AMD motherboards and Mint 17

[gingertom5005]

This looks like an interesting (UK) deal.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/motherboardbu ... 41604.html

[Spearmint2]

This looks like an interesting (UK) deal.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/motherboardbu ... 41604.html

GA-H81M-DS2V
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product ... id=4713#ov
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-Mi ... -H81M-DS2V
$56

Intel i3 - 4160
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-I3-4160-Pro ... tel+cpu+i3
$123

1 stick of DDR3 RAM at 1600 Mhz
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-F ... =ddr3+1600
$42

Total = $221
Total= £137.45



£160 = $257

Sure glad I don't pay VAT in USA.

[gingertom5005]

.... difficult to source one in the UK.
What started the discussion for me was that I bought a motherboard bundle (AMD Athlon X2 270 3.4Ghz CPU - ASRock N68 VS3 Motherboard - 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz Bundle - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008 ... UTF8&psc=1 on board graphics) and found that when I tried to boot it with Mint 17 the live DVD would never get to a start screen but when I booted with Mint 13 it got to the start screen no problem and works perfectly with Mint 13 (which is an excellent system and is still supported until 2017).Thanks for all help.

Amazon has screwed up. That is NOT an ASRock N68 VS3, but rather an Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3. I note it has VGA/DVI/HDMI outputs on it. You can use two of those at a time. Typical would be DVI-HDMI, or VGA-HDMI, but never VGA-DVI.

Here's what the N68-VS3 FX looks like.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/N68-VS3%20FX/

So, which do you really have, the Gigabyte motherboard, or the Asrock? The Gigabyte would use AMD video drivers for video and the Asrock would use NVidia drivers for its video. It does make a difference.

Were you sold the proverbial "pig in the poke", to borrow a British expression.

Gigabyte-or-Asrock.png

Please run the following in terminal so we can be sure of what you really have.

Code: Select all

inxi -v3

I contacted Amazon/ADMI and this is their respons:-

"hello and thank you for your email.
at a glance you can clearly see that the motherboard pictured in the listing is the Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3.
the listing was not created by us, therefore we do not have access to edit the pictures.
we have reported this error to Amazon, thanks for bringing it to our attention.
regards
ADMI"

[gingertom5005]

I'm glad I initiated this topic and have a feeling we will all benefit from it. I hope the developers get wind of it. Like a number of contributors to the discussion my ADMI motherboard bundle is just over two years old and so wasn't affected by the issues discussed and for me personally as and when I need a new motherboard bundle cost won't be a primary issue. However when it comes to providing new PCs for customers price may be an issue which is why I am pursuing this topic. It is a topic which sooner or later will affect every contributor (thanks to all contributors).

The two issues I am trying to nail down are:-

1) If I buy an AMD motherboard bundle (which gives good price deals) can I simply by disabling the on board video in the bios and adding a separate graphics card be sure it will work with the latest LTS version of Mint?

2) Are the Mint developers likely to respond to this?

[acerimusdux]

1) If I buy an AMD motherboard bundle (which gives good price deals) can I simply by disabling the on board video in the bios and adding a separate graphics card be sure it will work with the latest LTS version of Mint?

2) Are the Mint developers likely to respond to this?

AMD on board video works fine in Linux, no need to disable or add any card. The issue you had was with Nvidia, and you would have had that problem with their add on cards as well as with on board graphics.

[gingertom5005]

I'm going to continue this topic by asking the question in a different way which will avoid any confusion. I shall be asking something like if you have built a brand new PC within the last three months what motherboard, processor and memory did you use?

[shawn.leftwich]

I have the GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 Motherboard with a AMD FX -4130 Processor and I haven't had any problems with LM thus far.

It's very hard to get this board now. I bought an AMD bundle back in 2012 which I'm currently running on Mint 17, but it's hard to get the board now.

I just went back and looked for this motherboard and had no idea how hard they are to find. and the price of them has almost doubled from what I paid for it. but why?

