Motherboards for AMD

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

I am looking at building a new system. I will be using an AMD CPU - AM2 socket. I am hopeful to get some suggestions for a motherboard. The motherboard should also hopefully be microATX (to fit in the case I am looking at).

I would prefer online video if possible (I just need basic graphics - no gaming, no video editing, etc.). I was looking at the new ATI 780G - since ATI is now trying to play nicely with the Open Source community. It seems to get great reviews, but I have heard that it and the southbridge it is normally coupled with (SB700 - I think) runs very hot!!!

This system will be geared toward cool and quiet operation (though, I don't think I can go totally fanless!). So, I can't have a north- and southbridge that are untouchably hot (according to one review).

My preferred brand is ASUS, but will consider others as well.

Any suggestions?



Also, I have heard that Seagate hard drives run hot -- any knowledge of that?

[Carpetsmoker]

Also, I have heard that Seagate hard drives run hot -- any knowledge of that?

I don't know, not that I ever noticed ... I do know I almost always use Seagate drives (or Quantum) and never had a problem with them.
In any case, AFAIK temperature doesn't really matter for hard drive performance/lifespan.

[robbak]

Within reason, that is true: Google released stats a year or so ago about their failure rates, which found little correlations at all between failure and anything environmental.
The only thing that was found was that the time between the first sector going bad and the drive dying was short. The rest of the SMART figures were practically useless.

http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

That Said, if a drive runs hotter than another, equivalent model, then that drive is wasting energy.

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

I don't know, not that I ever noticed ... I do know I almost always use Seagate drives (or Quantum) and never had a problem with them.
In any case, AFAIK temperature doesn't really matter for hard drive performance/lifespan.

Increased temperature can cause the bearings to wear out faster (some types of bearings are more susceptible to heat than others). Worn out bearings will cause more noise and eventually failure. But, for me the main point is to try and limit heat, which will reduce need for noisy and power consuming fans - and more heat = more wasted energy.

I have looked at the new Western Digital Caviar GP (Green Power) hard drives. Their performance is not that great, so the reviews say, as it is basically a 5400 RPM drive that can occasionally do quick bursts of 7200 RPM.

I am also looking at the viability of using CF as a hard drive (via a CF2IDE or CF2ATA converter). This looks promising for me. Sure, I won't have 1TB of storage, but I am not going to use it as a multimedia storage box or a RAID server. I have very modest needs (compared to the average user today) for amount of storage: 8-16 GB is more than enough for me.

[Oliver_H]

>Increased temperature can cause the bearings to wear out faster

The impact of heavy use and high temperatures on hard disk drive failure may be overstated, says a report by three Google engineers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6376021.stm

As robbak already mentioned there is much more belief than real facts in terms of hardware.

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6376021.stm

As robbak already mentioned there is much more belief than real facts in terms of hardware.

That could very well be, but I'm afraid I'd need more support for that than just one report from three Google engineers. Is there any corroboration from other groups or engineers?

[lvlamb]

A hard drive is made of parts which sometimes can originate from the same sub-parts manufacturer.
Then they are mounted in a low-cost location.
At each step, there are quality tests which are used to accept some specifications.
Essentially, beyond some design, all drives are the same.
There isn't either much price difference between capacities. Currently, almost none for 40G to 160G drives.
Just drives "specified" for AV, retail desktops, commercial grades, industrial grade, hot swapping.

I have few experience with the Seagate (Maxtor or whatever brand they bought).
What I know for sure from Western Digital, is that I buy RE drives, those with product # ending in ***YS.
Specs are better, all around, in MTBF, temp range, shock, ...

It is usual, at one manufacturer, to have 5 to 10 specs for one capacity.
Hence, IMVHO, inter-brand comparative testing is pure BS, not academic at least: comparing B&W drillers to Diamant Board gear.

Hard drives are killed (also) by heat. Negating this is refusing the old chemistry principle of processes speeding or slowing depending on the process temperature.
When hard drive technology near, in measurement, the size of molecules we must now speak of chemistry, hence influence of heat.

[ephemera]

Download the h/w specs for your hard disk from the seagate site and check if the disk temp temp reported (/usr/ports/*/smartmontools) are within reasonable limits.

i wouldn't fret too much about this unless you are talking about performance drives like the raptor (10k rpm), those might require more attention with regards to cooling, cabinet air flow etc.

In general, there isn't much difference in quality b/w the different drives.

Opt for drives that have 3/5 yrs warranty.
just for info, all my disks are seagate.

Hard disks may come cheap these days but keep in mind they are very advanced, high precision devices. ;)

> Also, I have heard that Seagate hard drives run hot -- any knowledge of that?

Generalizations like that are obviously BS.

[Dave77]

From details you give, our spec should be interesting.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=417054

We're trying to determine if FreeBSD can support these boards. Linux support was just recently there, SB700 southbridge chip id's added to the 2.6.25 kernel series. There've also been some recent (Linux-speak here) kernel 'quirks' direct from AMD patched into the Linux kernel. We checked all of that before buying. Now someone wants to try FreeBSD though. I'm not clear yet. Just boils down to chipset support really.

Other than that question mark, our spec is what you want. AMD based, quiet, certainly cheap! Not ASUS, but GigaByte is just as good and the boards we got do come in a microATX format as well. If you go for the microATX read some of the NewEgg comments about the chipset heatsink situation; it runs hot. No such issue with the ATX format.

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

If you go for the microATX read some of the NewEgg comments about the chipset heatsink situation; it runs hot. No such issue with the ATX format.

Thanks for the information. I started another thread (http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=1443) on this question, but since no one has replied, I'll ask it here: would getting another video card fix the chipset running hot?

[Dave77]

The comments say the bridge chip gets hot, not the IGP. The solution is a bigger heatsink on the bridge chip. Or go full ATX, which ships stock that way.