[Pc_Support] Re: Great, budget, 'Best Practices' box

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Wed, 2006-07-05 at 23:50 -0500, David Simmons, P.E. wrote:
> Bryan,
> Any of that 'free advice' still floating around?...I'm trying to take your
> recommendation (and because I've FINALLY been able to get some money aside
> for a new box) on an AM2 system...but it's been frustrating.
> Fry's seems to be the only place around here with 'a person connected'
> purchase of AM2 parts.  Was REALLY looking at the ASUS M2NPV-VM board -
> but there's alot of discussion that the board is picky about ram.

Always NewEgg.COM for me, with few exceptions.

BTW, *WAIT* until July 24th.  AMD is cutting x2 prices by up to 50%!
Yes, you'll be able to get an Athlon64 x2 3800+ for under $175, possibly
close to $150!

Single-core will also be slashed 10-30%.

> But I haven't seen anything about how well the onboard video is...
> because of the large memory pipe, does the onboard 6150 perform as
> well as a AGP or PCI-express board?  Or is it still that 'onboard
> video really stinks'?

I answered that in my [running] blog post on video cards 1/3rd down:  
http://thebs413.blogspot.com/2006/02/geforce-6-and-7-series-variants-nuts.html  

In a nutshell, unless you have a GeForce 6/7 series, or a really
high-end GeForce FX5800/5900 (_forget_ the 5200/5500/5700LE), on-board
NV44 is better than those other GPUs.  The GeForce FX5200/5500/5700LE
really _suck_ ... _hard_.  _Never_ buy one of those POS cards, get at
least a GeForce 6200 instead.

> I'd really like to setup a system to run SuSE 10.1 GLX....I normally have
> a dual-monitor setup, so again - I'm kicked in the teeth that GLX does
> 'do' dual-monitors (unless I do frame buffer sharing and REALLY stretch
> the resolutino to be double-wide).

Both Red Hat Composite Extension and SuSE's Compiz approaches do
dual-head.

> Was then looking at one of the 570 (or maybe 590) chipset boards and
> separate PCIe video card - and the reviews said that the NorthBridge
> really heats up and melts video cards (no liquid pipe cooling)...people
> were suggesting an MSI board....

Active cooling has been recommended, yes.
But most are okay with passive, as long as the airflow is good.

> read another review that said only the
> 667Mhz max ram will work...and, if possible, find 4-4-4-4 DDR2.

Ahh, no, that is _incorrect_.

The problem is that there is a lot of _Intel-chipset_only_ DDR2 800
(PC6400) out there.  Not only do they not work on Socket-AM2 mainboards,
they do _not_ work on Intel processor mainboards with an ATI, nVidia or
SiS chipset.

It's a major issue right now -- and not related to AMD Socket-AM2.

There are several models that work with non-Intel chipsets at DDR2 800
(PC6400) on NewEgg.COM.  Read the reviews.  They detail what does and
doesn't work.

> Would really like to stick to a mATX design...and want to eventually have
> this as a PXE booted system (no internal hard-drives)...that'll also run
> VMWARE -> windows.
> Any suggestions?

All of the MicroATX Socket-AM2 products I've seen are nForce 410/430 at
NewEgg.COM.  I too am waiting to see a nForce 550/570 in MicroATX.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith           Professional, technical annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org     http://thebs413.blogspot.com
----------------------------------------------------------
The existence of Linux has far more to do with the breakup
of AT&T's monopoly than anything Microsoft has ever done.