mainboard brands comparison

[frantaylor]

Originally Posted by Biker

Does no one use SuperMicro MB

Yes I have an H8DME-2.

It has explicit support for Linux in the BIOS.

All the sensor hardware is detected and works great.

The on-board video will only work in SVGA mode, but I disabled it and got a real video card.

It's really a server motherboard, so it has no PCIe x16 slot.

You can use a PCI-e x8 to x16 adapter (from orbitmicro.com) to plug in a PCIe x16 video card with no noticeable loss in performance.

Performance and compatibility are OUTSTANDING. It's only SuperMicro for me from now on.

[Biker]

Have you seen the C2SBX+ LGA 775- Intel X48- ATX MB,
I building a newer system using some old stuff; keyboard/mouse, video cd, and new-
SuperMicro C2SBX+, LGA 775, Intel X48
Intel Core 2 Due E8400 Wolfdale 3Ghz-6MB L2
G. Skill (4X 2GB) SDRAM DDR3 1333 PC3 10666
Western Digital, Two VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache
MSI NX8400GS
Thermaltake Case VH8000BWS
Tagan BZ 800 watt supply
NEXUS XiR 3500 CPU Cooler
Cooljag Falcon Mini Chipset Cooler
Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II Chipset Cooler
MEDIAPC ZE C98
ACER, Two 20” WS LCD 1680 X 1050
LG DVD RW GSA-H42LI
Logitech Wireless LX 700
ADS DVD XpressDX2
Planar 997-5253-00 Black Dual Monitor Stand for LCD Displays

[xenios]

Originally Posted by mattmatteh

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12776

not sure why deanjo recommended foxconn, i read they didnt support linux well.

I went with Deanjo's suggestion and have been very pleased with the Foxconn mobo. It runs cool (CPU/27, NB/24, Mobo/28) and quiet (sits 18" away and cannot hear it). My default OS is Lenny, and while I've loaded a number of additional distros, I've yet to run into a hardware related issue.

FWIW: in the referenced thread I mentioned an issue with playing flash videos. Well, the issue was how I'd configured the system. I can now play online videos (flash, divx, etc) with the same smooth clarity as when running native XP.

Can't comment on other Foxconn boards as my experience is limited to this one for general desktop use: it supports Linux.

Comparing the boards:
Gigabyte had the best manual and packaging.
Asus had the easiest front panel/led connector; be nice if all boards had one. Also had an embedded Linux OS to update, go online, troubleshoot, etc.
Foxconn was third on the list in layout, manual and packaging.

Another comparison was NB temp ranges. From my experience, and confirmed by talking to each company's tech support, Foxconn's mobo ran cooler than the other two. Haven't kept up with the latest/greatest so I don't know how much of this is still true.

[Duhorigh73]

Let us know what kind of mainboard you have.

Please take the poll and select your brand if one is missing, let me know and also post what model you have.

This will give us more insight as to what is out there besides the "big" players

Killeroy.

[energyman]

which poll?

[DanL]

EPoX and Abit - R.I.P (My first standalone board was an EPoX and it's still kicking).

MSI K9NU - ULI M1697-based (remember ULI?), for my mom's Windows PC. It has a broken RAM slot, it doesn't play well with PCIe 2.0 video cards, and a 64-bit LiveCD won't boot because of ACPI issues (yes, the BIOS is up-to-date and I tried all the acpi boot parameters). Of course, my mom doesn't care about any of those flaws, and I'm not surprised at them because the board was dirt cheap.

MSI - I had a 690G (K9Neo2-Digital?) board from them that eventually burned the IGP/north bridge because of undersized and/or poorly mounted heatsink. The board worked pretty well with Linux though; the only Linux-related flaw I can remember is lack of PWM fan sensor/control because it had a Fintek F1882 sensor.

ASUS - after the MSI-690G fiasco, I bought an M3A78 series. It burned my passively-cooled CPU by putting an additional 0.05V into it at "stock" (no undervolting options either). That was partially my fault for having "just enough cooling" to keep the CPU under 60C at extended load under normal voltages. The board also had a load of trouble with seeing multiple SATA drives and hotplugging in Linux, though, so I wasn't keen to try Asus again..

Biostar - I love their T-Force series boards (can't speak for their real low-end stuff). They provide nice touches in the BIOS, like undervolting, and they keep their BIOS's up-to-date with latest CPU's. My current board of choice is a TA770-A2. I've also built systems with a P965, a P35, and a 780G (again, all T-Force series).