Gigabyte or Asus board?

[Panix]

I haven't finished building my Intel cpu-based system yet. I am wondering if I gain anything by going for certain boards. I am looking at the P5K-E and Gigabyte P35-DS3P. Are those boards sufficiently better than the DS3R board. The latter board has a smaller PCB. Does that matter? I want good cooling and have an aftermarket cpu cooler since I will be using a Quad Core cpu. I don't plan on overclocking for now.

I don't need the bells and whistles but was wondering if eSATA works in Linux. I might own a laptop eventually so I might want an external hard drive and plan on getting one with eSATA interface. I could use usb but eSATA will be faster and easier? Then again, most laptops only have usb as an option for external drives. Right?

I am not sure which mb cools best (Asus or Gigabyte) but early Asus P35 boards weren't very good with power consumption/heat. Any recommendations?

I'll also need a video card so is the Nvidia 7300 sufficient or should I try to find a used 7600GT? I don't need anything for major gaming. I can always put my 7950GT in it if I want to switch.

I hope someone who has been using Linux with one of these motherboards can recommend one over the other because I cannot decide. ;-)

[Kano]

If you like PS2 mouse+keyboard connectors then Gigabyte will be better - at least the standard boards have em. Basically it is a matter of taste which board someone prefers - with current kernel versions both boards should work out of the box. If you don't play games you could consider the G33 or G35 variants of the boards with onboard vga. These work with the opensource intel driver good enough for compiz.

[Svartalf]

I don't need the bells and whistles but was wondering if eSATA works in Linux. I might own a laptop eventually so I might want an external hard drive and plan on getting one with eSATA interface. I could use usb but eSATA will be faster and easier? Then again, most laptops only have usb as an option for external drives. Right?

eSATA is faster, but "easier" is a relative concept. And you'll have to add on an ExpressCard add-on in most cases for the laptop to be able to use it. Better to consider Firewire 800 or USB2 instead, even if it's "slower". The reality is, with the right USB/Firewire controller, you'll see the same performance levels out of most drives as they've not reached the point that their sustained output exceeds either USB2 or Firewire, let alone the peak speeds of SATA 300.

I am not sure which mb cools best (Asus or Gigabyte) but early Asus P35 boards weren't very good with power consumption/heat. Any recommendations?

For a P35, I'd go with Gigabyte. Cleaner design overall and the fit and finish on the PCI-E and other connectors is better with the Gigabyte boards.

I'll also need a video card so is the Nvidia 7300 sufficient or should I try to find a used 7600GT? I don't need anything for major gaming. I can always put my 7950GT in it if I want to switch.

This depends on what you're trying to do. If it's anything at all 3D related, you're not going to be happy with the 7300. The 7300 is a bottom of the barrel type card. I'd be implicitly going for the 7600 if my cashflow would allow it- every time unless I was stacking out a gamer's rig.

I hope someone who has been using Linux with one of these motherboards can recommend one over the other because I cannot decide. ;-)

They'll both work decently. The Gigabyte would be what I'd choose over the Asus for that chipset class- where practical. I nuked a Gigabyte NForce board recently and couldn't find a comparable replacement and had to "settle" for an Asus board in the same general class. Doesn't seem to be all too bad- would have rather not killed my other motherboard because Asus' board in that class slot isn't as nice as the Gigabyte one was. If you've got the money, that's the way I'd go.

[deanjo]

eSATA is faster, but "easier" is a relative concept. And you'll have to add on an ExpressCard add-on in most cases for the laptop to be able to use it. Better to consider Firewire 800 or USB2 instead, even if it's "slower". The reality is, with the right USB/Firewire controller, you'll see the same performance levels out of most drives as they've not reached the point that their sustained output exceeds either USB2 or Firewire, let alone the peak speeds of SATA 300.

Well I would have to disagree Svartalf, eSATA gives alot better performance then USB2, USB transfers rarely get above 30 Meg/second on sustained transfers and peak rates rarely hit 60. Firewire 800 is better then USB but still lags behind eSata performance just from the overhead though not as bad of a hit that you get with USB 2.0. eSata virtually suffers no performance loss, has much lower cpu usage and when write performance is considered it walks all over the other interfaces. To get the best of both worlds since he is considering a laptop is to get a harddrive enclosure that has both eSata and USB 2.0 interfaces. Almost all eSATA enclosures have a secondary interface (usually USB). Firewire although it doesn't suffer the same pitfalls as USB, it still does not have wide acceptance (even less with FW800) and the actual through put of the drive is greatly dependent on the chipset used for the ide/sata to firewire interface.

