> > On 16/12/2013 22:23, Darrell Anderson wrote: >> All, >> >> I'm considering an update to my office desktop computer I built 5 >> years ago. A new system with SATA III, USB 3.0, quad core, an SSD, >> etc, would seriously help with Trinity build times. >> >> I would like to keep the system as quiet as possible with no >> increase in the electric bill over my current dual core AMD system >> (about 65-80 watts). >> >> > Hi Darrell, > > I've had great pain lately with two new systems I built. Obviously, > newer MBs are UEFI based which introduces complexities, especially if > multibooting and booting from legacy devices can be problematic. > Installing linux (debian in my case) also proved problematic with these > UEFI boards and graphics cards. Windows seems to install fine, maybe as > that is the OS everything is taylored to. > > The two MBs in question are both AMD based (I will not use AMD in the > future) as are the CPUs (obviously), both FX series, an AMD FX-8350 & > AMD FX-6300. The boards are Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5 and an ASUS M5A99X > Evo R2. > > The bigget issue besides UEFI bios is RAM. It's critical these days to > ensure support prior to purchase, especially with AMD systems. AMD > memory conroller is in the CPU so tools like memtest86 aren't as much > use as they used to be. Both my systems (every combination of MB/CPU) > fail memtest86 with more than one core enabled. Be careful with RAM qty > and speed with AMD CPU/MB. 32GB RAM is not supported at certain higher > speeds of RAM, a fact not well advertised by AMD. > > If you go AMD route, the first thing to install therefore is the latest > chipset/raid drivers from the AMD site (rather than the MB cdrom). The > next big issue is the PSU. Unfortunately, with these newer systems, > bigger is better. > > If possible, buy RAM/CPU/MB from same place (not easy I know) as > resolving compatibilities when bought seperately is a nightmare. > > Best solution of all (if Windows is not wanted), buy yourself a number > of ARM devices and farm them :). > > I will be going Intel in future, more expensive but I'm not willing to > face the trouble I've had with this AMD kit ever again. > > Cheers, > > -- > Mike Howard Intel has problems too. This is probably not the best time to be building a new computer as there are a lot of new (read: immature and buggy) technologies in play. If you want something to work out-of-the-box with minimum fuss, go for Intel workstation/server boards. They are more expensive, but work 100% with Linux. Also, with the latest push for energy efficient servers, you can get a fairly good performance/watt ratio. All this from a former AMD champion as well. ;-) Tim