# best motherboard for AMD socket A (athlon xp)

## killfire

im looking to buy parts and build a new computer.

it will be athlon xp based, and the constraints of the motherboard are as follows:

must have SATA support (the hard drive is SATA).

1394 (firewire), usb, and as many IDE drives as possible.

aside from that, i just need something that is completely compatible, and also works well.

killfire

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## Mben

asus a7n8x deluxe

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## JackBak

Take a look at MSI's K8N Neo 2 Platinum - haven't used it but looks good.

I have used the Abit NF7-M and the DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B - both fine boards might give the nod to the Abit's only because they are a tad more generous with mounting holes/space for the CPU heat sink.

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## Tiger683

NForce2 + Linux = going crazy on compatibility issues  :Wink: 

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## freelight

A friend of mine ran Gentoo for a while on an A7N8X-Deluxe with no issues.

If you want to stay away from Nvidia chipsets though, you can go with the A7V8X. Good board, VIA chipset, has SATA and 1394 support, as well as gigabit LAN and a few other tasty features.

(Yes, I'm an ASUS fan.)

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## Mben

nforce has been great to me. i have had the board i suggested for over a year and it has worked with every kernel just fine.

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## feld

Epox 8RDA3+

been working fine for 6 months.

-Feld

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## SithMaddox

 *Tiger683 wrote:*   

> NForce2 + Linux = going crazy on compatibility issues 

 

It has worked fine for me. I just enabled all the appropriate things in the kernel, not too hard.

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## MrApples

i like the epox 8rda6+ pro, you wont get a more up to date socket a board

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## Jake

The last Socket A board I bought was an Abit NF7-S. The SATA was supported in OpenBSD 3.5, so I doubt Linux will have any trouble with it. The NIC is 10/100 forcedeth, so it should work with recent 2.6 kernels. Obviously nVidia supports the AGP, but agpgart will work if you want to go 100% open source. The onboard sound should be your standard nForce[23], intel8x0 in ALSA. I have no clue about firewire or hardware sensor support, but both should work. The board is a good OCer if you're into that sort of thing. If you want extra IDE controllers, get a PCI card.

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## sunilgeo

I am using Asrock K7S8XE+ with gentoo. No problem what so ever

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## Bojan

 *Tiger683 wrote:*   

> NForce2 + Linux = going crazy on compatibility issues 

 

I have an Epox rda3+ (nforce2) for almost two years and I never had any compatibility problems. Even the chip for monitoring proc and system temperatures, fan speed, voltages ... is supported by kernel modules. The chip is w83781d.

Are there any known compatibility problems I haven't seen yet???

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## tnt

Does anyone know some solid Socket A mobo with more then 2 SATA connectors?

The only one I've found so far is Epox 8RDA6+ Pro.

Any other?

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## Smoothhound

I've been running the A7N8X-Deluxe for a year now and it has been rock solid in terms of stability.  All features (inc. SATA, firewire) are fully working, the only problem I have is with the onboard sound which is poorly supported - I bought a soundblaster in the end.  However I would buy one again especially since they are very good value these days.

HTH

 :Smile: 

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## micmac

 *Tiger683 wrote:*   

> NForce2 + Linux = going crazy on compatibility issues 

 

I absolutely have to disagree. Works great here. Ok, I didn't check out the audio but everything else is fine  :Wink: 

mic

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## Bojan

Regarding Epox 8rda3+:

Audio works just fine. It is not some super-duper-extracool sound blaster but Linux can recognize it as intel8x0. OK, I know, could be better.

While we are on this topic, let me share some (bad) experience. After I've bought this mobo I started to cough and got sore throat for a few days. A while later I discovered that this was due to a faulty capacitor on the mobo. I guess that it fas pressed too hard during manufacturing process and had a physical hole on the top, so the acid gas went out while the mobo was on. 

I didn't want to go through RMA trouble and I fixed it with a drop of silicone on the top of the capacitor; following the suggestion from some really cool guys on another forum.

