# Motherboard recommendation

## satimis

Hi folks,

I am searching an ECONOMICAL motherboard, ALL-IN-ONE, to build a workstation running LINUX, preferrable Gentoo 1.4 compiling from source code.  My expected requirements are as follows;

CPU    AMD Athlon XP, 2.4G

RAM   1G and above, DDR333

Build-in   Video and Sound cards

Hard Drive   ATA100/ATA133

I found following models from Gigabyte;

- GA-7VA

- GA-7VM400M

(GA-7VA is about 10% cheaper)

Any comment and/or suggestion of equivalent board would be appreciated.

TIA

Happen New Year and B.R.

satimis

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## mad man moon

Do you mean Athlon XP 2400+?

In case you don't want to upgrade later the GA-7VA will do the job. The FSB 400 support of the other one is not needed for the 2400+.

I would else appreciate the Asus A7N8X (nforce2) that my brother is working with.

Maybe it's a little more expensive.

When you're looking for onboard graphic, take a look at http://www.nvidia.com/object/motherboards.html and look for "nForce2 w/GF4 MX".

There a only a few boards with VIA KM400 (integrated graphic).

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## NeddySeagoon

satimis,

I would get an AMD Barton XP+ 2500. Its worth it for the extra cache.

Onboard video is a real performace killer too but I suppose you know that.

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## dkaplowitz

You might want to check out Soyo's KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum. When I got mine it cost ~$150., I think it's down to about ~$70-80. It meets your needs, has a ton of extra features (onboard IDE RAID, USB Smartmedia reader, room for expansion, and it looks cool as hell). I'm running Gentoo on it just fine.

My next mobo will likely be an MSI with the k8t800 chipset. I've not decided whether I'll go with the 64-bit Athlon, or with a p4. Will have to see when I get the money together to purchase the mobo and processor. (poor guys like me have to buy a component at a time). 

Good luck with the mobo.

[Edit] Oops...I overlooked the built-in video requirement. Since I actively avoid those mobos, except on machines that have been given to me freely, I am no use. Sorry to clutter your post. Though I did give you another bump to the top. [/EDIT]

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## satimis

 *afraner wrote:*   

> Do you mean Athlon XP 2400+?
> 
> In case you don't want to upgrade later the GA-7VA will do the job. The FSB 400 support of the other one is not needed for the 2400+.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

Yes Athlon XP 2400+

I only need a motherboard, ALL-IN-ONE, with basic features only.  I am going to build a workstation to run Gentoo 1.4.  Speed is quite important because installing from source.  Previously I have test-installed Gentoo 1.4 on a PII-350 with 512MB RAM taking 60+ hours to install only the OS excluding KDE, OOo, etc.

I found follows on searching

GA-7VM400M

VIA KM400 chipset

Chipset

Northbridge : VIA KM400

Southbridge : VIA 8235

Super I/O : ITE IT8705F

Integrated Peripherals

Realtek 8100C Ethernet 10/100Mb LAN controller

Realtek ALC650 codec Chip

Drivers

Audio

Realtek WHQL, Realtek

Chipset Driver

VIA 4in1

VGA driver

VIA KM400

LAN driver

Realtek 81xx

USB2.0 Driver

VIA 8235

It has drivers for Win.  But I am not sure whether drivers for Gentoo 1.4 are available.

In respect of GA-7A

GA-7VA

chipset

Northbridge : VIA KT400

Southbridge : VIA 8235

Super I/O : ITE IT8705F

AC97 Realtek ALC650 6-channel sound Chip

Driver

Audio

Realtek WHQL, Realtek

Chipset Driver

VIA 4in1

I am not quite sure whether video card is on board.

 *afraner wrote:*   

> I would else appreciate the Asus A7N8X (nforce2) that my brother is working with.
> 
> Maybe it's a little more expensive.
> 
> When you're looking for onboard graphic, take a look at http://www.nvidia.com/object/motherboards.html and look for "nForce2 w/GF4 MX".
> ...

 

I have been used ASUS motherboards before they are quite realiable.  The price is more expensive.  You recommend 7N8X-Deluxe or 7N8X-L?

