what to look for in motherboards

English Hardware
1

I’m having a depressing new year. A disk is dying and it seems I’m going to have to replace my motherboard. I hate choosing hardware so I’m looking for suggestions. I’ve found lots of out-of-date info and the usual contradictions (e.g. on one hand lots of people saying Asus is anti-Linux, and on the other FSF recommending them and dissing Intel)

I’m not looking for a super gaming/media/etc machine but I’d like it still to be useful for a lot of years (my current mb is 5 years old). I browse, write, run spreadsheets, do the occasional compilation, watch the occasional movie etc

So what should I be looking for (or not):

  • motherboard brand
  • cpu models
  • memory types
  • chipsets
  • graphics
  • network
  • usb3? sata3?

Any direct suggestions or pointers to up-to-date lists welcomed.
Thanks, Dave

2

I usually go to Tom’s Hardware when researching motherboards.

Currently I am running all my linux distros on my Asus Extreme Gamer motherboard so I do not agree that Asus is not linux friendly.

Good luck!

3

On 2011-01-01 19:36, djh-novell wrote:

> A disk is dying and it seems I’m going
> to have to replace my motherboard.

Why?

> So what should I be looking for (or not):
> - motherboard brand

MSI.

> - graphics

!= ATI.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

4

I’m having a depressing new year. A disk is dying and it seems I’m going to have to replace my motherboard. I hate choosing hardware so I’m looking for suggestions. I’ve found lots of out-of-date info and the usual contradictions (e.g. on one hand lots of people saying Asus is anti-Linux, and on the other FSF recommending them and dissing Intel)

I’m not looking for a super gaming/media/etc machine but I’d like it still to be useful for a lot of years (my current mb is 5 years old). I browse, write, run spreadsheets, do the occasional compilation, watch the occasional movie etc

So what should I be looking for (or not):

  • motherboard brand
  • cpu models
  • memory types
  • chipsets
  • graphics
  • network
  • usb3? sata3?

Any direct suggestions or pointers to up-to-date lists welcomed.
Thanks, Dave
So, you will be getting lots of opinions I would suspect but I do build my own computers and have perhaps built a few hundred so far. No matter how many you build, it is not really possible to know every motherboard unless you used the same one yourself and they change very often in response to new CPU’s and so forth. In no particular order I have had success with Gigabyte, ASUS, ECS and MSI most recently. I seem to be leaning towards Gigabyte right now. Over all motherboard chipsets per say seem to be supported very promptly in the Linux kernel. The most common problems I have are:

#1 - Network Chipset support in Linux
#2 - Sound Chipset Support In Linux
#3 - Video Chipset to select
#4 - How many card slots does your Motherboard have and how many can be really used?

For Networking I suggest a plan B if the built-in networking does not work. Further, if you plan on a dual boot PC with Windows, I have ran into some oddities with the Realtek RTL811E/D chipsets. At first, before Windows, they may work, after running Windows, you may never get them to work at 1 GB, but can force them to 100 MB. So what is plan B? Make sure you have a PCIe or PCI slot open to install an add in network card if you need to. I normally buy D-Link (hard wired adapters) and have had good success so far in Linux. Wireless is a whole different story for another message.

More times than not, sound works OK from a built-in chipset. However, on one motherboard, the Realtek ALC883 was not very good. I ended up switching to a Diamond Multimedia 7.1 sound card with a CM chipset that worked fine. Right now, my main system uses a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi and it works just fine. However, a few Creative cards do not work, so they are not 100% supported. A plan B may be required if the built-in sound does not work.

For Video, if you really want it to work right and fast, you just got to go with nVidia. It is OK to try any built-in Video, but like anything else built-in, its quality may be lacking to say the least. I have had good luck with the latest nVidia chipsets including the 450 and 460 models. Expect to spend between $100 and $200 US dollars for a good video card plus tax.

I have had no issues with built-in SATA3, but I am no expert on just what is going on in side. For all I know, it may be dropping back to a slower speed that works. It seems very fast, but this is not based on any testing on my part.

As for USB 3, there is a couple of issues. First, you really need the latest kernel for full speed and compatibility support with Linux. openSUSE 11.3 comes with a USB 3 busted kernel support and would need a kernel update (to 2.6.35 or higher) to work right. Second, no computer BIOS’ right now allow you to boot from a USB 3 disk. So, if you use USB 3, upgrade the kernel and expect to boot from a non USB 3 disk. Speed tests do show them to be faster than USB 2.

As for card slots, consider the adapter cards you may install. At most there may be a Video Card (some take up two slots), a Sound Card, a Network Card and maybe a TV card. Consider the interface as some network and sound cards use the PCIe slots. You may be unable to install all of the cards you want. I normally stay away from SLI or Crossfire motherboards as they waste slots you most likely will not use. You must consider the included slots and your adapter card intentions.

The hardest thing to consider is component placement like SATA connectors, memory slots and such. It is best to look at a motherboard review of any considered candidate to see what the experts say first. This means that you need to consider all aspects of the new motherboard, read some reviews and order the right one online. Avoid any snap judgments to buy based only on price. As one might suspect, I have not always followed my advice and ended up buying another motherboards, thus wasting money.