Well some pictures of this misfortune:

http://bojan.assexy.as/foto1.jpg

http://bojan.assexy.as/foto2.jpg

http://bojan.assexy.as/foto3.jpg

http://bojan.assexy.as/foto4.jpg

From now on I'll use a magnifying glass before buying and installing any new mobo in my PC  :Smile: 

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## MrApples

 *tnt wrote:*   

> Does anyone know some solid Socket A mobo with more then 2 SATA connectors?
> 
> The only one I've found so far is Epox 8RDA6+ Pro.
> 
> Any other?

 

i think the gigabyte 700n has more than 2

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## DCatcher

I'm using an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe on my machine, and it works fine, too. No problems regarding actual nVidia drivers and newer kernel versions. In the past, the nVidia drivers didn't work with my kernel configuration (I couldn't connect to the internet before starting xdm, because this caused a power down and kicked off ACPI Support in the BIOS).

I'll test SATA-Devices with that Mobo next week  :Smile: 

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## killfire

 *MrApples wrote:*   

> i like the epox 8rda6+ pro, you wont get a more up to date socket a board

 

do you have the onboard lan working?

i built the whole computer, with it as a mobo, and the lan seems to be undetectable, by both knoppix and some install cds....

also i did some searching and it kind of looks like there is a driver, but not exactly, and most of the sites are in russian.

its a cicada CIS8201 gigabit lan

daniel

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## jannemann

hi all. 

I'm thinking of getting a new mainboard for socket A too, but I don't want to have a nForce chipset again (I currently have it on an ASUS A7N8X, and i got some serious stability problems). What are your expieriences with boards based on VIA KT600/880 ? Are there any problems known getting them to work with gentoo? Do they run stable/fast ? 

It would help me a lot if someone could tell me his experiences/problems with a VIA chipset (and/or specific mainboards).

Thanks  :Smile: 

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## micmac

 *jannemann wrote:*   

> hi all. 
> 
> I'm thinking of getting a new mainboard for socket A too, but I don't want to have a nForce chipset again (I currently have it on an ASUS A7N8X, and i got some serious stability problems). What are your expieriences with boards based on VIA KT600/880 ? Are there any problems known getting them to work with gentoo? Do they run stable/fast ? 
> 
> It would help me a lot if someone could tell me his experiences/problems with a VIA chipset (and/or specific mainboards).
> ...

 

Did you try a BIOS update? I got and A7N8X with latest BIOS and it runs very well.

mic

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## jannemann

Yep, i have the current BIOS installed, but the problems are still there (ie. system freezing). I also seem to have my usb bus somehow destroyed ... didnt work anymore since i normally rebooted some time ago. My board is revision 1.06, i heard of people having similar problems with the revisions before 2.0, so I want to get a new one before this one completely stops to work.

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## infiniti_guy

I'm considering building a Socket A platform, but I find it hard to get ECC support. I generally like ASUS, but have little experience with ASUS and GenToo. I like the A7N8X-E Deluxe, but no ECC support. I'm also interested in GigLAN, 1394, SPDIF Out. So except for the ECC that board is great.

Anyone running a nice ECC System on Socket A? What board are you using?

I am thinking of going to AMD 64 with either the ASUS K8N-E Deluxe ($125- expensive) or the EPOX 8KDA3J ($69- cheap but no 1394). The Asus has a metal board on the bottom for better cooling, plus a 3 yr warranty. Anyone have experience with the EPOX 8KDA3J? Or EPOX in general as far as reliability and stability?

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## anxt

i have been to hell and back with via kt600 kt880.

using a a7v880 and stability is HORRIBLE.  random freeze after a few hours or days, nothign in the logs.

currently recompiled kernel with 8k stacks no preemptible and i686 optimisations to try and tame this beast.

i have replaced everything in the box.  like even the ps and stuff.  constant dma errors from the hd (yes i replaced that too), maxtor is currently sending me a sata to see if that helps.  ram tested blah blah.  it is seeming to be via's fault i am not sure.

i might go out and buy an intel board today.

(btw also tried 2x processors, replaced a bad stick of ram.  haven't replaced my hauppage pvr-250 though)

also haven't tried single channel ram setup.

other board was a chaintech 7vjl5  it might have worked, but i got dma errors out my ass, possibly corrupting some stuff

right now i use hdparm to set the disk down to 66 or  i will have no filesystem left.

btw i would avoid maxtor drives.  i rma'd 2 of my personal drives in the lasts 4 months. *shrug*

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