# Motherboard for freeBSD



## BSD_UserX (Dec 24, 2008)

My current systems are not well supported by freeBSD, so I have been forced to run NetBSD 4.0.1 (both amd64 and i386 ports). I want to build a multi boot system with freeBSD in mind, mostly for software testing and development. I also want to be able to run a desktop environment.

Can anyone suggest a suitable motherboard for the Intel xeon E3120 cpu (or other suitable cpu) that is known to be fully functional.By this I mean that the system boots, usb works, integrated network card funtions properly, and the integrated audio functions. I would be willing to fit a soundcard to get audio. I won't be using the integrated video.


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## brd@ (Dec 24, 2008)

This would probably be a good place to start:

http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/amd64/motherboards.html


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## BSD_UserX (Dec 24, 2008)

Hi brd@,

I had a look at this page before posting.A Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and Q6600 would suit me. This board has been hard to track down here in Australia so I was looking for alternatives.


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## aragon (Dec 24, 2008)

What board(s) are giving you problems?  Personally I've been happiest with Intel desktop boards. I've never tried an Intel server (Xeon) board.


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## BSD_UserX (Dec 25, 2008)

I am using low end production desktops. One is a Dell E521 (I haven't bothered to ID the board) with Athlon 64 X2 3800 and 1GB ram. I need to upgrade!

I am considering the ASUS M3A78-T board with AMD Phenom X4 9950BE. Any reports?


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## xman73 (Dec 27, 2008)

BSD_UserX said:
			
		

> Can anyone suggest a suitable motherboard for the Intel xeon E3120 cpu (or other suitable cpu) that is known to be fully functional.By this I mean that the system boots, usb works, integrated network card funtions properly, and the integrated audio functions. I would be willing to fit a soundcard to get audio. I won't be using the integrated video.



I had the same questions when I recently chose a motherboard and cpu.  I wanted to run two monitors from two pci cards which would occupy both pci slots on a micro atx board.  Like you, I worried about usb and network, so I limited myself to atx boards because of the extra pci slots.  I don't use audio.  I was also concerned about compatibility with the cpu, and maybe driver problems with latest technology.

As a result, I purchased an older combination on Ebay, an Asus P4S8X-X motherboard and Pentium 4. Cost was fifty bucks. It has 6 PCI slots, no onboard video.  So far, there have been no problems with FreeBSD 7.0.  The one ATI video card, so far installed, is working as is the onboard usb and network. There are primary and secondary IDE's which means I can run two HdD's and a CDROM. There's also a floppy drive connector. I installed 1 Gb memory and a couple of used Seagate 40Gb IDE hard drives. For my purposes, I'm very pleased with it.

Hope this can be of some help.


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## trev (Jan 2, 2009)

*Avoid ASUS M3A motherboard if using SATA drives*

I built a new FreeBSD 7-STABLE system on the ASUS M3A motherboard using Phenom 9550 and my oldish 73Gb and 146Gb SCSI drives and had no problems at all.

However, SCSI drives now cost at least twice as much for half as much as SATA drives, so it was inevitable that I decided to replace the three SCSI drives with one 500Gb SATAII drive.

Big mistake. The system became unstable with various Fatal Trap 9 General Protection fault panics while in kernel mode, and file system corruption panics. It was also impossible to copy a 69Gb file without corruption or without the system panicing. I tried enabling/disabling various BIOS options: legacy IDE mode, AHCI, Raid, 32 bit reads etc with no improvement.

(This motherboard now runs Windows XP Professional 64 bit without any issues at all.)

I replaced the ASUS M3A with a Gigabyte MA790X-DS4 motherboard which uses the same AMD SB600 chipset for SATA drives and have had no issues at all


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## HiltonT (Jan 3, 2009)

BSD_UserX said:
			
		

> I had a look at this page before posting.A Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and Q6600 would suit me. This board has been hard to track down here in Australia so I was looking for alternatives.



I'd not look at the Q6600 unless you're into overclocking (this is a Server, isn't it?  Therefore overclocking obviously isn't on the table) and insteal look at a (9450 or better CPU - lower power, lower heat output, and they are also a little bit faster.

If you're looking for a cheap motherboard, have a look at the Intel DG33BU - it is an Intel desktop motherboard, one onboard GbE NIC, takes up to 8 GB RAM and handles the current Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad CPUs.  If you're looking for something with some serious grunt, look at the S5000-series boards as they can take a lot more RAM and dual Quad Core Xeon CPUs.

If you let us know what you're looking for, maybe we could offer more specific help.

(And yes, I'm in 'Sralyamate, too.)


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## hydra (Jan 4, 2009)

Asus P5Q-E


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## vermaden (Jan 4, 2009)

Personally I own Intel Q35 + ICH9DO motherboard with Intel e6320 CPU:
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=newsdesc&news_no=540

(but any Intel Q35 with integrated Intel NIC should work the same)

Motherboard comes with:
Intel GMA 3100 works great with *xf86-video-intel* driver.
Intel 10/100/1000 works great with *em *driver.
Integrated Sound works great with *snd_hda* driver.


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