[Svartalf]

Well I would have to disagree Svartalf, eSATA gives alot better performance then USB2, USB transfers rarely get above 30 Meg/second on sustained transfers and peak rates rarely hit 60. Firewire 800 is better then USB but still lags behind eSata performance just from the overhead though not as bad of a hit that you get with USB 2.0. eSata virtually suffers no performance loss, has much lower cpu usage and when write performance is considered it walks all over the other interfaces. To get the best of both worlds since he is considering a laptop is to get a harddrive enclosure that has both eSata and USB 2.0 interfaces. Almost all eSATA enclosures have a secondary interface (usually USB). Firewire although it doesn't suffer the same pitfalls as USB, it still does not have wide acceptance (even less with FW800) and the actual through put of the drive is greatly dependent on the chipset used for the ide/sata to firewire interface.

This would all depend on whether you're using a SATA drive or not... The SATA/SASCSI drives are peak performance units these days. Anything else and you're talking 20-40GB throughput max anyhow.

Also keep in mind that you'll STILL have to have an ExpressCard adapter to handle the Laptop...

[deanjo]

This would all depend on whether you're using a SATA drive or not... The SATA/SASCSI drives are peak performance units these days. Anything else and you're talking 20-40GB throughput max anyhow.

Also keep in mind that you'll STILL have to have an ExpressCard adapter to handle the Laptop...

Well almost every eSata enclosure out there does use a SATA drive in it. Even if a enclosure used a PATA --->Sata bridge you do not suffer from the overhead associated with using a USB interface. Also laptops with eSata ports are starting to become seen on laptops as well now like on the ASUS laptops as well as a few other brands I have seen, so a ExpressCard adapter is not necessarily needed. Even if one was needed the Expresscard adapter combined with a eSATA drive will still give you better performance then a usb drive. Even the slowest of a Sata 1 drives which where basically identical to fastest pata drives could easily achieve 60 MB/s sustained throughput. Nowdays every Sata drive out there also supports NCQ which is not available if firewire or USB interfaces are used instead.

Now you couple say a Seagate 7200.11 drive to that eSata case and your easily getting about 90 MB/s both read and right. On the best day with the winds blowing right and the moons in alignment you will only be able to achieve if your lucky and have a good premium firewire bridge on your drive enclosure maybe 60 MB/s read and maybe 40 MB/s write on a FW800 setup. Which barely exceeds FW400 theoretical max speed. While your statements may have been true 2 years ago they most certianly don't apply to the drives that are available nowdays that don't cost the "premium" penny to buy.

[Svartalf]

Well almost every eSata enclosure out there does use a SATA drive in it. Even if a enclosure used a PATA --->Sata bridge you do not suffer from the overhead associated with using a USB interface. Also laptops with eSata ports are starting to become seen on laptops as well now like on the ASUS laptops as well as a few other brands I have seen, so a ExpressCard adapter is not necessarily needed. Even if one was needed the Expresscard adapter combined with a eSATA drive will still give you better performance then a usb drive. Even the slowest of a Sata 1 drives which where basically identical to fastest pata drives could easily achieve 60 MB/s sustained throughput. Nowdays every Sata drive out there also supports NCQ which is not available if firewire or USB interfaces are used instead.

The only drawback there is the add-in card (Those things ARE annoying as I've found out over the years... ). I've not seen eSATA laptops in the stores around here yet; and only a handful of motheboards happen to offer it (I was toying around with it myself since one of my new motherboards offers it out of the gate...). Given that as the case, if one's willing to deal with the add-in card, then eSATA is the way to go, followed up by Firewire, followed up by USB, based on your budget.

The current crop of SATA devices ARE amazing and I know I'm slowly phasing out most of my PATA stuff because it just doesn't cut it.

[deanjo]

For desktops, eSATA is only a cable bracket away. In fact most eSata enclosures come with the bracket.