On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 12:44:02PM -0600, Johnny Hughes wrote: > On 12/27/2013 07:11 AM, Fred Smith wrote: > > On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 03:40:43AM -0600, Johnny Hughes wrote: > >> On 12/25/2013 09:51 PM, Fred Smith wrote: > >>> Hi all! > >>> > >>> I'm toying with the idea of spending some Christmas money on a new MB and > >>> CPU to upgrade my desktop. > >>> > >>> Although I've always been partial to AMD chips, I'm tempted this time to > >>> find something Intel-ish, I5, quad core, or so. > >>> > >>> In looking at mommyboards at New Egg and Amazon, I find so many I am > >>> unable to make reasonable determinations regarding suitability, so am > >>> hoping some of you who have new(ish) intel-compatible boards could > >>> offer some hints. > >>> > >>> Also, I'd like to keep the cost of MB, CPU and RAM to no more (or little > >>> more) than $300-350. (seeing as how apparently mid-range I5 chips cost > >>> over 200 each, that may be a vain hope.) > >>> > >>> I expect that the newest ones may work with something bleeding edge > >>> like Fedora (et al), but I like centos for my desktop since it doesn't > >>> have the ridiculous churn rate of the more aggressive distros. I can't > >>> bring myself to relish the thought of rebuilding my main desktop twice > >>> a year (or even once a year). > >>> > >>> So, any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! > >> I personally have recently built 2 different systems with with the Asus > >> M5A99X Evo R2.0 motherboard. This one does not have a graphics card ... > >> everything does work with CentOS-6.5 and RHEL7B1. > >> > >> It uses AMD CPUs and I have used several AM3+ CPUs, including Sempron > >> 100, FX-6150, and FX-8150. > >> > >> https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A99X_EVO_R20/ > >> > >> One of the nicest features is it will detect and set a working BIOS > >> memory timing with a press of a button on the board ... if you try > >> something manually that is incompatible, a simple press of the button > >> and reboot will get you back to a working config. > > Johnny: > > > > I assume it has UEFI and "secure boot"? did you disable the secure boot > > feature before installing? (AFAIK Centos doesn't yet support UEFI/secure > > boot????) > > > > I have an existing pair of drives holding Centos in a software Raid-1 > > configuration, and I'm assuming I can simply move them to the new > > board, boot and be off to the races. Can you comment on that assumption? > > The software raid-1 should work fine ... plenty of room for drives on > that board. As long as you have a normal file system on sata dirves, it > should boot. You may need to reconfigure the hardware (obviously, > different network cards, audio, video, etc.) > > The version of the BIOS that I currently have does have a secure boot > turn off feature. (1302 x64 is my BIOS version) Looks like there are 5 > newer versions of the BIOS than the one I have installed now. > Johnny: Thanks once more for the info. one other thing I thought to ask about: my current gigabyte board, with Phenom II X2, somehow doesn't expost the Virtual extensions in the CPU in a way that VirtualBox can recognize it (I'm sure it's a VB bug, but I'd like to be rid of it), preventing installation of 64-bit VMs. Have you by any chance tried VB on that motherboard (with Centos) and noted whether it lets you install 64-bit VMs ? Thanks once more. Johnny: Thanks once more for the info. one other thing I thought to ask about: my current gigabyte board, with Phenom II X2, somehow doesn't expost the Virtual extensions in the CPU in a way that VirtualBox can recognize it (I'm sure it's a VB bug, but I'd like to be rid of it), preventing installation of 64-bit VMs. Have you by any chance tried VB on that motherboard (with Centos) and noted whether it lets you install 64-bit VMs ? Thanks once moreJohnny: Thanks once more for the info. one other thing I thought to ask about: my current gigabyte board, with Phenom II X2, somehow doesn't expost the Virtual extensions in the CPU in a way that VirtualBox can recognize it (I'm sure it's a VB bug, but I'd like to be rid of it), preventing installation of 64-bit VMs. Have you by any chance tried VB on that motherboard (with Centos) and noted whether it lets you install 64-bit VMs ? Thanks once more. -- ---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------- "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." ------------------------------ Matthew 7:21 (niv) -----------------------------