Last time I bought a new computer (I build them myself) I got a motherboard that had really poor linux support for a long time. Specifically the audio. I had to wait months before the kernel supported the on board audio chipset. That is exactly the situation I'm trying to avoid this time around.
I have some specific questions about "server motherboards" actually. I looked at a few models of server motherboards by intel, and some random models on newegg. I wasn't able to see much of a difference from regular desktop motherboard other than most had two sockets, and support for much more ram. These boards seem more popular with Linux users. Why?
AMD and Intel both have server CPUs as well. Some question, what's the difference?
To make this question more concrete, I was looking at this this motherboard. The main questions about it that I can't answer are:
- Can I get a motherboard without on board raid and audio? I wanted to get a hardware raid controller and a PCI audio card. I thought a server motherboard would be cheaper and not have these "extras", since who wants an audio card on a server?
- Where can I found out about Linux support for the components on this board? "Intel ICH10R", "Realtek ALC889", "Marvell 88E8056"
I'm buying this computer to work as a Linux desktop for a lot of compiling, coding and audio/video work, but I don't want to rule out the possibility of installing windows and playing some games at one point. (even if the last game I got has been sitting in its box unopened for almost a year). Is it a good idea to buy a "server motherboard" and play games on it, or are desktop boards better value for this?
The ultimate solution for me would be a motherboard that had GPL divers for onboard LAN, a single CPU socket, lots of PCI express and PCI. USB 3.0, and no fancy hard disk controllers since I'll be getting a separate one.
Best Answer
Server and server motherboard vendors are usually very careful to support Linux, at least Red Hat and SuSE, since that is almost 1/4 of their market. The percentage of desktop market is much smaller (though the overall quantity is probably much higher).
Until recently, AMD systems enjoyed a much faster memory interface that was more suitable for servers. Since the Nehalem architecture reached servers, Intel has surpassed AMD. Intel's latest CPUs are more efficient in their instructions per clock ratio. AMD maintains their standing through careful pricing and performance-per-watt.
Unless you absolutely need the fastest server processor available, AMD server systems remain competitive, but Intel (for the moment) rules the high end.
Server motherboards generally support ECC memory (self-correcting on errors), and may support things like dual power supplies, and usually have at least two Ethernet ports, and a higher end warranty, all of which drives the price up.
Some server motherboards are only qualified for Windows Server 2003 and up. Others (targeted more at the CAD workstation market) are validated for 64 bit Windows Vista and/or 7.
There is such a wide variety of desktop, workstation, upright server, and rack mount server motherboards out there, chances are you can find whatever compromise you are looking for, except for the price factor. Higher end equipment costs more, unless you buy used or obsolete, that is not going to change.