Jonathan Berry wrote:
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
I only use 64-bit systems at home. The two different companies I work
for only have 32 bit systems for most or all of the employees. I
recently had to replace a motherboard for one user but due to budget
constraints I bought a used motherboard. If I had bought a new
motherboard, I would have been forced into buying new memory (RAM), a
new video card, and very likely a new power supply, too.
I recommend you get a used motherboard that supports AMD Athlon 64 X2
processors. These are Socket 939 boards. Find a used CPU that suits your
budget -- perhaps an Athlon 64 single core, like the 3500+, or a dual
core CPU. Look for features that support the parts you want to install.
I have an Asrock Dual939-SATA2 board which can take an AGP video card
and/or a PCI Express card. It works great. You may need a beefy power
supply to support your system, I have an older 510 watt Turbo-Cool unit
from PC Power & Cooling which I suspect is getting a small for new systems.
Read up on how to build a new system or replace a motherboard -- there
are tutorials available on the net. Remember that a lot of the advice
you find from magazine websites like www.maximumpc.com is based on the
mistakes that others made -- what they say shows you how to avoid problems.
With a used system, the original owner may never have updated the
system's BIOS. Be sure you install the latest available BIOS as one of
your first steps after you power up your motherboard and it passes the
POST. Do the BIOS update before you install any OS.
Good luck
Bob Cochran