[Spearmint2]

I just went back and looked for this motherboard and had no idea how hard they are to find. and the price of them has almost doubled from what I paid for it. but why?

because they are some of the best last boards produced before UEFI motherboards came along and many do NOT want the UEFI motherboards in the aftermarket if not needed yet. Even windows 8 CAN be loaded to non UEFI motherboards, if desired. Why make things more difficult by buying UEFI then, especially since it's not totally standardized yet.

[gingertom5005]

I just went back and looked for this motherboard and had no idea how hard they are to find. and the price of them has almost doubled from what I paid for it. but why?

because they are some of the best last boards produced before UEFI motherboards came along and many do NOT want the UEFI motherboards in the aftermarket if not needed yet. Even windows 8 CAN be loaded to non UEFI motherboards, if desired. Why make things more difficult by buying UEFI then, especially since it's not totally standardized yet.

This is exactly what I've experienced and why I started this thread.

I've continued the discussion on this thread http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=180724 and have found the phoronix link worth investigating.

[gingertom5005]

I did an experiment tonight but I'm not sure if it has any bearing on the discussion because it's not really like for like.

I have an old Dell Dimension 5150 which I tried to load Mint 17 Mate on to and had exactly the same problem, it wouldn't load to the start screen.

I downloaded Cinammon and - it went straight through to the start screen no problem. Guess there must be a difference with the Mate and Cinammon graphics? I'll contact my customer as I know her well and see if the same thing happens on the board I was having the problems with.

I must say, Mint 17 has improved enormously over previous versions except for a couple of minor points pertinent to how I use the system.

[lgt791]

I use a 2013 amd motherboard and cpu and it runs linux mint 17 just as good it not better then the intel one.

[gingertom5005]

I use a 2013 amd motherboard and cpu and it runs linux mint 17 just as good it not better then the intel one.

Thanks for this, however the whole point of the topic is to identify what very recent and available combinations of motherboard and processor etc work with Mint 17.

[Spearmint2]

I use a 2013 amd motherboard and cpu and it runs linux mint 17 just as good it not better then the intel one.

Thanks for this, however the whole point of the topic is to identify what very recent and available combinations of motherboard and processor etc work with Mint 17.

You'd be better off knowing the "bridges" or "controller chips" and "wifi and ethernet" chips that work best with Linux and then stick to motherboards which have those on them.

[gingertom5005]

I use a 2013 amd motherboard and cpu and it runs linux mint 17 just as good it not better then the intel one.

Thanks for this, however the whole point of the topic is to identify what very recent and available combinations of motherboard and processor etc work with Mint 17.

You'd be better off knowing the "bridges" or "controller chips" and "wifi and ethernet" chips that work best with Linux and then stick to motherboards which have those on them.

Which are?

I started the topic because Linux and motherboards are changing so frequently that we need a point of reference to find all this out.

[Spearmint2]

check the hardware section of the community and you can create a list of what does and doesn't work.

http://community.linuxmint.com/hardware

[gingertom5005]

Just out of interest and as an addendum. My customer who has this motherboard bundle which is running Mint 13 Mate perfectly had occasion to check a query and let me run the live version of Mint 18 beta. This worked perfectly with the arrangement, although it didn't recognise the WNA1100 usb wifi (which isn't really a problem and it is only the beta version). Looking forward to using Mint 18.

[millahjovich]

My Gigabyte MB did not wish to play nicely with Mint 17. I had not learned of dropping fglrx. Instead I opted to fill my single PCIE-16 slot with a video card. So far, so good.

[ZakGordon]

Just a quick note re the images Amazon (or any online retailer) uses, they are not always representative of the specific product you are after, but that will not effect your order if you go by the product description and manufacturer number etc. Sometimes they just use a generic 'mobo' picture for example where they don't have the specific one.

So buy using the product descriptions and any manufacturers numbers etc. Don't worry about the picture.