Pentium M Desktop: DFI or AOpen Mobo

[newParadigm]

Ok i'm looking to put together a high performance HTPC.

I'm looking at using the Antec Aria case, which requires a Micro ATX Board.

Also, the sub-average 300w PSU the case comes with normally wouldn't be able to support a gforce 6800u, but with the lessened Power Requirments of the New Dothan CPU's i tohught maybe i could make it work.

So i was Basically wondering, which board do i go with?

The DFI has PCI-X and Single Gigabit Lan

While the AOpen has no PCI-X yet has Dual Gigabit Lan.

The AOpen board also has some recoverable DUAL Bios THing going on, but i can get a BIOS Savior cheap enough this doesnt really matter to me.

I will be adding an Audigy 2ZS Platinum, so on board SOund will notbe a concern.

So bassically, which board is better for my needs, will the PCI-X of the DFI see more use than the Dual LAN of the AOpen or vice versa?

 

[DaveSimmons]

So bassically, which board is better for my needs, will the PCI-X of the DFI see more use than the Dual LAN of the AOpen or vice versa?

Well, do you have any use for dual LAN? That's normally most useful on a server box with heavy traffic.

 

[formulav8]

I would use a Mobile A64 and not a Dothan. There are 1.2v versions out now. But it is your money. I prefer DFI over AOpen for the most part.



Jason

 

[newParadigm]

Ok, thanks guys, and i want a Dothan, because.....I want a Dothan, i already have an AXP Mobile, and i just ran into some cash, so i figured id do sumthin new, and try a one of these chips.

I think i could proly find more use for PCI-X than Dual LAN, maybe throw sum scsi in there, hrm.....

Ok thanks guys

EDIT: formulalav8, thought ya said to get a Mobile AXP, i dunno, haven't seen any MicroATX A64 Boards with PCI-X yet.

 

[RalfHutter]

FWIW, the DFI board has some sort of proprietary HSF for the CPU. It look like a NB cooling and even has a tiny little 40mm cooling fan. The AOpen board uses a standard Intel retention bracket so that you can use any P4 heatsink. A big P4 heatsink will surely do a much better job cooling the CPU than a tiny little proprietary cooler.

 

[BDSM]

What ralf said

U will want a fat heat sink so you can run it passively.. Ofcourse you could probably fidn a solution with the dfi board too.. but it would probably be trickier.

 

[newParadigm]

Ok about the cooler on the DFI, it seems to have some holes in the PCB around the socket, those could be used to mount a HS/F (or just HS, as i DEF would want to run it passive as its an HTPC.)

That PCI-X is just so cool, i bet thats the only microATX board EVER with PCI-X

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: newParadime
Ok about the cooler on the DFI, it seems to have some holes in the PCB around the socket, those could be used to mount a HS/F

Yes, it has holes but the hole pattern is the same size as the hole pattern for northbridge coolers. That limits you to using aftermarket NB coolers only, the biggest of which is that Swiftech 159 and it uses a noisy 40mm fan.

 

[newParadigm]

Hmmm, i could always just use zip ties to fasten down a nice cooler of my choice tho.

 

[GnomeCop]

sounds like you want the DFi, just get it, I bet performance will be about the same. The pci-x slot on this board is just weird though.
what would someone use a pci-x slot on a matx board for?

I got the aopen board myself, moved the 2ghz dothan in my laptop into the board, put my 1.7ghz banias back into the laptop.

 

[newParadigm]

What kind of OC are you gettin outa the Dothan?

 

[GnomeCop]

havent tried overclocking it yet, getting a new heatsink in the next couple weeks and then I will try. Right now its plenty fast for me.

 

[w00t]

get a a64 buddie

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: w00t
get a a64 buddie

Oh, don't be like that. He's got his heart set on a Dothan, so let him get his Dothan. Besides, this makes him a guinea pig for the rest of us that might be interested in Dothan OCing and performance for the desktop.

I must say that the PC2700 limitation on both boards is rather unattractive, but eh, such is life. I severely doubt that the Dothan is starved for memory bandwidth.

That being said, I doubt Dothan will provide performance superior to that of an Athlon 64 at this time, but it is interesting, nevertheless. It might also make for a superior "silent" PC, if he uses the AOpon motherboard and gets a good heat sink.

NewParadime, I'd say go with the AOpen board just for the superior heatsink options. PCI-x is an interesting novelty, but honestly, what use would you have for such a slot?

 

[newParadigm]

Since the board doesnthave native SATA-II Support, i was gonna get a PCI-X SATA-II Contorller Card.

I havehadlotsa experience mounting HS/F's in odd places (video cards, NB, SouthB, etc..), so i dont thimnk the mounting would be an issue.

As this WILL be used fora silent HTPC, i will OC it as much as i can witha Passive HS(maybe ill add a nice really quiet panaflo, but otehr then that its gonna have nada, cept for the slot fan and teh 120m PSU fan on the Aria case its goin into. And then obv the video card fan)

~new

 

[Fun Guy]

I just got the AOpen and a 755 because of the info contained in this thread here. Can't wait to get it up and running in an Aria case with a AIW 9800 Pro and a Seagate 15K.3 :Q

I'm gonna be SMOKIN'!!!

 

[DrMrLordX]

Fun Guy, how much did you pay for the AOpen board?

 

[Blain]

Don't worry much about onboard Gigabit LAN.
You'll end up installing PCI cards anyway, after the Gigabit chip bites the dust. :laugh: That goes for any of the MBs with onboard Gigabit.

But I still think a lot of AOpen MBs.

 

[Thegonagle]

I freaking love the Dothan 1.8 in my notebook. It's so cool, literally.

I would upgrade my desktop in a heartbeat if it weren't for the 400 MHz FSB and, of course, the current cost of Pentium-M motherboards.

 

[uOpt]

Dual gigabit LAN is pretty useless if both hang out on a 33MHz/32 bit PCI bus.

The PCI-X slot is far more valuable if you have high I/O demands. Nice board actually, but for a server there is a clear bottleneck that you don't have gigabit off the PCI bus. So you have to decide to use the PCI-X slot for either harddrives or network

Also, watch out that this single PCI-X slot might not be independent of the PCI slots. That would mean the PCI-X slot would be scaled down to normal PCI speeds if there's a card in the other slots. IIRC, not entirely sure.

 

[newParadigm]

thanks all,

Thats all good stuff 2 noe

~new

 

[Fun Guy]

Sorry, didn't subscribe to this thread. I think I paid about $250 for the board at the Egg.