[geeks] Via PC-1

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net>
>Date: 2008/03/06 Thu PM 01:56:00 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Via PC-1

>On Thu, Mar 06, 2008 at 01:18:55PM -0600, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>
>> 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. 
>
>So that board supports just plugging in 2 gig sticks, or did you have to
>do something else first to make it accept that?

The board just worked with a single 2 Gig DIMM (which was suprisingly hard to find, actually - it wasn't easy to find a single 2 Gig DIMM, I could find lots of 2x 2Gig "kits" though).

This board has just one DIMM slot, and I'm not sure why Intel says 1 Gig is the limit, it might be because the chipset only officially supported 2x 1 Gig for a 2 Gig max, and was built before the 2 Gig part was common.

There is much conversation centering around the question why Intel choose to use the SiS chipset instead of one of their own - my personal theory is that the SiS chip suited the thermal/electrical parameters they wanted for the board - Intel isn't famous for low-power chipsets. On-board Gig Ethernet would have been nice, as would 300 Mb/sec SATA ports (instead of 150 Mb/sec), but for under $70, it is a fair value, IMHO.

I plan to try the 2 Gig DIMM on the earlier version of the board while it is still in a chassis to see if 2 Gigs of RAM is supported on that board as well (I suspect it will be, it is the same set of chips, AFAIK).

Lionel