rdx

Sorry if we more or less hijacked your thread to carry on our own discussion. We were doing it only so you could see the implications of choosing one type of CPU over another.

Whatever we said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with AMD CPUs that still have a 939 socket. I have one, I say it's a great thing. All I was suggesting is that you would be limiting your options to upgrade at any time in the future. AMD has stopped making dual core CPUs for this type of socket. As lazlow pointed out, some shops still have a stock but that won't last forever. However, if you have no intention to upgrade in the near future, this becomes irrelevant. If you do want to go dual core some day, you can simply get a newer motherboard with a newer socket. Which may not be a bad idea, in fact, because the current AMD socket (AM2) will probably be succeeded by something else again later this year.

As for the motherboard, VIA has traditionally had a poor reputation. Then again, I remember using a cheapo PCchips motherboard that had a VIA chipset and it worked just great. In the end, I think it's difficult to generalize and a little more research may be required. So that's what I did and I found a review of this motherboard which tests its compatibility with Linux. It appears to work just fine:
http://www.linux-tested.com/results/asus_a8v-xe.html
The only potential problem is the LAN card, which was not discovered at the time. But a driver appears to be available from VIA and for all I know, it may now be part of the kernel so that everything works out of the box.

As for the RAM, you should make sure you get DDR, not DDR2. The fastest the board will support is DDR 3200 = DDR 400Mhz but you could also use DDR 2700(=333Mhz). If unsure, get the DDR 3200; you can still clock it back to 333Mhz in BIOS if you see better performance at that rate.

Yep, what jay said.

Lazlow

And here is one more:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/Asus_A8V-XE_S...39_Motherboard

btw, do make sure that it has an onboard graphics chip if that's what you want. I'm getting confused because some reviews mention an ATI 600, while other reviews don't mention anything at all. If it doesn't have onboard graphics, you would have to get a separate video card.

The previous comments have been VERY helpful and thanks to everyone. I have been to newegg and to crucial and examined a couple of choices. Apparently a mobo/processor/ram(512) will start at about $135. But it is such a mess matching these things up! The only thing worse is trying to hire a lawyer ;-) Anyway, the real problem starts when I try to match what is spec'd on the web with what is available at the local store. If I ever figure this out I will definitely post the result, success or failure so hopefully the next person with this problem will find a safe answer. Of course by then the products will be obsolete and unavail, but ...
Thanks again to everyone.

Is there any reason you particularly want to buy local? I've always found newegg's prices to be at least as good as the local stores, and the shipping times are quite reasonable. It beats going back and forth between home and BestBuy comparing what you want and what they have.

EDIT: I guess I should also note that I'm not affiliated with newegg either. Just a happy customer.

I tried to place an order at Newegg yesterday and had weird problems. For example, I selected a number of items for a wishlist which locked up my MSIE. And when I tried to establish an account, the button at the end had no effect. That after I fixed the zip code from 5 to 9 digits according to the checker suggestion. I sent an email to Newegg and got confirmation of receipt but thus far there is no resolution.

The other side is that a local source allows immediate results, I can get the board same day and return as required same day. The prices at the local MicroCenter are a bit higher but not a lot, except taxes which must be paid.

The problem is that matching a board and a processor, both of which are in-stock, borders on impossible. If I was looking to spend lots of money and seeking max performance, it might be different, but ...

This raises another question (should I start a new thread?); A future upgrade that interests me is RAID 5. Currently I have no effective backup scheme for disks as big as I am operating and a dead disk is a serious catastrophe. This board seems to support RAID 5 and so I will be interested in upgrading. Has anyone done this sort of thing? Advice?

And another thing: cooling. I am thinking I can take the heatsink/fan off the current processor for the new one. Is this reasonable? It does need cooling of some form, right?

I would consider ordering from an online store like Newegg. I've got 8 or more mobo's from them over the last few years. They always come through.
I have tried looking at local suppliers and found the selection to be very limiting. They never had anywhere near the selection of New Egg. And ... many items on New Egg qualify for free shipping. With free shipping and no tax, New Egg is the easy choice for me.

