# Help on hardware for amd64 system

## ozric100

I am going to replace my workstation with an amd64 and would like some help choosing some hardware.  This is the plan so far.

1. amd64 3000+

2. MSI kt8 neo (open for debate)

3. coolmaster wavemaster case -  (dead set on this case)

4. ram (?) DDR400 2 512 sticks - need brand

5. HD ? IDE or SATA ? at least one 60G

6.  CD rom RW / DVD  or DVDR +- ?

7. video card Nvidia ti 4800 or better ? 

8. PS ... wattage and brand ? 

9. CPU fan 

Any ideas.   I am most concerend with LInux compat and P/P.  This is the frist I will build out all new in a few years so I don't mind spending, as I wlll be using if for about 2-3 years with min updates...

----------

## scoobydu

 *ozric100 wrote:*   

> I am going to replace my workstation with an amd64 and would like some help choosing some hardware.  This is the plan so far.
> 
> 1. amd64 3000+
> 
> 2. MSI kt8 neo (open for debate)
> ...

 

Personally would go for a dual board, so you have easy expansion when the chip prices fall.

SATA, as the two I have just bought were only 5UKP more than ATA. Athough not sure of support in x64 yet ..

DVD-R - Cheaps drives now and cheap minus 'r' media, but most are plus & minus 'r' anyway.

My card is a 4800 and it works great with the new nvidia drivers. Might want to go higher here, if you have the cash ..

550W at least if you plan on packing it full of drives etc.

Oh, and nice case  :Smile: 

(sorry if its vague, I've had a few beers   :Razz:  )

----------

## vince

i just built a computer with that case.  It looks sweet.  Good choice.

Now i'm working on getting gentoo on to it.

----------

## cwall64

ozric100,

I have a very similar setup to what you are looking at.  I don't think the linux support for the SATA chipset in the 754 socket MB (via or nvidia) is there yet (seems to be a lot of post to different newsgroups about problems).  I went with the regular IDE setup on mine and several distros installed in 64-bit easily.  The real problem seems to be around the nvidia amd64 graphis drivers.  They work OK if you allow them to run in PCI mode, but it has been a rough deal getting them to perform in AGP mode.  I would suggest you read the nvidia readme for the amd64 drivers, and checking out the forums at www.nvnews.net.

Chris

----------

## ozric100

All good sugestions so far.  

I am going to run 32bit untill the 64bit stuff has a good shake out.  It looks all things are moving along.  Maybe a duel boot setup.    

I do think I will go IDE,  SATA is too new for my blood.   I trust IDE.    

The problem with the Nvidia cards is just the 64bit driver right ?  The 32 bit should work...   I am running 4620 on my AMD 1800+ right now.or is it the chip set ?

----------

## cwall64

Good qustion!  I can't confirm, I have only tried 64-bit.  There are some post on nvnews.net that claim to have drivers working in 32-bit (slackware).  If I remember correctly they are using the 2.6.0 kernel - it is supposed to have better support for AGPGART.  I have mine running with SuSE for AMD64 and the nvidia drivers, just running with NvAGP disabled (0).  It ROCKS!  I am planning on setting up Gentoo on another HD tomorrow, but so far everything I use is great in the 64-bit OS.

Chris

----------

## ozric100

ohhhh .....  I just read some reviews of the SIS755 chipset .  It looks sweet,  I have 3 sis k7s5a systems now.  How is the 755 support in Linux, anyone know.   I think is in the 2.6 kernels...  I need to check.    I might just have to go with a ECS 755a for the MB.  I hope to hear more news about this or maybe someone else will release a board with this chipset.

----------

## LaNcom

I would recommend the Tyan Tiger K8W (dual CPU, ATX, AMD chipset), got mine last week, works like a charm. I also bought a single Opteron 140 (christmas got expensive, couldn't afford anything else - but my previous box blew up, so I was in a hurry), and 1 GB Corsair reg ECC 400MHz 2-3-2-6 (_very_ good memory). And a Nvidia QuadroFX...

The system is running kernel 2.6.0-gentoo, everything 64bit, no probs with the AGPGART (8x AGP/ FW/ SBA running, using Nvidia's 4499 drivers). 

I'd say 64bit gentoo is pretty much ready, but there four caveats I found so far (correct me if I'm wrong):

- no 32bit Netscape plugins for 64bit browsers (no Flash...)

- don't use NPTL or K8 NUMA yet, otherwise the Nvidia drivers fail

- no win32 codecs in MPlayer or Xine

- no hardware accellerated OpenGL for 32bit apps/ games

Maybe there'll be some sort of 32bit>64bit glue in the future, for the plugins and codecs (don't know if that's possible), and I hope the OpenGL and NPTL issues will be fixed in the next Nvidia driver release...

----------

## ozric100

sounds nice...  I like dual systems...   but ..  Afrer all  I have decided to take it slow....   and wait for socket 939.  I am going to pick up a few new parts like my case and a plextor 708a.   Maybe add some things here and there if I see any deals. 

Thanks to you early 64 bit folks for bazing a trail.

----------

## LaNcom

Sure, no need to hurry, it get's better every day...  :Wink: 

But AFAIR, socket 939 is only going to replace the current consumer CPU's sockets, the Opteron will continue using socket 940 - so, if you really want to go for a dualie, there's no need to wait.

----------

## ozric100

Tiger K8W S2875  drool.....   now I am all confused again.    I like this one.    Thanks for the tip ..   I might just have to go for it.   Maybe start out single...... or is it if I spend too much I will be single ?

