On 08 May 2003 17:32:19 +0300
Arto Huusko <arto.huusko@utu.fi> wrote:

> I'm thinking about buying an ASUS A7N8X motherboard shortly.
> Is anyone using such a board with NetBSD (-current)? How does
> it perform, and what all is supported or not supported.
> 
> Mostly, I'm interested in knowing whether the audio works at
> all. I'm not interested in the 5.1 support, just regular,
> analog audio output (at least Linux requires a binary driver
> from NVIDIA to make digital and 5.1 work).
> 


I built 2 systems for a client, one with the ASUS A7N266-VM, and another
with A7N8X for use a 3D video equipment demonstration systems. Both where
running 1.6-release, pre 1.6.1. Numerous things didn't work quite right with
the A7N8X, but I would expect that under current the temperature sensors may
work with ACPI. IDE performace was abysmal with the A7N266-VM and only
passable with the A7N8X. (using a WD 80GB drive with 8MB buffer) I have to
say that overall the A7N8X performed acceptably. Also, although this is
anecdotal at best, one of the ASUS A7N266-VM actually fried, as in smoked to
a crisp, it's althon processor on powerup. Yes, the fan was attached. This
incident has done little to help my overall subjective impression of ASUS'es
diminishing build quality.

If I were you, and I didn't need AGP 8X, I'd consider the SOYO Dragon KT333
Plus as a cheaper alternative. With AGP 8X, the SOYO dragon KT400 or the
TYAN Trinity KT400 S2495. Based on my tests the Dragon KT400 has better
IDE performance than the ASUS. [about 44 Megabytes/sec raw sequential
read with a baracuda V drive vs ~25 MB/sec with a "faster" WD drive on
the ASUS] With the SOYO KT400 the cmpci audio driver"just works", as does
the vr ethernet and the ACPI thermal zone sensor. I also recommend TYAN
because I like the build quality of their server boards and the fact that
they seem to use fairly standard, netbsd friendly, components. So far, I
haven't met a TYAN motherboard that I didn't like. Both the SOYO and TYAN
boards should work fine with netbsd 1.6 or newer with minimal annoyance.


-- 
Harry Waddell
Caravan Electronic Publishing
-----------