NOTE: not affiliated with New Egg in any way, other than being a satisfied customer.

edit to add:
I somehow missed your Raid 5 question before I posted this. So, I'll add my 2cents ... I use Raid 5 in all my production systems. I would highly recommend it to anyone concerned with avoiding a catastrophic disk failure. It does not take the place of backups, but will save you downtime when you do have a disk failure.

rdx

Newegg has a pretty impressive reputation. Probably one of the best as far as online stores go. Other than a very satisfied customer I have no association with newegg either.

Pretty much all modern cpus need some sort of cooling. Not all, but most of the combos come with a cpu cooler(from past experience). Make sure your case has plenty of air moving through it. This can drastically effect the amount of cooling your cpu cooler can do. This really should not be much of an issue with your choice of cpu.


As far as Raid 5 goes: almost all motherboard chipsets are some form of fakeraid. Good, true raid is usually only available on add on cards. While I thought promise cards were great on windows they fall into this category. The two brand names that come to mind are rocket raid and 3ware. There are already a ton of threads on this, just search raid 5.

Having three hard drives (Raid 5) brings me back to an earlier topic. Do not skimp on power supplies. When you get an iffy power supply it can generate all kinds of strange and more importantly extremely difficult to diagnose problems. Stick with a good power supply. While opinions may vary, the one name that makes almost everyone's list is seasonic. I also prefer to be overkill with wattage. A 500 or 550 watt powers supply would be the range I would be looking at for what you have now described.

On the subject of cooling, the boxed version of AMD CPUs come with a cooler included. The trayed version doesn't. As long as your case has good venting and you don't do anything that produces increased heat (like overclocking), using a boxed CPU should be enough.

Yet another term! Boxed vs. trayed !?! Oh well, the order is in, it's too late to worry now. Turns out that I had cookies turned off on my Opera browser and I finally got through to Newegg and am on my way to being another satisfied customer (fingers crossed). I took the heatsink/fan off the old processor and hopefully I can use that if there is no cooler included. I'll read the manual (that'll be novel) to see what they suggest. Thanks again for all the help.

Rdx

Pretty much just as it sounds. The boxed cpu (6X6X3 inches?) comes with a cpu cooler(good enough to run, maybe a little loud). The tray is a package just big enough for the cpu, maybe 3X3X1/2. On newegg you can look at the picture. The tray ones just show the back of the cpu, while the boxed ones show the box.

If I had known this before I ordered it might have made a difference but now it is too late. I think I'm gonna get a tray style proc so I need to know how to cool it. I have the heatsink/fan from the old processor (Cyrix III, 600 MHz) and the question is, will that do or do I need to get something else?

Rdx

You will probably need something new. The size and shape of the cpu and the mounts change frequently. Possibly just so we have to buy new stuff. Up until the last couple of years each new generation of cpu has put out more and more heat (heatsink capacity issue) but that has begun to change. Still a 600 mhz cooler will not cut the mustard. With AMD introducing a new cpu mount system (AM3?) it looks like one cannot future proof ones cpu cooler. I happen to like the thermalright si128 (newegg has them for about $50) but you do have to buy a fan in addition to the cooler. If noise is an issue you can buy very quite fans in both 120mm and 140mm sizes. While the 140mm fans come with 120mm adapters (for flat mount) the best setup for the si128 that I saw used an old 120mm fan (with the fan hub removed) as a spacer. Extremely quite and kept everything sub 40 under full load. Be aware that the cooler is very tall.

So, how do I evaluate a cooler? I can't see where the thermal output is published and if it were, I don't see how to evaluate the cooling capacity of the fans. And keeping things sub 40 must be a joke; ambient is gonna be 40 ish in a couple of months (here in Texas).

As I understand what I read about the processor on the mfg site, it will shut down if it overheats, so I should be able to try it out with the heatsinks I can muster from local sources and if it doesn't work, no harm done, the system just shuts down. Is that correct or am I missing something?