Wanted: known-good motherboard

fivemack · 2008-01-09, 00:40

I'm looking for a motherboard with on-board video which takes a Q6600 processor and is known to work without trouble with 8GB of memory under a recent version of Ubuntu.

What I have just bought is a DG965OT, which has a BIOS issue, which Intel has been aware of for nine months and does not plan to fix, meaning that the kernel is loaded into uncached memory and runs slower than two sloths tied together crawling backwards through particularly thick treacle. This is obviously unacceptable; I've still got the packaging, the board's not fit for purpose, I'll send it back, but then I have a Q6600 and 8GB of DDR2 memory and no motherboard

Wacky · 2008-01-09, 03:18

I know a mother, and she is bored!
Perhaps we "geeks", should expend some effort in other areas :)

Xyzzy · 2008-01-09, 05:00

We have a DG965OT and it is very fast with 4GB of memory. We didn't know about any 8GB problem. Good thing we didn't plan to buy that much!

Do you have a link to the technical article on the issue?

fivemack · 2008-01-09, 12:04

http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/6/4/316 is a long thread on linux-kernel which hashes out what the problem is and then mocks Intel for not solving it.

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=157232 suggests that, if I downgrade to exactly the right version of the BIOS and sacrifice two pink goats and a yellow llama (but it mustn't be a spotted yellow llama) things might be made able to work.

lavalamp · 2008-01-09, 14:58

Heh, you sound like you used to write for Blackadder.

Anyway, the next logical step up from the DG965OT would be either DG33TL or DQ35JO/DQ35MP, assuming you want to stay with Intel. However, if you want to keep a distance from Intel boards then you're spoilt for choice as there are a whole host of G965/G33/G35 boards form other vendors, most of which are also micro-ATX. I only have limited experience with Linux though, so I cannot advise how well any of them play with 'buntu.

I did skim the thread on LKML and I came away with the impression that it's a problem specific to the 965 chipset (which may affect boards from other vendors too), so perhaps one of the newer Intel boards would be without this issue.

Re-reading what I've just written it doesn't seem very helpful, I'm sure you knew most or all of what I said, nevertheless, I'll post it anyway just for the Blackadder comment.

Xyzzy · 2008-01-09, 17:41

Good fun:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackadder/quotes/

lavalamp · 2008-01-09, 22:46

Indeed.

Quote:

Blackadder: I'm as poor as a church mouse, that's just had an enormous tax bill on the very day his wife ran off with another mouse, taking all the cheese.

Blackadder: We're in the stickiest situation since Sticky the Stick Insect got stuck on a sticky bun.

Blackadder: Baldrick, does it have to be this way? Our valued friendship ending with me cutting you up into strips and telling the prince that you walked over a very sharp cattle grid in an extremely heavy hat?

fivemack · 2008-01-16, 16:23

I have bought a Gigabyte P35-DS3R board and a video card, and after a particularly tiresome six-hour computer assembly session, ably assisted by such of my friends as enjoyed the aggressive use of screwdrivers, and given extra drama by the discovery that 'the fan isn't spinning' is no longer a sign that the computer is misbuilt - thermostatic fans don't necessarily spin at boot-up - managed to build a working 8GB quad-core computer.

This has, I suspect, allowed me to discover new and exciting threading bugs in msieve-1.33 which would probably not have shown up on a platform with less memory or fewer processors. Also, were my spare bedroom transported through time to 1993, the left and right computers in it would be #2 and #3 on the top500 supercomputer list.

lavalamp · 2008-01-16, 17:40

I'd go forward in time to acquire a PC so that it heads the top of the list now.

Good luck with your server farm.

tallguy · 2008-01-16, 17:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Good fun:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackadder/quotes/

Great stuff. My fav, from the Christmas special:

Quote:

Blackadder (to Baldrick): “You wouldn't know a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing 'Subtle Plans Are Here Again.'”

fivemack · 2008-01-17, 09:07

Sadly, they appear to have been hardware rather than threading bugs.

At least, if the same executable running on the same data on two computers differing only in motherboard and amount of memory runs to completion on computer A and has to restart before running to completion on computer B, one might assume that computer B has a hardware fault.

Now, how does one go about diagnosing and fixing hardware faults? I suspect long and involved mprime torture tests would be a good start.

