[kwlug-disc] How to choose a new motherboard

Tue Jul 1 00:08:33 EDT 2014

Yep, integrated graphics is hard to beat.

Let us know how it goes, was looking at the 3 monitor idea too. 
Hopefully you didn't get caught discovering the 3rd was mini-HDMI only 
after you got home - and could have bought the doohickey at the store if 
you had but spotted it beforehand.

Lost a sandybridge last year, ended up deciding to wait for the soon 
coming next gen (more sata ports). Never did get back to pursuing it. 
The hangup was the usb hangup processor glitch. And trying to get decent 
memory, matched - never stocked. Was trying to do 4 x 8GB as I recall. 
I've almost gotten to the point of spending the money and maxing things 
out from day one - so I don't have to keep revisiting the problem. Over, 
and overs - year apart, forgetting all the research accomplished between.

Notes here made me go poke at when the next cpu / chipset cycle is out - 
far as I could tell, mid-next year. So I would have thought a 6 month 
review would still have been ok. Perhaps I'm confusing z87 and z97.

What's changed with SecureBoot? I thought all that was figured out - if 
not yet pervasively implemented / saturated in the market place.

Buy a new sata dvd (cheap) - avoid the protocol delays and translation 
issues. (Or an ISA card, for backwards use when something else breaks 
somewhere else.) An external sata/usb writable Blu-Ray might also be 
tempting. Except from what I could see, writing a double-sided double 
density Blu-Ray would take forever, making just using another drive 
attractive - if just archiving.

- even DVDs are becoming less and less used. And more and more distros 
coming in usb key versions. Apparently some people have drawers of usb 
keys the way I used to have drawers of floppies. I think I tossed any 
key / SD card less than 2GB not long ago - became easier than trying to 
remember what was on them every time I need one.

I suppose you could replace the old server with a new vm on the new 
server. If anyone has links towards secure vm LAMP instructions from 
one's home, chime in. I expect out of the box ubuntu server will be 
rather good, but I do wonder if more steps should be taken so that 
incomers hitting apache can't leak out into my own personal home files. 
Be it outside that vm, or to elsewhere within my home network.

On 14-06-30 11:41 PM, Darcy Casselman wrote:
> The one thing I try very hard to avoid still is Broadcom wifi stuff.  Even
> though it *kinda* just works, I still want to punch Dell for putting it on
> their Ubuntu pre-installed laptops.  *shakes head at Dell*.
>
> I bought a motherboard!  An ASUS Z97-A.
>
> http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132118&ignorebbr=1
>
> Mostly because I wanted Intel integrated graphics and I've got 3 monitors
> it needs to drive.  And I was hoping the mSATA SSD card I got to replace
> the one in my Dell Mini 9 (that didn't work) would fit in the m.2 slot.  It
> doesn't.  Oh well.
>
> I wanted to get it all set up while I was off for Canada Day.  Except
> Canada Computers didn't have any of my preferred CPU options.  So I'll be
> waiting for that to come in via NewEgg.
>
> I gave myself a budget of about $500 for mobo, CPU and RAM and I'll end up
> going over a little bit (mostly tax and shipping), and tried to build the
> best machine I could for that.
>
> One of the things I did this time that I hadn't done before was spec out a
> desktop machine at System76 and used that as a starting point.  System76 is
> more explicit about things like chipsets for desktops than Zareason is.
> Which would be great, except they're using the older H87 chipsets.
>
> ...Like the latest Ars System Guide Hot Rod.
> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/ars-technica-system-guide-november-2013/3/
> But that's over 6 months old now.  And they're balancing their budget
> against having to buy a graphics card, which I don't want to do.
>
> I still have some unanswered questions about the Z97 chipset.  Like I've
> heard vague rumblings that they've moved forward futher on SecureBoot.  But
> I couldn't find anyone screaming about it, so it's probably okay.  Except
> it's been out for about a month.  So who knows?
>
> My laptop has mostly been my desktop for the last few years.  But I want to
> knock that off because I've been developing back and neck problems.  My
> desktop layout is okay ergonomically, at least better than anything I have
> for the laptop (including and especially my easy chair with a lapdesk,
> which is comfy, but kind of horrible on the neck).  One of the things
> that's holding me back is my desktop is 5 years old and was built cheap
> because I was mostly using it as a server by that point.  I really want to
> make it something I *want* to use over the laptop (which is a very nice
> laptop).  Which is why I ended up going somewhat upper-mid range.
>
> That's one of the nice things about building from parts, despite the lack
> of useful information: This is the 3rd motherboard I've put in this case.
> I replaced the PSU once a couple years ago so it's quite sufficient to
> handle the new stuff.  I'm keeping my old harddrives.  I *could* keep the
> graphics card.  I'll need to buy an adapter for the DVD burner (and I've
> yet to decide if I'm going to do that, or buy a new SATA one or just go
> without).  And I can keep my (frankly pretty awesome) monitors.  So $500
> gets me a kick-ass whole new machine.
>
> Anyway, long story short, I still have a lot of questions about whether
> this was the best purchase, but I'm hopeful it's a good one.
>
> Aside: is Canada Computers really the only store in town that keeps desktop
> CPUs in stock anymore?  I couldn't get into the UW Tech Shop, but since
> they're mostly iPads and crap now, I'm not optimistic.  Computer XS doesn't
> (at least the Waterloo one).  Future Shop and Best Buy don't.  I even went
> into Neutron for the first time in over 15 years.  Nope.  Nobody.
>
> Darcy.
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 10:54 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 10:46 PM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
>>
>>> To both situations, isn't the question these days - has anyone bought
>>> something recently to find out it DOESN'T work? i.e. Doesn't everything
>>> 'just work' these days?
>>>
>>
>> I would tend to say: yes.
>>
>> Been a long time since I ran into something that does not work ...
>>
>> --
>> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
>> 2bits.com, Inc.
>> Fast Reliable Drupal
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>> Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
>> For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and
>> wrong." -- H.L. Mencken
>>
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