From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 27 10:47:36 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3CB8716A4CE; Tue, 27 Jan 2004 10:47:36 -0800 (PST) Received: from adsl-63-198-35-122.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (adsl-63-198-35-122.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net [63.198.35.122]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 26F9543D5A; Tue, 27 Jan 2004 10:47:10 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from j_guojun@lbl.gov) Received: from lbl.gov (localhost.pacbell.net [127.0.0.1]) ESMTP id i0RIlO7n000473; Tue, 27 Jan 2004 10:47:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from j_guojun@lbl.gov) Sender: jin@adsl-63-198-35-122.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net Message-ID: <4016B23C.BC65EE0C@lbl.gov> Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 10:47:24 -0800 From: "Jin Guojun [NCS]" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 4.9-RELEASE i386) X-Accept-Language: zh, zh-CN, en-US, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Patrick Proniewski , Bryan Cassidy References: <20031117200108.66f53bcb.b_cassidy@bellsouth.net> <6007B49C-1967-11D8-9BA9-0030654D97EC@patpro.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New parts for new PC (need help - little knowledge of hardware) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 18:47:36 -0000 Patrick Proniewski wrote: > On 18 nov. 2003, at 03:01, Bryan Cassidy wrote: > > > Next is to choose a mother board. I am > > wanting a ASUS just because I hear alot of people talking about it on > > the forums, irc etc and think I would be happy with it. > > you will, as long as you do not choose a cheap ASUS (SiS chipset and > controllers) > For max performance and better FreeBSD support, choose a motherboard > with Intel chipset (if you choose to go with a pentium of course, I've > no experience with AMD) This is fairly incomplete information. What performance and what Intel chipset implied here? Providing helpful information should be positive. Unclear information with bias does not help. Intel 875 chipset (P4) may provide 2-time memory bandwidth than Nvidia (AMD). However, spending the same amount $ on both motherboards and CPUs, this AMD system may produce twice computation power than this Intel system. This is an important fact if $ is an issue. Intel has tried to release new BIOS every other week or a month to fix 875 chipset booting problem (rev 005 to 015) because different I/O peripheral combination can cause its BIOS hang (not funny, I never see such serious problem on system design). For example, swap CDrom and IDE drive, or add some I/O controller, or use different video card, etc., all can cause system be unable to start from BIOS. We bought a 875 system, but could not use it for almost 6 months till its BIOS rev 015 was out. What a horrible story. We did benchmark for some good motherboards. The table it no pretty, but it may be helpful: http://dsd.lbl.gov/~jin/performance.pen.ps -Jin