On 4/29/06, Bob Taylor <brtaylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What Intel or AMD based 32 bit motherboard would you recommend with a minimum 1 Gig RAM. I don't require the latest. The first board manufactured with 1 Gig RAM would be fine. Of course Linux must fully support the board. I'm asking because I am totally ignorant about motherboards. :-)
It's never too late to learn :). Well, first off, motherboards do not come with RAM. You buy the motherboard and you buy the RAM separately (sometimes they are sold together in a bundle, but they are manufactured separately). There are currently two major types of RAM, DDR and DDR2, and any given motherboard will support one or the other. Next, really only processors are 32-bit or 64-bit, though perhaps you could classify motherboards by the type of processor they support. As far as motherboards, I recommend something with the nVidia nForce chipset. The chipset is the main feature of the motherboard that handles most of the functionality. nForce is usually well supported, but some things like the network card may depend on other components used. You might pick out something you like and let us know to see if other users have experience with that particular board. The other major feature of a motherboard is the CPU socket. This determines what kinds of processors you can put on the motherboard. I would recommend a socket for an AMD CPU, either socket 754 or 939 (they are named for the number of pins they have). 939 has support for faster memory (termed dual channel memory) than the 754, but the 939 CPUs are more expensive. If you want inexpensive, go with the 754, for which you can get a 32-bit or 64-bit AMD CPU. Now, what do you want to do with this motherboard? Do you want to build a new system? Or do you have parts that you want to use with it? If you have parts, you need to make sure those parts will work with the motherboard, in which case the above may be useless :). If you are building a new system, you'll need much more than a motherboard and RAM :). Jonathan
