[geeks] value of PIII PC servers

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 @ 13:29 -0400, Phil Stracchino said:

> I've had bad enough luck with MSI motherboards (including one that had
> to be replaced under warranty three times) that I won't buy MSI
> hardware.  

I've put two MSI motherboards together without issue, but I am a lot
more cautious when buying their stuff.

I even built an MSI N4 board for a friend, and it is working perfectly.
Of course, this is a Windows box, so UNIX support isn't a primary
concern.  It is very fast though.

Otherwise, I generally like most Intel boards, and Tyan's boards are
usually good.  Asus for the desktop stuff, at least until I find out
they also make higher end stuff.

I do not like Asus low-end boards, branded "Asrock" and priced about
20-50% less.  

I hear good things from some people about Gigabyte, but don't have any
experience with them.

> However, I've never had a bad experience with ASUS.  An ASUS video
> card might well be a good way to go when I can afford to replace this
> LeadTek card.

Asus seems to be, in general, decent stuff.  Even their VIA based stuff
usually just works.

Unfortunately, there are some setups I'd like to try that Asus doesn't
have.  They also don't seem interested in producing server class boards,
unless I am just missing them.  I've been told they do make them, but I
can't find any such animal where I usually look.

LeadTek... just stay away.  I've yet to find one that was worth a damn.
Same for PNY video cards, though I've never tried their other parts.

I've heard some people say that Gigabyte is OK, and maybe EVGA (though I
got one years ago I hated).

Right now I'm looking semi-seriously at upgrading my AMD64 system, which
has AGP video, currently using an nVidia FX5700.  I'd like to get a 6800
GPU in there, but there is limited selection, and I don't know much
about the available boards.  

-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["Meddle not in the affairs of Wizards, for
thou art crunchy, and taste good with ketchup." -- unknown]