[geeks] Via PC-1

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: velociraptor <velociraptor at gmail.com>
>Date: 2008/03/06 Thu PM 12:10:27 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Via PC-1

>On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 11:06 PM, Lionel Peterson
><lionel4287 at verizon.net> wrote:
>>  Yeah, well... I haven't actually put my D201GLY2 in a case yet and fire it up,
>>  I will this weekend.
>
>Any comments on the heat?  There were some notes in the Newegg reviews
>indicating the CPU ran rather hot.  How is the CPU heat sink attached
>on this motherboard?

Just this mornign I installed and powered up the D201GLY2 MB, I dropped it in a case, added an old 40 Gig SATA HD and a DVD-R drive and attempted a Solaris install. It looked OK, until it rebooted, then I had soem odd problems (but I cen'at really describe them, becuase I had to keep stepping away from the machine while it was booting/running). Then I threw Windows Server 2008 on it (DVD I had handy, and you can install thelatest/greatest version without a product key (meaning you can have an unlimited number of "eval" installs of of one piece of media)), and it went fine (properly ID'd and installed drivers for all the on-board hardware *except* the sound "card" it pulled a suitable driver off the Intel CD that came with the board. This board only "officially" supports WinXP, but there were other drivers on the CD.

Anyway, I digress.

Yes, I have run it, but with the case open (meaning no air flow), and the heatsink got hot (as in hot to the touch), I don't know about monitoring software to read out CPU temps from inside windows OS, but I look into it late tonight. The version I have has *no* fan, just a heatsink on the CPU - ther is another version D201GLY2A that has a different heatsink and includes a fan. I suspect the system will run cooler once I close up the chassis (and get soem ari moving over the heatsink, instead of just sitting there) - I'll report back.

As for performance, it is quite snappy, esp. with the "unsupported" 2 Gig of RAM installed (I got 2 Gig of PC2-5300 for $60 locally). After I tire of Windows Server 2008 on it (later tonight?), I plan to try 64-bit Ubuntu and then WinXP before I go back to Solaris x64 and try it again.

I did notice that there is a better video "driver" for this board - there is a "VESA - SiS..." driver that supports a nice, clean, 1024x768x16.7M colors display, you have to select it from the X display configurator when you install Solaris (or you can run it after install with 'kmdconfig' command, IIRC).

If anyone has pointers for a CPU temp reading program, please let me know, either on or off-list.

Thanks,

Lionel