[linux-audio-user] hardware

[Jamie Guinan]

On Sat, 31 Dec 2005, Lee Revell wrote:

> I am thinking of getting an AMD X2 system.  I want to avoid Nvidia
> chipsets as their hardware is too closed and the Via stuff seems cheap
> which leaves me with ATI (I realize the latest stuff does not have open
> drivers, but at least there's a chance they'll release one eventually)
> 
> Does anyone have any experience with the ASUS A8R-MVP?
> 
> http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA22189
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Lee

Hi Lee and group,

So did you ever get your new system?

I can see you're not a big fan of NVidia, but I thought I'd play a 
little devil's advocate here.

I put together a new AMD X2 system a few weeks ago with a Tyan 
motherboard, NVidia CK804 (nforce4) chipset,

  http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tomcatk8e.html

Its rock solid so far (bleeding edge Gentoo, vanilla 2.6.14), and all 
the devices I care about are supported.  Here's my lspci output, with 
my comments in []'s,

  00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory 
    Controller (rev a3)
  00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 ISA Bridge (rev a3)
  [ basic stuff, no problem ]

  00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
  [ haven't tried this yet ]

  00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller 
    (rev a2)
  00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller 
    (rev a3)
  [ works fine ]

  00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 
    Audio Controller (rev a2)
  [ driven by snd_intel8x0, despite the driver name ]

  00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev f2)
  [ works fine, I have a Seagate drive ]

  00:07.0 RAID bus controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA 
    Controller (rev f3)
  00:08.0 RAID bus controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA 
    Controller (rev f3)
  [ haven't tried, don't have an SATA drive, might not be supported ]

  00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)

  00:0a.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller 
    (rev a3)
  [ drivers/net/forcedeth.c ]

  00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
  00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
  00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
  00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
  00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 
    [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
  00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 
    [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
  00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 
    [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
  00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 
    [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
  [ nothing here that I need to bother with ]

  01:05.0 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
  [ old chip, probably supported by Mach64 DRI for basic 3D ]

  01:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host 
    Controller (rev 80)
  [ haven't tried this yet, but it looks like bog-standard VIA OHCI ]

  01:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. ICE1712 
    [Envy24] PCI Multi-Channel I/O Controller (rev 02)
  [ Delta 66, works fine ]

  04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 
    Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 11)
  [ yucky proprietary driver available, but I don't use this port, 
    the above forcedeth-driven port is enough ]

  05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 6200 
    TurboCache(TM) (rev a1)
  [ I added this, forgive me :) ]

I had looked at all the others, and bought Tyan based on its 
reputation for stability, and mixed customer reviews of other makers 
(DOAs and returns).  I plan to run this thing for at least 5 years.

I respect your reasons for avoiding the NVidia 3D driver, but I 
overall the CK804 chipset isn't bad (notable exception being SATA if 
that doesn't work).

Only hiccup was that I had to do a BIOS upgrade before it would 
recognize both cores of the X2 processor, and it was a little confused 
about how much memory I had at first (saw 16MB instead of 2GB), but I 
got it sorted out.

I bought all the parts from newegg, including this solid/cheap case,

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119047

-Jamie

p.s. I don't work for NVidia.  In fact, I have several close friends 
who work at ATI (shhh...).