Mobile Barton vs regular Barton, motheboard recommendations, and opteron question

[n0cmonkey]

I think this may be enough different topics squeezed into one thread, or I'd ask for whiskey/bourbon recommendations too. 😀

Quick description: This machine will probably the new firewall at home. It will replace a p133 machine. I will need a minimum of 3 PCI slots (or 2 integrated NICs and 1 PCI slot). I was going to get a VIA c3 for this, but I'm going to wait on those until I can find a good place to get the parts (recommendations are welcome, but I still want to boost my ecc2 output, the places to get parts is more of an excuse 😉)

I noticed the FSB speeds are different (266 vs 333), but are there any other major differences? I'll be looking at a new rig possibly next month, and I want to know if I should go with one over the other. I'll be getting a new motherboard, so getting 333mhz ram won't be a proble, but if there is a spectacular benefit to the mobile barton I'll get one of those.

As far as motherboards go, I just need the 3 PCI slots/2 NICs + 1 PCI slot. If onboard NICs are crap (realtek 8139), I'll need the PCI slots. No crappy NICs on my machines! 😉 Video/sound isn't important, so integrated is fine. New motherboards will support pretty much any hard drive I could get (given I get the right type between ATA, SATA, and SCSI). I want to avoid nVidia nForce boards (political and philisophical reasons), but I won't turn it away if it has a definite advantage over the others. I've got "extra" scsi drives, but would prefer ATA or SATA. The only SATA controllers I can use are Promise PDC20376 and Silicon Image SiI3112, but ATA is fine.

And the opteron question... Should I look at buying an Opteron board with an AMD chipset in the near future, or do you all think they will be around for a while? I prefer AMD chipsets with AMD chips (yeah, I'm wierd like that).

Thanks everyone! All benefits and proceeds will go to Team Anandtech ECC2 😀

 

[lobadobadingdong]

The mobile bartons aren't multiplier locked, and operate cooler than the desktop bartons, they are only worth the price difference if you plan on OC'ing. they otherwise perform very similarly.

might I suggest getting a cheap nforce2 IGP board (I've had excellent luck with the biostar board), pretty fast dual channel boards with integrated sound (typically one nic, 1 agp, and 3 pci slots) and it's cheaper than getting an nforce 2 board and an geforce4mx seperatly. for what you will be doing with the system. a regular 2500+ barton, and cheap (anything but geil really) pc-2700 (2x256Meg'rs) note: the onboard graphics won't work with memory set any faster than pc-2700.

if you must insist on the nforce boards getting no love, a decent alternative would be an ATI integrated board (if you can find them anymore), a bit slower but the graphics are still better than most of the integrated boards.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
The mobile bartons aren't multiplier locked, and operate cooler than the desktop bartons, they are only worth the price difference if you plan on OC'ing. they otherwise perform very similarly.

Ok, so probably not the way to go. Unless I want something cooler. I'm not an overclocker. Thanks!

might I suggest getting a cheap nforce2 IGP board (I've had excellent luck with the biostar board), pretty fast dual channel boards with integrated sound (typically one nic, 1 agp, and 3 pci slots) and it's cheaper than getting an nforce 2 board and an geforce4mx seperatly. for what you will be doing with the system. a regular 2500+ barton, and cheap (anything but geil really) pc-2700 (2x256Meg'rs) note: the onboard graphics won't work with memory set any faster than pc-2700.

They're a little more expensive than I was hoping to go for, but not bad. I'll definitely take a closer look at them. Off hand they seem to have a Realtek NIC, but some of them have enough PCI slots that this won't matter.

if you must insist on the nforce boards getting no love, a decent alternative would be an ATI integrated board (if you can find them anymore), a bit slower but the graphics are still better than most of the integrated boards.

ATi generally has the same issues as nVidia as far as open source and free software go. I'll probably go with the nVidia, unless I find something much much better for less money. It could be my first nVidia product ever :Q

For dual channel, do you have to buy special ram or will 2 matched sticks work? I'll look for an Anandtech FAQ on it...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Another board I was looking at previously is the Soyo SY-K7VMP2. But I'm not sure if I'm entirely confident with VIA yet (bad experiences in the past 😛).

It has the onboard video (probably crappier than the nForce2 board, but this will not be running a GUI), onboard LAN (CHEAP -aka crap 😉), and 333mhz FSB. No dual channel mentioned though. But I think ecc2 isn't a big fsb hog, so that shouldn't matter too much...

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I haven't used any of the km400 boards myself, I haven't had good luck with the km266 boards so I started to shy away from the via boards with onboard graphics, but if your not looking for the increased graphics performance of the nforce2 it should do nicely.

edit: typo

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
The mobile bartons aren't multiplier locked, and operate cooler than the desktop bartons, they are only worth the price difference if you plan on OC'ing. they otherwise perform very similarly.

I agree with this statement. Even if you don't overclock you could slow the chip down far enough to passively cool it!

-Por

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
The mobile bartons aren't multiplier locked, and operate cooler than the desktop bartons, they are only worth the price difference if you plan on OC'ing. they otherwise perform very similarly.

I agree with this statement. Even if you don't overclock you could slow the chip down far enough to passively cool it!

-Por

But I'm trying to go UP in the ecc2 standings 😉

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: PorBleemo

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
The mobile bartons aren't multiplier locked, and operate cooler than the desktop bartons, they are only worth the price difference if you plan on OC'ing. they otherwise perform very similarly.

I agree with this statement. Even if you don't overclock you could slow the chip down far enough to passively cool it!

-Por

But I'm trying to go UP in the ecc2 standings 😉

What is UP and ECC²?

-Por

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: PorBleemo

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
The mobile bartons aren't multiplier locked, and operate cooler than the desktop bartons, they are only worth the price difference if you plan on OC'ing. they otherwise perform very similarly.

I agree with this statement. Even if you don't overclock you could slow the chip down far enough to passively cool it!

-Por

But I'm trying to go UP in the ecc2 standings 😉

What is UP and ECC²?

-Por

UP being higher in ranking. ecc2 is a distributed computing project. ecc2.com I think, but I always google it anyways..