[geeks] Intel D201GLY (mini-ITX) video success

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net>
>Date: 2008/02/08 Fri PM 02:41:51 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Intel D201GLY (mini-ITX) video success

<snip>

>Oh sure, that probably is fine.  You said desktop and I assumed you
>meant something like mainly web surfing and flash type things (along
>with possible office apps).

My intention is for the Intel MB[0] to be a small "toy" server (teeny-weeny 
LAMP server), running Ubuntu with a GUI desktop for administration. I got the 
board because it was a low-cost MB/CPU combo from Intel and was frustrated by 
the inability to support higher-res (greater than 800x600) display in anything 
but WinXP. I was considering running WinXP on it and putting the AMP stack on 
it anyway, but now I can run Ubuntu as I want to.


>Erm, if you have both, why do you prefer the LV?  Am I missing something
>bad about the Via board?

<snip>

I didn't realize I was preferring one over the other (I love all my children 
equally ;^), but they are different boards for different applications. The Via 
PC-1[1] solution *may* wind up as my daughter's new desktop (since it is low-
power I can leave it on and not worry too much about power consumption), an 
upgrade to her Asus bare bones with an 800 MHz Via CPU.

The Intel has a "better" CPU with a slower clock speed but a larger cache 
(512K vs 128K), supports 64 bit OS (the Via does not, AFAIK), and has a faster 
memory technology (DDR2-533 vs. DDR-400). The Intel part has SATA-I (150 Mb/s) 
while the PC-1 has SATA-II (300 Mb/s), but with these kind of processor speeds  
I don't think that is too significant.

The Via/PC-1 board can take a PCI-Express 16x video card (I have a few ATI 
X300 cards I could use if better video is required), while the Intel part is 
limited to a PCI card.

I will likely run WinXP on the original D201GLY board (the one without SATA) 
and drop a voice modem card in the machine and run VoiceGuide[0] on it, using 
it as an appliance, the D201GLY2 board will be my teeny-tiny LAMP server (with 
dual SATA drives for storage).

Lionel

Links:
[0] http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d201gly2/index.htm
[1] http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4842002
[2] http://www.voiceguide.com/