----------

## LaNcom

Well, the Tiger is not that expensive, and I prefer AMD chipsets (they are usually better supported under Linux than Nvidia, VIA or SIS) - and Tyan officially supports Linux, they even offer open source Linux drivers for their boards and provide config files for LM_Sensors. See:

http://tyan.com/support/html/drivers_linux.html

I would have liked the Thunder K8W, with NUMA support and PCI-X, but this one is really expensive (need's an EATX case and an EPS PSU) - and I'm really happy with the Tiger so far. 

Just go for a single 14x Opteron, and wait for the 90nm Opterons in Q2 2004 - and get 400MHz memory, it is supported by Opterons from x46 up, so you can keep it when you upgrade later...

For a case I could also recommend the Coolermaster ATC710-SX1, recommendable RAM would be Corsair XMS or Kingston HyperX. If you can't afford a SCSI system, go for SATA, the Tiger has a 4 channel RAID 0,1,5 controller (Maxtor is pretty good, or a WD Raptor if you don't mind the noise), but I wouldn't go for a single HDD, better get 2x40GB or 3x20GB (without RAID). The best CDROM I know would be a Plextor Ultraplex, but that's SCSI - for IDE I would recommend Pioneer (I use a Plextor Ultraplex 40TSI and a Pioneer DVR-A05 with an Acard IDE to SCSI bridge - works really well). The video card should be a Nvidia, since you want to get AMD64 Linux drivers. The best PSU's I know are by Enermax, go for 450W or 550W to be sure. The CPU fan is included with the boxed CPU.

And some info about the performance: my new Opteron 140 is _way_ faster than my previous AthlonXP 2000+ with an ASUS A7V266-E and 1 GB Infineon DDR 266 2-2-2 RAM. It even seems that my glxgears value got way up from 6800 to 9100 (same GFX adapter) - I know that glxgears is not really a benchmark, but it's still interesting...  :Wink: 

----------

## ozric100

So you have SATA working on the Tiger K8W S2875 with 64bit Linux ?  If that is the case .. I am sold.  I think I will get one  with one 242 for now and a GB of matched 512 ECC DDR400.  I like the fact the board is ATX and takes an ATX PS. 

I already got my case  :Wink: 

----------

## LaNcom

Nope, I'm using a plain SCSI U160 setup. But what about this one (from the Tyan homepage):

Silicon Image sil3114 SATA Controller RAID/Non-RAID,

Multiple Distribution Driver Bundle x86-32 and x86-64(!)

ftp://ftp.tyan.com/drivers_linux/Silicon_Image/3114/1.0.0.20-BUNDLE-SiI6514.v1.zip

The 2.6.0-mm1 kernel also seems to include support for the sil3114, maybe the gentoo dev's could add the necessary patch to the gentoo dev sources (hint hint)...

PS: The Wavemaster looks really cool...!  :Wink: 

----------

## mark

According the the gentoo amd64 mailing list sill 3114 doesnt currently work.  I believe tyans drivers are binary only.

Mark

----------

## pjp

Moved from Alternate Architectures.

----------

## LaNcom

I don't know about the Tyan provided drivers, but 2.6.0-bart1 _does_ support the sil3114:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=115350

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/bart/2.6.0-test11-bart1/

----------

## jshaw523

As far as the SATA issues go, I am pretty sure if you pass in the rigth memory addresses to the kernel on boot you can make it locate the SATA drives, but they probably won't be run in the 150MB/s access mode if there isn't a specific driver for them.  This is how I used to use PCI IDE controllers back in the days of the 2.2 kernel before they were supported with specific drivers.  I think I like the SATA drives mostly because the cables are a hell of a lot neater, other then that there isn't much boost unless you use the WD 10,000 rpm drives.

----------

## Chris E

2.6.0 kernel supports SATA i have a kt600 south bridge running 2 SATA's in RAID0.

----------

## ozric100

 *Quote:*   

>  I think I like the SATA drives mostly because the cables are a hell of a lot neater, other then that there isn't much boost unless you use the WD 10,000 rpm drives.

 

Yes the cables and nice and neat,  but with hardware raid 0 ..   I think one should see a good speed boost.

----------

## Chris E

Quite a differnce.

```
MARGE root # hdparm -tT /dev/hde1

 

/dev/hde1:

 Timing buffer-cache reads:   1104 MB in  2.00 seconds = 551.81 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  170 MB in  3.01 seconds =  56.56 MB/sec

MARGE root # hdparm -tT /dev/md0

 

/dev/md0:

 Timing buffer-cache reads:   1100 MB in  2.00 seconds = 549.26 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  294 MB in  3.01 seconds =  97.59 MB/sec

```

----------

## ozric100

I did it ...  I pulled the trigger on a Tyan k8w tiger dual MB.  I feel so much better now.

----------

## ozric100

ok .... if anyone care ... 

I have this so far

WaveMaster - silver case

Antec trueblue 480

Tyan Tiger k8w 

1 GB ddr400 DC ECC reg OCZ 

2 tr2 m6 cpu heatsinks - 

1 -silver floppy driver 

I am working on sleaving all the wires and getting things cleaned up.

I am going to replace all the case fans with coolermaster blue LED ones

including the cpu fans. 

so I still need 

5 coolermaster fans - 

1 -sata WD raptor ( I am still out on this ) I like the tiny cables tho. 

1 -plextor 708a (silver or dyed)

2 -opteron 246 oem's 

1 -msi fx5900xt 128 vivo

So maybe I will have a system in about a month or so.

----------

