workstation mobo

[Jason Morgan]

On Fri, Aug 12, 2005 at 04:33:35PM -0600, Ken Gunderson wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:53:56 +0200
> Juergen Lock <nox at jelal.kn-bremen.de> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, Aug 12, 2005 at 08:58:23AM -0600, Ken Gunderson wrote:
> > > Greets All:
> > > 
> > > I'm liking these amd opteron servers so much that I am considering
> > > building an amd based workstationn.  Assumed it would be Athalon based
> > > but in searching archives I note that some folks seem to prefer the
> > > opterons for workstation use. Perhaps to some degree in reaction
> > > to the "chipset mess".  I'm not averse to spending a bit more for the
> > > opteron system but it seems to me the Opteron's CPU heatsink/fan might
> > > be a bit noisy for workstation use.  And I have buddies shouting in my
> > > ear to "stick w/ Intel" for workstation.  But then I also know others
> > > who run AMD for their desktop machines.  Any recommends based on current
> > > state of affairs in the ADM hardware world?  
> > 
> > I just got a new box with an Asus A8V Deluxe board (VIA K8T800 Pro,
> > Socket 939), and so far everything seems to be working.  The only
> > unusual thing i had to do for FreeBSD (5.4-R) was adding a patch
> > to the sk nic driver (see other thread.)
> 
> Thanks to all who responded.  I've got a buddy who swears that the 2MB
> L2 cache P4's, e.g. the 640 et.al. are kicking butt on the Athalons.  I
> know to some degree it boils down to personal preference and don't want
> to beat the topic to death but input is appreciated since I've mostly
> been building opteron as of late (and xeons before that) server class
> machines so am kind of out of date on the workstation side of things.  

If you're simply looking for the most powerful system you can get, I'd 
check out Toms Hardware or one of the other numerous sites that have 
up-to-date benchmarking. If you're worried about FreeBSD and the 
hardware getting along, then that's another matter. I have been running 
a socket 939 AMD 3500+ for some time - never had an issue. However,  
it's not usually the CPU that will give you issues in FreeBSD. My 
advice is to find the best MBs out there (ie work well with FreeBSD) 
and make your choice based on the features provided by those MBs.

Jason