2008-01-09, 00:40	#1
fivemack (loop (#_fork)) Feb 2006 Cambridge, England 14426₈ Posts	Wanted: known-good motherboard I'm looking for a motherboard with on-board video which takes a Q6600 processor and is known to work without trouble with 8GB of memory under a recent version of Ubuntu. What I have just bought is a DG965OT, which has a BIOS issue, which Intel has been aware of for nine months and does not plan to fix, meaning that the kernel is loaded into uncached memory and runs slower than two sloths tied together crawling backwards through particularly thick treacle. This is obviously unacceptable; I've still got the packaging, the board's not fit for purpose, I'll send it back, but then I have a Q6600 and 8GB of DDR2 memory and no motherboard

2008-01-09, 14:58	#5
lavalamp Oct 2007 Manchester, UK 2²×3×113 Posts	Heh, you sound like you used to write for Blackadder. Anyway, the next logical step up from the DG965OT would be either DG33TL or DQ35JO/DQ35MP, assuming you want to stay with Intel. However, if you want to keep a distance from Intel boards then you're spoilt for choice as there are a whole host of G965/G33/G35 boards form other vendors, most of which are also micro-ATX. I only have limited experience with Linux though, so I cannot advise how well any of them play with 'buntu. I did skim the thread on LKML and I came away with the impression that it's a problem specific to the 965 chipset (which may affect boards from other vendors too), so perhaps one of the newer Intel boards would be without this issue. Re-reading what I've just written it doesn't seem very helpful, I'm sure you knew most or all of what I said, nevertheless, I'll post it anyway just for the Blackadder comment. Last fiddled with by lavalamp on 2008-01-09 at 15:01

2008-01-16, 16:23	#8
fivemack (loop (#_fork)) Feb 2006 Cambridge, England 2·13²·19 Posts	I have bought a Gigabyte P35-DS3R board and a video card, and after a particularly tiresome six-hour computer assembly session, ably assisted by such of my friends as enjoyed the aggressive use of screwdrivers, and given extra drama by the discovery that 'the fan isn't spinning' is no longer a sign that the computer is misbuilt - thermostatic fans don't necessarily spin at boot-up - managed to build a working 8GB quad-core computer. This has, I suspect, allowed me to discover new and exciting threading bugs in msieve-1.33 which would probably not have shown up on a platform with less memory or fewer processors. Also, were my spare bedroom transported through time to 1993, the left and right computers in it would be #2 and #3 on the top500 supercomputer list. Last fiddled with by fivemack on 2008-01-16 at 16:26

2008-01-16, 17:40	#9
lavalamp Oct 2007 Manchester, UK 2²·3·113 Posts	I'd go forward in time to acquire a PC so that it heads the top of the list now. Good luck with your server farm. Last fiddled with by lavalamp on 2008-01-16 at 17:41

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2008-01-09, 03:18	#2
Wacky Jun 2003 The Texas Hill Country 3²×11² Posts	I know a mother, and she is bored! Perhaps we "geeks", should expend some effort in other areas :)

2008-01-09, 05:00	#3
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 19×433 Posts	We have a DG965OT and it is very fast with 4GB of memory. We didn't know about any 8GB problem. Good thing we didn't plan to buy that much! Do you have a link to the technical article on the issue?

2008-01-09, 12:04	#4
fivemack (loop (#_fork)) Feb 2006 Cambridge, England 2·13²·19 Posts	http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/6/4/316 is a long thread on linux-kernel which hashes out what the problem is and then mocks Intel for not solving it. http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=157232 suggests that, if I downgrade to exactly the right version of the BIOS and sacrifice two pink goats and a yellow llama (but it mustn't be a spotted yellow llama) things might be made able to work.

2008-01-09, 17:41	#6
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 19×433 Posts	Good fun: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackadder/quotes/

2008-01-17, 09:07	#11
fivemack (loop (#_fork)) Feb 2006 Cambridge, England 2×13²×19 Posts	Sadly, they appear to have been hardware rather than threading bugs. At least, if the same executable running on the same data on two computers differing only in motherboard and amount of memory runs to completion on computer A and has to restart before running to completion on computer B, one might assume that computer B has a hardware fault. Now, how does one go about diagnosing and fixing hardware faults? I suspect long and involved mprime torture tests would be a good start.