[geeks] YASFFMB (Yet Another SFF Motherboard)

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net>
>Date: 2007/11/12 Mon AM 11:53:12 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] YASFFMB (Yet Another SFF Motherboard)

>On Mon, Nov 12, 2007 at 11:32:35AM -0600, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> Came across this on Directro.com website earlier today:
>> 
>> http://directron.com/efika.html
>
>Ahh, the Efika. 
>
>> Features & Specifications: 
>> Freescale MPC5200B PowerPC SBC 400MHz (32 Bit PowerPC with FPU, 603e
>> processor core (e300). Dhrystone 2.1, 760MIPS). with access to  
>> 128MB DDR RAM (266MHz) of main memory. 
>
>My understanding is that it is 128Meg soldered to the board, and thus non-upgradable.

Yep.
 
>> PCI slot (compatible to 33MHz and 66MHz PCI 2.2 3.3 volt. optionally includes a 90 degree AGP Riser card). 
>
>My understanding is that the "AGP" riser is a card that physically makes
>an AGP card fit the slot.  From the software/electrical point of view,
>the AGP card must fall back to PCI mode.

Why not a PCI riser then? Directron has a "compatible" AGP card and a kit that includes case, PS, and video card (DVI output), and another with all the previous bits and an 80 Gig HD for *about* $380

>This isn't really a complaint.
> 
>> 44 pin IDE connector (2mm 90 degree port for connecting a 2.5 inch notebook hard disk drive.) 
>
>Note, this means that the only optical drive you can use is a USB 1.1 drive.

Why? 44 pin to 40 pin IDE adapters are quite common and very affordable - with this form-factor, an internal optical drive would likely not be an option.
 
>> 2 x USB ports (1.1 automatic full speed/low speed recognition, OHCI).
>
>This board would feel a lot less limited if they had only used USB2.0
>high speed.

A PCI USB card would take care of that quite nicely - that PCI expansion slot is very handy ;^)

Lionel