Lastly, the best and fastest speeds will be obtained with the Intel i7 CPU’s and motherboards. AMD chips work just fine, I buy them almost half the time, but for speed, only Intel will do.

Thank You,

5

I assume that you are looking for general pointers, rather than ‘I recommend a Megacomm X123 mobo’.

My ordinary order of priorities are:

  1. CPU interface (ie, what socket does it use) - this question is only really useful to people who might upgrade the CPU later, if you are not one of these, just concentrate on what CPU you will install initially
  2. How much memory does it support?
  3. On-board graphics or compatibility with whatever video card system you want to use
  4. Other Peripherals: you can usually add a board that adds a new interface standard, but it isn’t usually the most economical approach

Now the wrinkles:

  • CPU interface: Intel is about to announce (first week of Jan?) its new Sandy Bridge architecture, which will be socket-incompatible with existing architectures. Even if you aren’t interested in sandy bridge, this creates the possibility of bargains on the existing, soon to be obsolescent, architectures.
  • AMD is about to introduce its new (but rather late, at least from a commercial pov) Bulldozer arch. In this case, there is to be some level of backward compatibility, but only with the more recent of existing sockets (AM3+ or AM3 as well?). In any case, AMD is currently having to campaign an inferior arch (on an IPC per core basis) by keeping prices low. I’m sure that AMD are hoping to improve their profitability, but what this implies for selling prices is a bit unclear. In any case, at the low-to-middle end, AMD do offer some good value parts, and, if this is what you want you can get loads of cache and several cores for quite a reasonable cost.
  • Chipsets: in the past, I’ve been burned by trying to use lower-cost, less-well-supported, chipsets under Linux. I’d try to stick to Intel chipsets for Intel parts and AMD chipsets for for AMD parts, unless absolutely necessary, for most problem-free Linux support. Possibly Nvidia too, if AMD/Intel don’t do the necessary.

The reason for prioritising the memory support is that this is often what determines the end of useful life (…unless something fails…) under Linux. Support for bigger memory sizes is better, and, for me, the board can always have a second life in another role.

ethernet: Gigabit ethernet is more-or-less standard, these days. Do you need more than one eth port?

usb3? sata3? Well, neither offer much today, but over the life of your set-up, they could well become standard. Intel seems to have set its face against usb3, and I’m not sure why. SATA3 could become more important as Solid State Drives become more important, but for today’s hard disks isn’t a deal breaker, for me. Is there an SSD in your future?

mobo brand: I’d stick to the big boys. Gigabyte, Asus, MSI for preference, but the smaller players like Asustek can be worthwhile, if the bigger players don’t have what you want.

Those are two completely separate things, right? (That is, you are not replacing your mobo because your disk is failing, are you?) If there are two separate failings going on, ensure that you have a decent quality power supply, because you wouldn’t want to blow up your nice new kit because your power supply is putting out ‘bad’ voltages.

Also think about power consumption and quiet/silence…an aftermarket cpu cooler may be a good investment.

6

Hi
Do you have a budget in mind for the new motherboard?
What existing hardware do you have (and peripherals eg Monitor etc)?
Like user markone indicated, what sort of power budget (Maybe a dual core atom cpu? eg Newegg.com - Suggested Products?)
64 or 32bit?
Maybe some more details on what you want to run regarding applications, do you want a fast boot (maybe get a SSD) or are you happy to turn on and go make a coffee (or cup of tea) for it to boot.

Lots of questions…

7

Asking questions before purchasing is IMHO the way to go about this, especially if one has shown they have already given this some thought, which by your list it appears you have. There is some excellent advice in this thread already, and I will try NOT to duplicate it.

I confess I like the idea of USB-3.0 in a motherboard even IF support is poor today. I believe we will see more and more motherboards with USB-3.0 and external hard drives with USB-3.0 in the future, and hence for the short term you may be forced to use a USB-2.0 compatibility mode, but in the longer term USB-3.0 support should be there. Hence if it were me, and if I could easily afford a motherboard with USB-3.0, then if it were me I would be tempted as sort of a ‘future compatibility’ investment.

Once you narrow your list down to 3 or 4 motherboards, trying surfing on those motherboards for Linux compatibility. The last two motherboards I have purchased were in fact Asus (which tend to get a bit of bad press on our forum) and they work well. The selling factor for me with those Asus was a surf on the specific boards i was considering indicated superb compatibility with Linux, and also their “Express Gate” feature (which is in essence is a semi-firmware based Linux boot) confirmed Linux compatibility was most likely (as Asus had to get Linux working on the motherboard in order to include that Express Gate feature)). Now I do NOT use the Express Gate feature, but I do see it as a “Linux compatibility” stamp, even IF it is not advertised as such.

