Request Motherboard Recommendations
Posts: 5513
Hi Gang:
Due to various electrical problems at my home, I have determined that the motherboard for my home-built computer from a couple years ago is toast (I gotta get a new UPS). I would like to open the floodgates and ask for your recommendations on NEW motherboards THAT WORK with SimplyMepis. I have not been in the market for a motherboard for a few years, so I'm lost with the selection 
This will be for my primary desktop. I have a couple 100GB IDE drives that I want to remove from my old system, as well as the DVD and CD burners, so peripherals are not a problem. But I don't have the money to try one mobo, find it doesn't work, try another mobo.... I'm leaning in the direction of an integrated mobo (sound, video) but this can slip as a requirement. If integrated video is not used, what recommendations do you have for a good video board (that can handle 1, 2, 3 (I must be crazy) monitors). I don't play games so I'm not looking for OMFG speed. I'm looking for OMFG good resolution and real estate!
SATA hard drives would be nice, but not necessary, given that SATA support seems to be problematic at the moment. Since I will probably install add'l IDE controllers so that I can play with software RAID
I'm not particular to any processor, Intel or AMD would be fine. What are your recommendations (and does Mepis currently run on 64 bit?)?
Then, on a slight tangent, for a small system: does anyone have any experiences with the Shuttle X motherboards and cases? If good, what model(s) have you used. If bad, is this a lost cause?
Thanks in advance
Jon uv Da Mepis Posse 
Thanks Kerry
Posts: 5513
Thanks for the input. There are so many boards out there and they seem to change every week and a half. In the Windows world one's pretty much guaranteed to work with anything, but in our world of Linux it's not as easy. Also thanks for the video suggestions.
I'm an old fogey when it comes to some hardware, so I think I'll stick to EIDE for the hard drives. Yeah, when I start playing with RAID I'll need to get some additional controllers, but I like the philosophy of software RAID rather than running everything through a single controller.
Yes, if I wanted to go completely hardware paranoid like the guys who've documented all the software RAID stuff, I would have single drives on single controllers with space between them and hurricane fans blowing through and a minimum of six feet between multiple boxes (in case ANYTHING fails). But no, I'm not going to do that. Since there have been a couple threads on here about troubles configuring RAID on Mepis, I thought I'd give it a shot. Currently, I have a few small drives that I can blow away and test with to get the steps down.
I was just down at Fry's this weekend doing some price checking, and it looks like the "sweet spot" for IDE hard drives are the 160GB ($0.62/GB) and 200GB ($0.66/GB)drives. Now, as to what I'll fill those drives with???
As a slight aside, do you or any of the other folks watching this thread khow whether they've gotten Mepis to load/run on SCSI drives?
Jon
scsi
Posts: 4864
"As a slight aside, do you or any of the other folks watching this thread know whether they've gotten Mepis to load/run on SCSI drives?"
Yes, the 2.6.12 kernel of soho server
Thanks drlisau
Posts: 5513
I may have to download the soho server and give it a shot on one of my boxes too, just to see the differences
Jon
K8 Mainboards Linux compatibility list
Posts: 613
Hi Jon,
Came across this the other day:
http://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30192/27/mainboards.html
q
If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.
Thanks Qtech!
Posts: 5513
Thanks for the link. I'll look it over. The only problem I have with some of these lists is that it takes a lot of volunteers testing lots of hardware and keeping the lists up-to-date. I figured the most current information, especially for Mepis, would be obtained by asking current Mepis users
Kerry, what MSI board versions have you used?
Jon
Hey jon
Posts: 1504
My current one is a km2m combo series it's a Ms-6738 (v1.x) micro ATX mainboard(according to the book). Jon, i'm a cheap bastard so i'll usally get what ever is cheaper as long its a msi board, they only build with standard stuff like via chip set, i believe those are supported by all linux distro's. The bios is also very good as it has all the options you might need to control everything . I have my system over clocked by 3x and i have not had any problems with any linux distro(i have tried about 100+).All my other boards are older than this one but pretty much the same except in size.
Thanks Kerry
Posts: 5513
I think I owe you at least two donuts by now. And if you're overclocked by 3x, I'm not sure I want to give you any coffee
Jon
Hey jon
Posts: 1504
I recommend a MSI motherboard that is the only type i run on my computers and they always play nice. For vid i use a card but vid is built in to the board and i have never had problems with it. I use a predator mx4000 plus made by mad dog multimedia, it's a nvidia card. I use it because i run duel monitor, but the msi boards are very good with vid cards as i use to run 2 different vid cards for each display and it worked. I also always get a amd proceesor, just my personal choose, i have never had one fail unlike pentium which i have had die and take out the board with it. I have run micro boards for the shuttle, just never in the shuttle and they worked ok, I think they where a bit limited though( it was a while ago and use and repair so many boards) as for the sata thing i have one setup with windows and i just don't like it(to me it's its just added effort for not much) i recommend just looking into the faster ide drives(10000rpm?) Well jon thats my $2cent's let me know if u want more specifics on something.
Also where should i send the bill, Your total comes up to 1 cup of coffee and a doughnut.
LOL