[linux-audio-user] Re: Motherboard recommendations

Stephen Hassard steve at hassard.net
Sun Apr 9 12:57:26 EDT 2006


On Sun, 09 Apr 2006 09:50:47 -0700, Loki Davison <loki.davison at gmail.com>  
wrote:
> Is there a reason for going with an SLI board? I've got one nvidia
> pci-e and it's okay for my needs. Would the  Asus A8N-E or A8N5X be
> okay? Or even the A8N-SLI (not deluxe or premium)? The premium is a
> whole lot more expensive.

No particular reason why going for a SLI board (other than the fact you'll  
have more available PCI-Express lanes in the future), but the biggest  
difference is the passive cooling system on the Premium board. The  
northbridge fans on the A8N-E are horribly noisy and have a good history  
of having a short lifetime. Definitely get a board with passive cooling.  
Your ears (and mics) will thank you.

> What kernel is okay with the ati chipset? I'm running 2.6.12 with
> daily hard lockups. Memory checks out fine in memtest and i've tried
> it with a few graphics cards so i'm assuming it's the board.

You'll probably need something in the 2.6.15 to 2.6.16 area. Yep, they're  
super new and most distros don't include one this new (yet). The 2x clock  
tick problem was solved around 2.6.15 and was a fault in the linux APIC  
implementation and not the chipset itself. I've had mixed results with the  
RS480 chipset (ATI w/ integrated video), but the RD480 and RD580 have been  
great (particularly with the SIS southbridge that supports AHCI for SATA).

later,
Steve



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