[geeks] Intel Atom MB - Initial Impressions

[Nadine Miller]

On Jun 10, 2008, at 4:58 PM, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> On Jun 10, 2008, at 7:28 PM, Nadine Miller <velociraptor at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>
>> On Jun 9, 2008, at 8:55 PM, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>> I like these Intel boards, but they are too pricey given what they  
>> are missing.
>
> These boards are good as appliances, and low-end desktops, IMHO -  
> not much more...
>
>> I'm looking at a $48 AsRock Wolfdale 1333-D667 for a sub-$500 Mac.   
>> It takes the 45nm C2Ds, and has 4 SATA headers, 1 IDE, 1 PCI-E x16,  
>> 1PCI-E 1x, 2 PCI, and takes up to 4GB of RAM @ 2x2GB.
>
> Intel has two *high end* mini-ITX MB coming down that look nice, but  
> cost close to $200. They take any socket 775 CPU, including quad  
> core CPUs
>
>> With a $190 E8400, and an $80 nVidia 8600GT, RAM, and a couple of  
>> SATA hard drives, there's the mid-tower Mac I wanted announced  
>> instead of an iPhone 3G. :-)  It will run a vanilla kernel.
>
> That's a machine that in no way would be considered low-end ;^)

I just meant as compared to a $600 Mac Mini.  It has GM950 on board,  
so really the 8600 is just gravy, and as far as C2D's are going, the  
E8400 seems to be the best bang for the buck at the moment.  You can  
go down to 2.6 for $10 less, or up to 3.16 for almost $100 more.  CPU  
pricing seems very illogical to me.

This just seems a bit more future proof than some of the other SFF  
boards (and regular size ones for that matter) at a great price point.

> I plan to try one of the Mac OSX discs and see about a very low-end  
> mac-like machine.

I from my reading, leo4all and kalway are the top choices.  BIOS  
settings are very important, as well.

>> Gotta sell some more stuff so I can order it...
>
> Good luck ;^)

Thanks.  Got an awesome deal on a couple of cell phones I'm going to  
unlock and resell and a few iPods to repair. :-)  Also going to test a  
few of the older cards/mobo's I have laying around and get those  
posted.  It's quite silly the things people will buy off eBay.

=Nadine=