Happy New Year and B.R.

satimis

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## satimis

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> satimis,
> 
> I would get an AMD Barton XP+ 2500. Its worth it for the extra cache.
> 
> Onboard video is a real performace killer too but I suppose you know that.

 

Hi,

Yes, good recommendation.

B.R.

satimis

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## mad man moon

Boards with VIA KM400 like Gigabyte GA-7VM400M have onboard graphic.

From the via homepage *Quote:*   

> The VIA UniChrome KM400 chipset features the S3 Graphics integrated UniChrome 2D/3D graphics core...

 

The GA-7A is without IG.

 *satimis wrote:*   

> You recommend 7N8X-Deluxe or 7N8X-L?

 

I mean A7N8X-VM.

nforce 2 IGP, integrated GeForce4MX, 10/100Mbit LAN onboard, 6-channel sound onboard, dual-channel DDR400

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## blueworm

IMHO The best boards for Athlon have to be nforce2 based.

The epox8rda3 is the top choice by the overclockers and cost 99 EURO.

I personally have an Asus a7n8x which I feel is also a outstanding board.

As has all ready been said, onboard vga is not a good idea. If you do really want one. There are nforce2 based boards with built in vga (geforce4 mx440 I think). My 2 cents...

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## satimis

 *blueworm wrote:*   

> IMHO The best boards for Athlon have to be nforce2 based.
> 
> The epox8rda3 is the top choice by the overclockers and cost 99 EURO.
> 
> I personally have an Asus a7n8x which I feel is also a outstanding board.
> ...

 

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

What will be your comment on following combination

1) Gigabyte GA-7A

chipset 

Northbridge : VIA KT400 

Southbridge : VIA 8235 

Super I/O : ITE IT8705F 

AC97 Realtek ALC650 6-channel sound Chip 

Driver 

Audio 

Realtek WHQL, Realtek 

Chipset Driver 

VIA 4in1 

2) WinFast A180 DDR T, Leadtek

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 GPU

64MB DDR RAM

AGP2x, 4x, 8x

The total price is same as Asus-A7N8X-L, but with a VGA card, not on board.

(Remark: A7N8X-VM not available here)

A7N8X-L

chipset nForce2

Video   AGP8X (AGP 3.0)

Audio   AC97

Socket A

B.R.

satimis

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## NeddySeagoon

satimis,

 *Quote:*   

> Chipset Driver
> 
> VIA 4in1 

 

You will have fun with  that - its windows only

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## mad man moon

The combination is okay, separate graphic card is better then onboard, especially because you don´t have to use shared memory.

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> You will have fun with that - its windows only

 

That´s true, the VIA 4in1 is for windows.

But i think linux will support it without any problems, but take a look at http://www.viaarena.com, there are some linux drivers.

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## neonik

The combination you've chosen is good.

As for the drivers, the Linux kernel 2.6.0 supports via82xxx chipsets. So no worries about the southbridge. Rest should be supported, from what I understand.

I can't comment on a kernel of the 2.4 series - haven't compiled one in ages -, but a 2.6 does contain modules for the chipset. The onboard sound codec is also supported by the kernel - use ALSA instead of the OSS.

Drivers for the graphics card can be acquired (after you've compiled and booted the new kernel) by executing the following command:

```
# emerge nvidia-glx
```

Note: This command above will also install the kernel modules.

Here's an excerpt from $PORTDIR/media-video/nvidia-glx/nvidia-glx-1.0.5328.ebuild:

 *Quote:*   

> DEPEND="virtual/glibc
> 
>         >=x11-base/xfree-4.2.0-r9
> 
>         >=x11-base/opengl-update-1.3
> ...

 

So, if you configure everything correct, you shouldn't encounter any troubles with drivers.

If i recall right, 2.4 series kernels >=2.4.20 do also contain via82xxx chipset modules.

Have fun and good luck with your new PC.

Happy New Year!

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## mad man moon

 *neonik wrote:*   

> If i recall right, 2.4 series kernels >=2.4.20 do also contain via82xxx chipset modules.

 Right.

The VIA chipset will be no problem.

