Motherboard For Business Use

[Crushdepth]

Can someone suggest some sensible motherboard models for general business use? Basically we need something that:

* Can support normal office applications (word processing etc)

* Will work ok if we upgrade to Vista in a year or two

* Onboard support for RAID 0

* Reliable

* Sensible price.

Basically we are about to start standardising computer equipment, and want to ensure that our staff get the computers they *need* rather than the computers they *want* (they've bought their own in the past, and tended to spend a lot more than they need).

Thanks.

[A_Traveller]

Asus P5B model range would be a good starting place, in my opinion.

Regards

[bkk_mike]

RAID 0 on a business machine?

I'd say Asus or Gigabyte P965 based boards are a good starting point (like the P5B), and if it's really for business, you should be using RAID 5 or RAID 1 (mirroring) rather than Raid 0, or even just individual disks.

(RAID 0 actually reduces the reliability of your system by making it susceptible to losing data on multiple disks when a single disk fails. - The only business application I can think of for RAID 0 is video editing where, because it has some performance advantages, it's good for using as a work area for large files - but you should NEVER rely on RAID 0 for storing files you need.)

For RAID 5, you need to read the small print, and check it has an ICH8R (RAID 0/1/5) chipset rather than the more common ICH8 (RAID 0/1). But RAID 5 is really for file servers more than individual business PCs.

Of course, there's the new P35 chipset just out too, which is the replacement for the 965/975, which is also worth a look if it's not too pricey.

Edited July 11, 2007 by bkk_mike

[Firefoxx]

Agreed, it's a bit strange to want RAID0 for business. It doesn't offer that much of a speed increase, but decreases reliability quite a bit. RAID1, OTOH, is a bit more sensible.

The Asus P5K (P35 chipset) is only around 500 baht more than the P5B-E (older P965 chipset). You might or might not want to spend your money on that, depending on your budget. There isn't that much change between the two chipsets, and hardly any performance benefit, but newer is usually better (as in it will be outdated later). The motherboard isn't the only deciding factor. Getting 2GB of RAM would be good for upgrading to Vista later, and RAM is so cheap now that you don't really need to think much. The PSU also contributes a lot to stability. I've seen normal PSUs die after a year of light use (the fan dies, and the PSU overheats). I've also seen cases where the PSU made the PC very unstable.

[Richard-BKK]

I will say go for the Asus P5-K (5880 Baht) or the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (4900 Baht)

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mother...ame=GA-P35-DS3R

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&amp...amp;modelmenu=2

I have had the pleasure to see both mainboards, and I have to say Gigabyte has the best bang for money. Also the Gigabyte offers 8 SATA II and the Asus has 6 SATA II connections. Downside of the Gigabyte motherboard is that it not comes with Firewire (1394) interfaces, but seen PCI Firewire cards for 300 Baht.

P.S. The Asus P5-B is not a option, as the on-board RAID controller only supports RAID for one Internal and one External hard disk.

[paveet]

I'd say Intel Desktop Boards.. 3000-5000 baht depending on the chipset. These are motherboards made by Intel, some shops in Pantip carries them.

[autonomous_unit]

For business use, you might want to consider boards with integrated video... business apps really do not need a big 3D GPU like a game system, and this will also reduce strain on your power supply and cooling...

I've been happy with an ASUS board I picked up last year for socket AM2, with integrated NVIDIA Quadro NVS graphics, SATA, etc. It doesn't have much in the line of overclocking etc, but for business I wouldn't expect you'd want to take the risk anyway... I'm sure that the model lines have changed by now, but I got M2NBP-VM CSM. It even has onboard DVI output which I desired for a good solid LCD monitor connection.

I found searches on US online retailers to be useful, because some of them have relatively nice search interfaces in their databases of boards. You can search for ones with the features you need, and then check back and see what pricing and availability will be locally in Thailand. (Of course, some parts may not be readily available here.)

[Crushdepth]

Yes, sorry I meant RAID 1. We don't have anyone competent to run a file server, unfortunately. Would integrated graphics be able to support Vista ok?

Edited July 12, 2007 by Crushdepth

[Richard-BKK]

Integrated graphics will serious slowdown the overall performance of Windows Vista. Intel mainboards are not that attractive, they normally miss additional "none-Intel" options.

[A_Traveller]

FWIW meant to type {had a bad day yesterday, my second apology of the day} P5 range. This machine is a P5B-e {I think }. Still view the Asus as a viable option, with good controllability and clocking functions 'out of the box'. There are some 'Vista specific MBs in the range, can't say if that just marketing though. Agree that on-board graphics would be a probable bottleneck with Vista.

Regards

[Crushdepth]

Thanks. I just wonder if the P5B range is a bit old now?

Anyway, the boss is adamant 'get what we need and not a dollar more'!

[Firefoxx]

There are conflicting stories on just how well Vista works on mediocre hardware, so you can take the chance and get something like a 2,000 baht mainboard with 512mb of ram and onboard graphics, and save some money. Of course, you could strike the "reliability" clause, and it will probably be outdated within a year or so, so by then you'll be stuck with a bunch of really useless computers. Or you could spend a bit more on stuff that actually works.

Really, get the boss to set a budget and work with it. What you "need" and what actually works out to be good can be very different things. If the boss sets a budget, at least you can work within some constraints, and not some vague ideas.