On Friday 13 February 2004 11:31 am, John Richard Smith wrote:Sure, my sentiments entirely , let the others buy the very last word, choose the one that's been around
Well good John. Now next time you buy a motherboard,Have you any particular makes in mind.
check around for one that has a second bios backup already
onboard and doesn't need a DOS boot floppy, or Windoze
runnin, to flash the bios. If for any reason the flash fails,
or the bios is corrupted (Winsux virus?), the board
automatically boots from the backup bios chip. Many of the
newer boards are movin to this. Some have had it for years.
My mobo is now 2 years old, did it have this bios backup then
? I don't remember it being the case, though it may well of
been.
Currently I'm usin an Asus A7V600, KT600 chipset. http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V600&langs=01#
BUT, I'll refrain from recommending motherboards. It's too much of a moving target for desktop hardware. My only advice would be to consult http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_869_4348^7923,00.html
Then go to the websites for the AMD recommended boards and start makin a shortlist of those that fit your requirements. Then check for Linux compatibility. At this time, a VIA chipset board is probly the best bet, SiS might be OK.
Unfortunately there's little such sources for Intel based systems, but I don't believe they've _yet_ to come up with a decent P4 chipset anyhow. I'd favor an Intel based system for production server use tho.
...and avoid hardware reviews where the test OS was Windoze. If more people did that, there wouldn't be so many Linux users tryin to run on nForce chipset boards ;) Probly a good idea to look for a board that's been out for 4 to 6 months. Both for Linux user experience, and it'll probly come with the latest bios version. IOW's avoid the latest and greatest. Usually cheaper that way anyhow ;)
for some months at least. I shall not be buying again until after Christmas , so sometime next February
I will want to be looking to construct afresh. Whats your thinking about 64 bit architecture. I read recently AMD have a chip that runs both 32 and 64bit though I don't know what mobos will suit. Will Mandrake keep up with this developement ? Will anyone be shipping OS's for 64 bit by this time next year?
I just don't have enough time to do the searching for equipement and such like, tend to leave
that to others, and take advice, but I still like to keep up with general developements. Will there be cpu's of 64bit and fsb of 400 around by next year and mobo's to suit? What do you feel ? What's happening by then ?
My current best computer will be my second fiddle and the oldest junked, natuarlly I'm keen to make the best buy's but just don't have the inclination to spend hours and hours reading up on it all. So I'm game for suggestions.
John
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John Richard Smith
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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