Upcoming Linux Motherboard Reviews

[Michael]

For those of you interested in upgrading your systems before the holidays or shortly afterwards, in the coming weeks Phoronix.com will be reviewing several new motherboards. The first three motherboards are the ASUS P5B Deluxe, Abit NF-M2 nView, and Abit AB9. A short review/wrap-up of the Tyan Tempest i5000XT S2696 is also being posted tomorrow.

The ASUS P5B Deluxe is an Intel LGA-775 motherboard that uses the P965 Chipset. It is a quad-core ready motherboard and comes with a great deal of ASUS innovations/extras -- including the onboard 802.11g Wifi. More information can be found @ http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?m...3&l2=11&l3=307

The Abit NF-M2 nView motherboard is an AM2 solution that uses the GeForce 6150 and nForce 430. It features an onboard DVI connection as well as sporting Abit's SIlent OTES technology. More information on this model can be found @ http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...es=1&model=327

The Abit AB9 motherboard is another Intel LGA-775 product and it uses the P965 and ICH8 Chipset. This board also uses Silent OTES and features other Abit exclusives. The Abit AB9 product information can be found @ http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...es=1&model=319

[colo]

Great news. I'd be especially interested in benchmarks taking I/O-performance (network, ieee1394, usb20, blockdevices et al) into account, as this is a really crucial thing getting way to little attention by almost every review site out there - and motherboards don't make that much of a difference in 3D-applications, for example. (I actually find it ridiculously pathetic when there are sites going through tens of HOURS of 3dmark and all these other benches out there to measure "differences" which are so insignificant to be easily explained by a benchmark's tolerance zone.)

[Michael]

The ASUS P5B Deluxe supports Intel's latest Core 2 processors as well as being backwards compatible with the Pentium and Celeron series. This motherboard also features an eight-phase power design, fan-less motherboard cooling, and many more ASUS innovations.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=8399

[Michael]

A few months back we had looked at the Abit AW9D i975X motherboard, which was one of the first motherboards to come out of the Universal Abit camp. We had found this Intel flagship motherboard to be very competitive and offer a great deal of features even though it was not able to pack the equivalent punch of the legendary IC7-MAX3 or NF7-S v2.0. What we have on the table to look at today is the Abit NF-M2 nView. The NF-M2 nView is an AM2 motherboard that is powered by the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 with nForce 430 that offers both onboard DVI and VGA support along with 7.1 channel HD audio, Abit Silent OTES, and IEEE-1394a Firewire.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=8439

[Michael]

AB9 Review will be out next week.

We also have in the Tyan i965R motherboard -- http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=456

[Michael]

This time around we are looking at the Abit AB9 motherboard, which is a P965 + ICH8 solution that offers Abit's uGuru, OC Guru, BlackBox, SoftMenu, and their well-known Silent OTES technology. The ATX motherboard is Intel Quad Core Ready, but can the Abit AB9 perform as well as the NF-M2 nView when running Linux?

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=8975

[Moustacha]

Could you do some more recent AMD-based motherboards if you can. It still exists (probably to much dismay to some people) and just seems a bit...tiring? seeing all these intel boards

[Michael]

We never pass up motherboard offers, but whatever manufacturers have to offer. Recently with the Core 2 Duo popularity many manufacturers have been sending out Intel motherboards for review. If you're interested in more AMD motherboard reviews one thing you can do is contact manufacturer's marketing/PR departments at companies like ASUS, Abit, and Tyan, and tell them you would like to see Phoronix.com have more AMD motherboard reviews.

[Moustacha]

Ok, thanks for the speedy response.

[Telkwa]

You guys provide a great service by checking out some motherboards for us. I have a heck of a time trying to figure out what'll work and what won't. Thanks!