[geeks] Intel Atom MB - Initial Impressions

[Lionel Peterson]

Hello all,

My D945GCLF, the low-cost Atom-based MB arrived this morning, and I just threw it in a case and installed WinXP Pro on it tonight (for testing, I plan to also try Solaris, Ubuntu, and Server 2008. All 64-bit.

Anyway, so far it looks pretty nice - the MB is reasonably fast for general desktop use, and the board is dead-silent. Well, almost - with the lid off the case you can hear the chipset fan...

The IDE, 2x SATA, and power connectors are all bunched together a bit too close for my liking, and will likely cause trouble for users that try and squeeze this MB in a Very Small Case, but put it in a mATX or larger chassis, and you're good to go.

I'll try some HD speed tests, if I can come up with the right test suite...

Lionel