From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 20 09:30:14 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D7EC116A4CE for ; Thu, 20 Nov 2003 09:30:14 -0800 (PST) Received: from lakemtao06.cox.net (lakemtao06.cox.net [68.1.17.115]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17D5B43FCB for ; Thu, 20 Nov 2003 09:30:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from kitbsdlists@HotPOP.com) Received: from fortytwo ([68.109.49.234]) by lakemtao06.cox.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.05 201-253-122-130-105-20030824) with SMTP id <20031120173012.QWPQ24575.lakemtao06.cox.net@fortytwo>; Thu, 20 Nov 2003 12:30:12 -0500 Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 11:28:33 -0600 From: Vulpes Velox To: Mark Terribile Message-Id: <20031120112833.74548e17.kitbsdlists@HotPOP.com> In-Reply-To: <20031120073308.73227.qmail@web21107.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20031118065049.E13BE16A4CE@hub.freebsd.org> <20031120073308.73227.qmail@web21107.mail.yahoo.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.6claws (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd4.9) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New parts for new PC (need help - little knowledge of hardware) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 17:30:15 -0000 On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 23:33:08 -0800 (PST) Mark Terribile wrote: > > [This reply is tardy, I know; please accept my apologies] > > >>> Next is ... a mother board. I am wanting a ASUS just because I hear > >>> alot of people talking about it on the forums, ... > >> ... > >> Take a look a ABIT's motherboard, some of them are really good. > > I had a very bad experience with an ABIT motherboard. When FreeBSD > started, it saw three NICs instead of one; when it tried to initialize > one, it wiped the field-upgradeable BIOS. The machine wouldn't even POST. > I destroyed two boards this way; fortunately the vendor (who doesn't have > a FreeBSD support person) gave me a break on the Gigabit that I replaced > it with. There's a FreeBSD trouble ticket on this; I can hunt the number > down if you like. But I would recommend avoiding putting ABIT and FreeBSD > together unless you have support for the combo, or a report that that exact > motherboard works with FreeBSD. The Gigabit, BTW, has run like a champ. Never tried ABIT befor, but I have had two machines with Gigabit mobos and they ran quite nicely. > > Finnally if you can afford it scsi is diffenetly better than ide, but > > I'm sure most people will think that is over kill. > > IDE drives can be flakey on their DMA support. I'm using an IBM Deskstar > as a rotating backup and it hung the FreeBSD device probe on discovery. > I have it set to use PIO, which sucks the CPU up through a firehose. I'm > running on a set of three 10,000 RPM IBM SCSI Ultrastars that I bought right > after Hitachi bought IBM's drive business and before the disk price rose > again. They run hot; I have them in a mounting cage salvaged from an old > machine, with space between them and between them and the side of the cage, > set right in front of the 120 mm inlet-side case fan. In this configuration, > they have run like champs, lightning fast and no noisier than the fans. I have had very good luck with Seagate EIDE hard drives. I personally advoid any hdd made by IBM or Western Digital. I am not sure about Samsung. I have also had good luck with my Maxtor drives. For most purposes ATA100 works perfectly. They are cheap and work decently.