On Tue, 2002-05-14 at 19:02, Tom Brinkman wrote: > On Tuesday 14 May 2002 03:35 pm, David Rankin wrote: > > Great heads up!, > > I'm in the market for a board and love Abit. Keep of posted if > > you get info in the Abit review..... > > > > Lyvim Xaphir wrote: > > > Guys, if you're in the market for some new technology for under > > > your hood, I strongly suggest that you check out the 18 mainboard > > > lineup that just came out as of May 9th on Toms: > > > > > > http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q2/020509/index.html > > One Abit board has finally made it back to the AMD approved list > after long being a vendor to avoid. I wouldn't buy a board not AMD > approved. And ... I believe it's not quite time to upgrade an AMD > system till the Thorobreds come out. More importantly tho, while I > think Tom's is a good site..... it's still primarily a Windoze > review site. Heck even Dell's sometimes sort'a work OK with Linux ;>
It is probably a safe choice to select from AMD's approved list. The main reason I don't is simply because I have never, as yet, selected a board from a roundup review that was either anti-athlon or anti-linux; and also because I have in the past found AMD's list a little too restrictive for my taste; somewhat unusually so. One restriction case in point was what you yourself brought up, Tom....the Abits. I've been running this particular Abit for over two years now, and I'm fairly certain that it never did make the approved list. Normally if a board passes diags and runs a full set of long term week long benches in a third party shop roundup exam, chances are it's going to run linux OK. It's the nontested, noncompared mobos you usually have to worry about. > Just 'cause a board garners rave reviews with Windoze, there's no > guarantee (MOF, just the opposite more'n more lately) it'll work as > well or be as supported by the OS, as it is by the Win-tel/nvidia/ > ati/creative/dell, etc. gang. EG, most all of Tom's boards > incorporate Win-fake-raid. While this is true, it is also true that the HPT37X IDE controllers have in large part gotten a bad rap for nothing, for several reasons. First, the HPT37X is an IDE controller, first and foremost, and needs to be examined in that light before anything else. Second, most Linux peeps know that anyone who wants to run Raid needs to be on soft raid anyway, no matter what whiz-bang dedicated RAID hardware they have. Third, in all the benchmarks I've seen that compare conventional IDE channels and the HPT37X IDE channels, the Highpoint controllers have always been superior in performance. (AS an IDE controller.) Fourth, the HPT37X controller, while it can be criticized for being a raid faker, cannot be criticized for not providing better performance under winblows with it's, eh, pseudo raid (as compared to single drive performance). The CPU utilization is lower and the throughput is higher. Bios/driver driven pseudo raid, maybe; but the benches are not arguable. And finally, from a personal standpoint, since running this Abit board, it's my opinion that a Linux user can get better performance from soft raid running from an HPT37X controller than they can get from the standard IDE controllers. That's why I've been getting nothing but mobos with HPT37X-RAID controllers on them since they came out; not because of the superior winblows performance they provide, which doesn't mean a hill of beans to me. But because the HPT37X IDE controllers are just better IDE controllers. Finally, from what I understand, the Highpoint controllers are now usable under Linux in their native RAID modes, via (no pun intended) the latest kernel module code. Not that I'm interested meself; I'm staying with soft raid. Still, the chance is there for anyone interested to run the numbers. > Also, preliminary reports I've seen are > that ddr333 offers none, to very little improvement over 266 (much > the same as with ata/133 over /100). One advantage tho is if you get > marginal ddr333, it might run as ddr266 at cas2 (bettr'n 333 at > CL2.5). So buy quality (micron, infineon) ddr333 now while it's > cheap, wait for the (Linux) dust to settle on the rest of the cuttin' > edge hardware. > -- > Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas Has someone done any roundup reviews of mainboards with Linux, I wonder? I haven't come across any when I've been cruising for comparative mobo evaluations; I'd be glad for any info regarding that! TIA, LX -- 같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같� Kernel 2.4.8-26mdk Mandrake Linux 8.1 Enlightenment 0.16.5 Evolution 1.02 Registered Linux User #268899 http://counter.li.org/ 같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같�
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