[geeks] Two new Intel mini-ITX boards (DQ45EK and DG45FC)

[Shannon Hendrix]

On May 14, 2008, at 12:53 , Chad McAuley wrote:

> I just heard about two new mini-ITX boards from Intel that are  
> slated for a June release.  Given the D201GLY and other mini PC  
> discissions we've had on here recently, I figured some of you would  
> be interested in them.
>
> There's two variants, the DG45FC which appears to be geared towards  
> HTPC applications and the DQ45EK which is more for business and non  
> multimedia intensive home applications.  Here are the common  
> features shared by both boards:
>
> - Support for Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, and  
> Celeron CPUs running at 800MHz, 1066MHz, or 1333MHz bus speeds
> - both use variants of Intel's Eaglelake chipset family
> - two DDR2 667/800 RAM slots, dual channel support, 4GB max RAM[0]
> - single PCI Express x1 slot
> - 10 total USB ports: 6 on the back and 4 more available via 3  
> internal headers
> - Intel Matrix Storage Technology (RAID 0/1/5/10, plus Matrix RAID[1])

I've never seen this stuff work reliably, at least not on FreeBSD or  
Linux.

> - Intel Pro 10/100/1000 onboard LAN
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THAT is great.  so is the PCI Express slot so you can add more or a  
RAID card.

> - Intel High Definition Audio
> - one eSATA port

> The DQ45EK sports the Q45 Express chipset paired with the GMA4500  
> graphics accelerator and dual monitor outputs (one DVI-D, one DVI- 
> I). It also has 4 channel audio and six SATA300 ports.

I wonder if this graphics chipset is as reliable as current server  
graphics options?

This looks like a great little board, and would neatly solve some  
issues I had with the D201GLY board, mainly the lack of gigabit  
ethernet.

-- 
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."