key to the Tforce reliability are those fat shiny capacitors above the CPU socket:

My cheap Tforce 6100 is faster/more stable than anything else on the market. The Geforce 6100/nForce 410 chipset is probably not the coolest chipset, but it is the coolest nVidia chipset. The only thing the Tforce 6100 lacks is Gigabit ethernet. Oh, and I could also use one additional 1/8" audio jack on the back panel. It looks like they fixed that on the AM2 version. Unfortunately they dropped the parrallel port--I still need that for my laser printer.

I am still waiting for ATI to release the RS600 chipset. That might improve on the Geforce 6100.

cAPSLOCK · Post by **cAPSLOCK** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:48 am

Another interesting product is the GA-M55plus-S3G.

It's a full ATX board that gives you more room for expansion than most nForce410/430 boards. No DVI though

Edit: Just noticed that the biostar has the solid type capacitators and this one doesn't, well it's not the end of the world, but sometimes you have no choice. Like if you add a sound card, a wifi card and a dual slot video card (or even a single slot need some breathing space)...

vfrex · Post by **vfrex** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:58 am

Sorry, I think I misspoke earlier. The M2N-E is an nforce5 board. The fact remains that the ethernet drivers didn't work by default, and I wasn't able to get them to work after ~30 minutes of messing around. Maybe things will fall into place in a few months.

mpgalvin · Post by **mpgalvin** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:04 am

Maybe things will fal into place in a few months.

precisely what i was going to say. on such a new tech, i'd wait out the growing pains, *especially* if it's going to be used under linux.