I like Gigabyte and MSI, but when I chose and purchased the two different Asus motherboards, the Gigabyte motherboard I was considering had Ethernet device incompatibility with Linux (which is not something I can wait months to have fixed - ethernet MUST work immediately) and the MSI I was looking at had motherboard sound device problems. But that was yesterday, and today it could be completely different, with superb compatibility from Gigabyte/MSI. One needs to research the specific board. And that typically means you can not get the ‘newest’ motherboard on the block as it takes time for others to purchase 1st and report on the problems.

As for graphics, I do not recommend graphics on a motherboard (which many of the Intel Core i3/i5 chipset have). Instead I recommend one purchase a separate graphic card.

Good luck with your efforts.

8

Wow, thanks for all the answers everybody :slight_smile:

Always answer a question with a question, eh Carlos :slight_smile:
To answer that and some other questions at the same time, here’s the story:

It’s an MSI K8M Neo-V, which uses a Via VT8237 southbridge and that is not compatible with SATA 2 drives, even when they are forced into SATA 1 mode. Nor can I find a PCI add-in card that is SATA 2. It’s got 1.5 GB memory and an nvidia video card (the integrated graphics didn’t work properly, though they might with modern kernels I guess). But I have a Samsung monitor that I sometimes use in portrait mode.

> So what should I be looking for (or not):
> - motherboard brand

MSI.

Yeah, I’ve been fairly happy with this one. Gigabyte is another I’m considering. If anybody has any specific models in mind, that would be useful to me.

> - graphics

!= ATI.

Well that’s been my view; I’ve been happy with nvidia. I may even plug that card in but I suspect AGP is dead now? But FSF say use ATI?!

In answer to other points people have raised:

  • I don’t run anything but Linux
  • yes, my view of SATA3 and USB3 is as future compatibility, since lack of that’s what’s killing this mobo.
  • a m/b that supports openBIOS would be useful for the same reason

Got to run now. Thanks again.
Dave

9

On 01/01/2011 03:36 PM, oldcpu wrote:

> I confess I like the idea of USB-3.0 in a motherboard even IF support
> is poor today. I believe we will see more and more motherboards with
> USB-3.0 and external hard drives with USB-3.0 in the future, and hence
> for the short term you may be forced to use a USB-2.0 compatibility
> mode, but in the longer term USB-3.0 support should be there. Hence if
> it were me, and if I could easily afford a motherboard with USB-3.0,
> then if it were me I would be tempted as sort of a ‘future
> compatibility’ investment.

USB 3.0 will be here very soon. Kernel 2.6.37, the one in openSUSE 11.4, has USB
3.0 (xhci-hcd) support. I don’t know how well it works as I don’t have the
hardware, but it will get debugged very quickly.

10

After purchasing three different Asus systems/motherboards I stopped dealing with Asus. The last product (a P1 AMD barebone system) I bought in Sweden from my long time reliable retailer came with a defective motherboard. After a year of replacing the original motherboard with three equally defective NEW boards I gave up. One unfortunate owner posting on their support page had bought a large number of them for a corporate LAN application and reported no help from Asus. That did it for me.

The dead box sits in my bookcase in Sweden to remind me.

11

On 2011-01-02 00:06, djh-novell wrote:

>> Why?
>>
>
> Always answer a question with a question, eh Carlos :slight_smile:

Just curious :slight_smile:
My previous computer was 10 years old :wink:

> To answer that and some other questions at the same time, here’s the
> story:
>
> It’s an MSI K8M Neo-V, which uses a Via VT8237 southbridge and that is
> not compatible with SATA 2 drives, even when they are forced into SATA 1
> mode.

You mean that it has SATA ports that do not work, or that it has old PATA
ports?

That would be a reason, you can not change hard disks easily.

>> MSI.
>
> Yeah, I’ve been fairly happy with this one. Gigabyte is another I’m
> considering. If anybody has any specific models in mind, that would be
> useful to me.

Mine is P45Diamond. Not really recent, but then, I don’t like top of the
line hardware - not sufficiently tested, and too expensive.

>>> - graphics
>>
>> != ATI.
>
> Well that’s been my view; I’ve been happy with nvidia. I may even plug
> that card in but I suspect AGP is dead now? But FSF say use ATI?!

The FSF never would use the proprietary driver, so the fact that ATI
“forgets” to do drivers for all their cards is of no consequence to them.

And if I remember correctly, they published or gave some specs. :-? If
that is correct, then ATI is best if you limit yourself to the open driver,
which doesn’t do 3D or use accel hardware.

That’s why.

I prefer Intel myself, unless you need fast graphics. However, Intel
graphics are not a really good choice in 11.3, till they manage to solve
their problems.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

12

Hi Carlos, There’s an explanation at VIA VT8237/R Southbridge and SATA-II (3.0gb/s) drives

13

I was just reading on Phoronix about the Sandy Bridge. Current support for it is a bit shakey. A couple of articles

I note Phoronix claim

For the proper Sandy Bridge experience you are left looking for

  • the Linux 2.6.37 kernel,
  • Mesa 7.10,
  • the latest libdrm,
  • and the xf86-video-intel 2.14.0

Its not even clear to me that openSUSE-11.4 will have all of that , but it might. I note this openFATE request which suggests it will support this: https://features.opensuse.org/310904