[geeks] AMD 8120 Box built

[Lionel Peterson]

Seems OK - there were some reasonable reviews on my vendor site, including one
that paralleled my intended use - fellow had a different MB fail on a
production server, he grabbed this board as a temporary fix, wound up keeping
it in production - no problems with it.

It is a more expensive Biostar MB (list price $100), and the NIC is a Realtek,
but so far it seems good - the need for a video card surprised me, but the
8400GS for $10 (after rebate) solved that problem handily.

Being a (to me) goofy AMD chipset, I had to load drivers to install on a RAID
array built off the on-board controller (and if I wanted to install off the
DVD drive!), but once I got the OS installed it runs well. I loaded up the MS
SQL Server IO simulator (to test disk I/O) and ran PrIme95 (to test CPU)
without issues.

I will most likely not 'overclock' the system, but this CPU and MB both
support that ('black' unlocked CPU and easy BIOS screens for overclocking)

So far, so good.

Lionel

On Jul 17, 2012, at 2:08 AM, Jonathan Groll <lists at groll.co.za> wrote:

> This surprised me. Are Biostar any good nowadays? I've had a (single)
> nasty experience in the past.