Hardware Problems: suggestions for replacement components
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| TxtEdMacs May 24, 2005 8:16 AM EDT |
The ASUS motherboard [A7V8X] I am using showed some signs it was flaky. It keeps insisting that the second drive on the cable is faulty. Fine, but most of the time there was no second drive. Upon getting a larger drive and installing it, that message disappears, however, that second drive is not detected upon bootup, nonetheless, it is known in the bios. This means I need to replace the mb, Hence, I am toying with the idea of buying a combination that includes a AMD Athlon 64 2800+ and MSI K8N Neo Platinum. The review I found on the mb has some kind words about that component. However, I really do not need all that power, just leaning that way to give my hardware to my daughter, who is asking for Linux. She is using Windows XP exclusively not by choice, but due to a dual boot kills Windows. Anyone familiar with the above named components? What are some other options you would suggest? TIA I have other interesting hardware stories currently (in the Oriental sense of "interesting", i.e. a curse), but they are better discussed elsewhere or another time. |
| grgiii May 25, 2005 3:59 AM EDT |
I am sorry to say that I am not too familiar with new hardware, since I have and assortment of old hardware that stills works well. I have, however, had my share of strange problems with hard drive detection. It usually comes down to back cable, hd jumper issue , hard drive dying and hard drive dead. I can't recall ever having a motherboard be the cause, but it's still a good excuse to upgrade! |
| TxtEdMacs May 25, 2005 5:28 AM EDT |
At the moment I am back to just replacing the mb, because I believe the current one is indeed faulty. Hence, the extra expense may not yield a working dual boot on another machine. Regarding the new hard drive, I just sent in back for an exchange, while not D.O.A. (aka "dead on arrival") it had an odd failure that was confirmed on a second similar machine. The failure was it could not successfully reboot during a Debian base installation. Oddly, I was able to get a very nice full Fedora Core 3 with full, current updates for the workstation with some custom package selections (games out and some tools in). Regarding old hardware, I have a Matrox G450 dual head video card, that while recognized on Mandrake 10.2 with each monitor separately configurable, I have not found the tool for each monitor to view different output. Essentially I get no more than the same view at differing resolutions. Though I posted that on Fedora Core 3 saw the card as only a G400, I think I may have confused it with what I saw on the aborted Debian installation attempt. These are some of my recent "interesting" hardware experiences. |
| dinotrac May 25, 2005 8:04 AM EDT |
I would forget about the 2800. If you want to go Athlon 64, go for one of the 90 nano Socket 939 units. They draw substantially less power than the 130 nano parts, which means less heat, which means better longevity and ***if you are so inclined (ahem, like me)*** better tolerance for over-clocking. For example, I overclock my 3200 25%. Not bad, not spectacular. What is spectacular, however, is that it barely ever goes much over 90 degrees F. Another nice thing about all Athlon 64s: Thanks to their cool'n quiet architecture, they step up and down according to your demand, further reducing heat and contributing to decent longevity for overclocked parts. |
| TxtEdMacs May 25, 2005 11:33 AM EDT |
dinotrac - I think you are right, since I was already more interested in a cooler running chip. Indeed, I find the new dual core chips to be very enticing with lower energy draw and superior (in many cases) than a comparable single core pair. My 2600+ is already quite fast and really suffices for me. I just would like to retire the Athlon 1400, which I heard was one of the hottest running AMD chips in existence. So far I have not experimented with overclocking - I would just use more and faster memory. The sata cables are alone enough to make me consider those drives. Such cabling will help keep the entire box cooled, even better than the rounded ribbon cable I already use. |
| Koriel May 25, 2005 1:14 PM EDT |
I had a lot of problems with via based chipset motherboards, so i personally would opt for an athlon 3500+, S939 Nvidia Nforce 4 board. |
| TxtEdMacs May 25, 2005 6:12 PM EDT |
I just decided to take the simpler option and ordered a slightly better mb than is now installed. Later, when the new product line appears I will upgrade to a different chip and pass my cpu and current mb to my daughter. Thanks to all of you for the suggestions. |
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