[linux-audio-user] Re: Motherboard recommendations

[Loki Davison]

On 4/10/06, Stephen Hassard <steve at hassard.net> wrote:
> 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
>

Ahh. i've got the RS480 ;-) though not using the onboard graphics as
it's got no dvi out. I'll try with 2.6.16 and see how it goes though.

Loki