[scutiform]

Later this year I am upgrading my computer to a 64 bit CPU with Motherboard to match. I will probably use the 64 bit version of Ubuntu (there seems to be a bit of controversy about any performance gain over 32 bit OS on 64 bit CPU, I'll sort that out later) Anyway, can anybody out there tell me what they would recommend as the best CPU/Motherboard combination, and more importantly, which ones to avoid. I know that Ubuntu has issues or bugs with some chip sets and I would like to avoid getting the wrong combination.

I do not do any gaming on my system, but I do music editing and a lot of video/graphics work. I will be building the new system myself, so Dell need not apply

[coopstah13]

if you want a good bang for your buck I suggest the amd "black edition" processor, its 2.6 ghz stock, dual core, easily overclocks to 3.2 ghz, and it only costs around $100, saves a lot of money over buying other AMD Athlon X2's that are already clocked above 2.6 ghz, and also saves over intel core 2 duos, as it stands the phenom doesn't really outperform the x2 yet (in most cases), and the core 2 quads cost a crapload of money, but for someone that is doing video work the extra cores would be very useful since most encoders are indeed multithreaded so in your case, the quad core athlon would be a very good budget choice, otherwise like I said if you have money go for the intel core 2 quad

edit: i would say phenom is the best budget choice for video editing for you, but on a really tight budget the black edition would be very good
also noting, i would just use the 32 bit version of the OS unless you plan on using 4gb of ram or more

[scutiform]

I have always prefered the AMD CPU's and I will probably stick with them. Thanks for the info. Cost will not be the main consideration.
I have noticed in several posts that some chip sets have caused problems when upgrading. Are there any known bugs in the 8.04 upgrade? Which chip set(s) should I steer clear of?

[DTF]

I use Ubuntu 8.04 and has 4GB of RAM but System monitor say that I have 3.5 GB of RAM. It might be because I don`t use 64bit Ubuntu. Where can i find which version of Ubuntu I have.

[geezerone]

Good question.

Try installing ruby1.8 from Synaptic. Then type

dpkg -s ruby1.8

Near the top of the screen you will see system architecture and look something like:

Architecture: i386

Architecture: amd64

HTH

[DTF]

Thanks geezerone. Unfortunately I have 32bit Ubuntu. Can you tell me which is easiest way to upgrade 32bit Ubuntu 8.04 to 64bit Ubuntu 8.04.

[techieMoe]

Originally Posted by DTF

Thanks geezerone. Unfortunately I have 32bit Ubuntu. Can you tell me which is easiest way to upgrade 32bit Ubuntu 8.04 to 64bit Ubuntu 8.04.

To the best of my knowledge there isn't a way to upgrade from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit one. You have to do a clean install.

[techieMoe]

Originally Posted by scutiform

I have always prefered the AMD CPU's and I will probably stick with them.

Just be careful with the new Phenom chips. There's been reports (and at least one forum post here) that they don't work well with Ubuntu:

[Phoronix] AMD 790FX Phenom Chipset On Linux
[Phoronix] AMD Phenom 9500 Linux Performance (Spider Platform) Review

[scutiform]

Thank you techiMo for the heads-up on the Phenom chips. This is just the sort of info I need to help selecting the right CPU/Motherboard combination. Can everybody keep posting anything - good or bad - on the new 64 bit CPU's and Linux? I bet that I'm not the only person who will upgrade their computer this year, and, although I will be happy to spend a lot of money on the upgrade, I can't afford to waste it.

[techieMoe]

Originally Posted by scutiform

Thank you techiMo for the heads-up on the Phenom chips. This is just the sort of info I need to help selecting the right CPU/Motherboard combination. Can everybody keep posting anything - good or bad - on the new 64 bit CPU's and Linux? I bet that I'm not the only person who will upgrade their computer this year, and, although I will be happy to spend a lot of money on the upgrade, I can't afford to waste it.

I haven't built a machine in a while, but I have an AMD64 (single-core) desktop and an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop. Neither one has issues running a number of distributions. You can see my hardware specs here:

Test Machines

And the distros I've tried on each rig here:

TechieMoe.com