[geeks] Via PC-1

[Joshua Boyd]

On Feb 28, 2008, at 10:21 PM, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>
> Yeah, the heatsink/fan is very low on that board. The sound  
> connector stack is tall, but it didn't seem "unusually" tall (to my  
> untrained eye, anyway) - it was no taller than a standard ATX back  
> plate, and they fit in 1U chassis IIRC, all the 1U chassis I have  
> here are custom MB/Case combinations.

I guess it isn't usually tall, but the motherboards I've seen that  
fit in rack cases and have sound orient the sound block in the other  
direction.

Now that said, in the chassis I have, the motherboard goes on a tray,  
which goes into the chassis.  If I eliminated the tray and somehow  
screwed the motherboard to the bottom of the chassis, that might  
reduce the height just enough to fit.

>
>> This board is destined for a desktop chassis, as soon as I get one.
>
> There are some nice "tiny" chassis, at Newegg in the $60-80 range,  
> incl. power supply. For a little mor emoney, they have some 1U and  
> 2U chassis (should be something nice for under $100 I figure).


$60-$100 is a lot more than getting the chassis for free from my BiL  
and using it with a PSU I have sitting in the basement.  The chassis  
in question is a nice compact model rather than a full tower.

Maybe I should give up on 1U chassis anyway.  1-4U, I still don't  
have free rack space anyway at the moment, and if I get another rack,  
then I'd have plenty of rack space for any size.

>> However, I am still tempted by the idea of getting one to rack  
>> mount.  I
>> could remove the sound connectors, and stick it in a chassis with a
>> flash drive, 2x matched SATA drives, and a FC card to use as a  
>> SATA SAN
>> drive.
>
> MicroCenter has a nice IDE -> CF card adapter for about $12[0], it  
> fits in the IDE socket on the MB/controller card, and Circuit City  
> has a nice sale on 400 Gig SATA II drives ($70/each, no rebate,  
> IIRC). At $work-1 we used to boot off USB keys attached to the USB  
> 2.0 headers on the MB for certain applications, all you needed was  
> a back panel USB adapter and remove the back plate[1]

At work I have an Emphase module.  I haven't had time to try it yet,  
but they claim it is a lot faster than regular CF.  Plus, it sticks  
straight into the IDE port on the motherboard rather than requiring a  
carrier to be mounted elsewhere and an IDE cable.  For larger sizes,  
the Emphase modules are competitively priced to CF cards.

I did not know about the current Circuit City sale.  I may have to  
take advantage of that.

> I know I am flogging an ailing horse, but I like the D201GLY2 for  
> similar applications (2x SATA 150 MB/sec, IDE, 1.2 GHz Celeron  
> (Conroe) CPU that supports 64 bit OS and 512K cache)[2] for about  
> $70 (same as the list on the PC-1 board), but I don't have a  
> factual basis for my preference. I'd like a small "micro" desktop  
> case for my Intel MBs, I've seen them, but I can't find them now  
> (somewhere on Newegg - my temp wish lists are gone/on another PC)...

The LY2 supports 64bit mode?  I must have missed that.  That would  
significantly change my opinion of it.

If I do the bit with the FC targeted rack mount machine, it would be  
another board anyway, since I always meant for this one to go in a  
desktop chassis.

I have nothing against the LY2, I just thought this looked cooler.   
Plus you offered a used PC-1 up for sale, and you didn't offer a used  
LY2 up for sale. ;)

> Buying a 1U rack case for dual mini-ITX MBs is very pricey, around  
> $120 or more, plus two small 1U power supplies, AFAIK.

I wish I had the means to easily make custom chassises.  I know a  
place to moderately affordably get 1U project cases, but I still then  
lack the means to easily punch holes for the commonly needed  
connectors, plus anything special like an LCD panel.

Sure, I could always dremmel away, and for a 1 off that is probably  
fine, but when I think about making things, I prefer to think about  
making more than one of them at a time.

> Anyway, enjoy your board, you got a good deal ;^)

I plan to, and yes I did.