Now I only have to say:  GET IT  :Wink: 

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## satimis

Hi all folks,

Lot of thanks for your valuable and constructive advice.  I will purchase them to build a new workstation to run Gentoo 1.4

B.R.

satimis

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## janiskr

I'm using Gigabyte GA-7VA quite a time and no problems (allmost) with linux systems, and NO problems with gentoo

Gigabyte is windows only conpany as far as i know  :Sad:  so no drivers/support from these folks

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## wilburpan

Anandtech.com has a series of very useful buyer's guides for every budget.  Here's the latest entry system buyer's guide.  

To summarize, they liked the AMD Athlon XP 2000+/ASUS A7N8X-X (nForce2 400) combo for the super budget minded.  This comes to about ~$125.  

For a little more money they suggested a AMD Athlon XP 2500+/ABIT NF7-S Rev.2 (nForce2 Ultra 400) combo for ~$166 total.  

For video, they suggested an ATI Radeon 9200SE or 9200 card ($40-55).

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## davecs

The fastest and most reliable on-board graphics come from nVidia. The nVidia chipsets for the other onboard functions work well with the Linux kernel, and the proprietary GeForce drivers can be "emerge"d in Gentoo just like any GPL program.

I would say that for Linux with an Athlon it has to be nVidia.

I am using a Shuttle SN41G2V2 combined case, cooling system and mobo, very quiet looks gorgeous but a bit expensive. Has nvidia chipset and on-board graphics, including TV-out. Don't forget to buy your RAM in two matched sticks, Geil Value range is a cheaper alternative than Corsair, Kingston etc.

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## evol262

FYI to all you nForce dual channel junkies.  Dual channel is a waste with an Athlon XP.  So is putting, say, DDR 400 in with a 333 Mhz FSB processor.  Here's why:

The FSB on a processor is basically throughput to RAM.  So, a AthlonXP 3200+ 400 Mhz FSB, is as good as they get.  400 Mhz x 8 bytes = 3.2 GB/s, assuming we're going with 1000 MB/GB, like hard drive manufacturers.  RAM is 1024 MB/GB, so it's actually a little less.  DDR speeds are much the same way.  DDR 400 x 8 = 3.2 GB/s.  Maximum throughput of the FSB.  It's called being synchronous.  So, your 3200+, with a throughput of 3.2 GB/s, gets dual channel DDR 400.  Dual channel, as the term implies, doubles bandwidth.  So your memory bandwidth is 6.4 GB/s.  Your processor can, at max, use half that.  

Similarly, DDR (whatever, we'll call it 400), with a 333 Mhz FSB.  333 x 8 = 2.664 GB/s.  That's throughput on your processor.  Your DDR 400, as stated, is 3.2 GB/s.  More unused memory bandwidth.  P4s have a quad-pumped FSB as opposed to the K7 core's dual.  A P4 800 Mhz FSB is really 200 Mhz, and a 3200+'s 400 Mhz is really 200.  They just found a way to cram more data over the bus, so they claim more Mhz, as all good consumers know more Mhz is better, and it sounds a lot better than 128 bit memory bus as opposed to 64 memory bit bus or whatever.  AMD64s have onboard memory controllers with HyperTransport memory buses, so they're 800-1000 Mhz.  Hence, AMD64s and P4s can make full use of the memory bandwidth, but not Athlon XPs.  

/endexplanation

Anyway, benchmarks show a 1-2% increase in memory performance on K7 based systems with dual channel.  That's 30 seconds to 1 minute off a one hour compile.  Worth the cost?  Not to me.

That being said, an Athlon XP 2500+ 333 Mhz FSB is 8 dollars more than a 2400+ 266 Mhz FSB according to Pricewatch.  I'd recommend grabbing one of those, with as much DDR 2700 as you can fit in the motherboard.  256 MB DDR 2700 is $25 according to Pricewatch.  Granted, that's generic RAM, and decent, reliable stuff'll probably cost around $30-35.  Stick it as much of it as you can in (768 MB with most mobos, 1 GB with a Biostar board).  

Good, all in one motherboards that'll support this setup easily are easy to find for less than $75.  Probably more like $120 with decent onboard video, but you could always snag a FX 5200 or Radeon 9200 for less than the cost of the onboard video.

.02

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