I am planning to get a new system, and this time am thinking of getting either an AthlonXP or Duron 1300 processor. This coupled with DDR 333/400 Mhz. [How about the Dual DDR thing?]

After doing some online reading about the AMD processors and compatible Socket A motherboards, I am kind of confused as to which one would be good choice, and one of the most important parameters in selection is Linux compatibility and maximum usability under Linux.

The chipset options seem to be:

Via: KT400 , KT400A and KT600

nVidia: nforce, nforce2, nforce2 400 [this has a further option of getting either an IGP+MCP or SPP+MCP combination, with some further complications in MCP as MCP-T and MCP-D, of which I cant figure out thing...] nforce2 Ultra 400 [Dual DDR]

SiS: SiS748, SiS746FX, SiS746, SiS745, SiS735, SiS733

After selecting a compatible chipset, I want to choose a motherboard offering the choice. To check for Linux compatibility, I searched for the hardware list on the Mandrake & Redhat sites, but none of them really give any information about these newer chipsets and boards. [I would be installing Mandrake 9.1]

After considering nVidia's nforce2 400 and its Linux compatibility, reading its linux drivers page, I figure that the 6 channel audio etc. is not available under Linux. Also to enable the integrated LAN chipset under Linux, ACPI has to be disabled... what consequence would this have? I wonder what other features I might miss out then. If I am purchasing something I sure want to take benefit of all/most of the features under Linux. This is what nVidia's site says on its Linux Drivers page :

________________ Linux nForce Driver

Version: 1.0-0261 Release Date: June 11, 2003 Release Highlights for 1.0-0261:

Added kernel patch to support nForce GART Added "spdif_status" module parameter to audio driver to enable/disable S/PDIF support for compatability Fixed bug in audio driver that was causing MSI nForce board to only use 2 channels Fixed mmap bug in audio driver causing Quake III to hang. Fixed Red Hat Linux 9 build issue with remap_page_range(). Fixed problem with rebuilding SRPM on Red Hat Linux 9. Added Red Hat Linux 9 and Mandrake Linux 9.1 binary RPMs.

This page contains drivers and documentation for the nForce chipset. The chipset includes hardware support for IDE disk control, ethernet networking, audio support, win modem support, and a USB controller. These packages have support for ethernet networking and *basic* ACI audio. USB and IDE hardware will work with standard Linux drivers. There is no win modem support. ________________

The motherboard choices I believe range from Asus, Gigabyte, Soyo Dragon series etc... Considering the thermal performance of the AMD CPUs, I probably am better off getting a motherboard which gives some option like fan RPM control based of system load etc.

If getting onboard graphics [like nVidia's nforce2 400 Integrated Graphics Processors + Media Communications Processor which has GeForce AGP8x built-in ], onboard sound [nVidia's MCPs Audio Processing or Via's onboard AC'97 or Vinyl Audio], onboard LAN, onboard modem [are all of these 'winmodems / softmodems?] would these work with Linux? Any opinions about Serial ATA? IEEE 1394?

Is anyone more than familiar with using the AMD line of products under Linux? I would appreciate if someone could spare time to help me make a reasonable choice. I must stress that I am keen to see that I can use all or most of the devices/features under Linux and not just Windows.

Please Cc your response to * bvishal [at] gmx [dot] net

V i s h a l .