Hi all,

Has anyone had experience of using the Intel DN2800MT motherboard with Windows XP Professional?

I have done a fair bit of searching around and have seen references to it not working with XP and an equal number saying the opposite. Intel offer 32-bit drivers for XP so I presume it works, however, I would be interested in hearing about people's practical experience of using the board with this operating system.

I am only planning on using the board for my Squeezecenter so I think it will be fine. The reason I am going for this board is the passive cooling and the build in DC power socket. I currently use XP Professional for the OS, which works perfectly, and as such I don't want to change that aspect of the system.

Many thanks

Russ

Afternoon all,

Not a thrilling update, but thought I would let any other people interested in this board that it works fine on Windows XP Pro for me. Mine is a 32-bit setup - I think 64-bit will not work too well from what I have read. I'm only using it as a music server so 32-bit is fine for me. The main thing I was interested in was getting the boot time down. It's currently at 21 seconds from off to playing music through my Squeezebox - good enough for me but I'm sure I could fiddle about with it some more if I had the inclination.

Intel say that audio will not work through the HDMI output but that's not a problem for me as I'm only using it as a music server. The standard VGA output works fine although the screen did flicker a couple of times during the Windows installation - this seemed to rectify once Windows had done the obligatory "Adjusting your display..." routine. I haven't installed any specific VGA drivers; I just let Windows get on with it - fine for a headless setup.

I have it in a Lian Li PC-Q09FN case. The board is supposed to run passively, however, as the HDD is only 30-40mm above the CPU cooler I have an exhaust fan fitted in the case. I haven't got any temperature figures to give out, however, the CPU cooler is only slightly warm to touch after a couple of hours running. That said, it's only idling away as a music centre so I'm guessing the CPU load is minimal. I haven't got any software/potential uses in mind that I think will really stretch the board, but my gut feeling setting it up is that it might struggle with anything graphics heavy - that said I don't think that is the market it is aimed at.

The onboard PSU is a very useful feature as far as I am concerned - the only thing that concerns me is that if it fails then the board will be defunct. I have seen a few people complaining that they cannot find suitable power bricks for the board. Maybe I was lucky, but any of the laptops adapters I found lying about the house would have done the job (efficiency aside).

All in all, the board is fine for my purposes and I'm relieved that my fears about it's compatibility with XP have not (yet) been founded.

Cheers
Russ

Interesting read Russ, I am always interested in very small form factor PCs as potential media players. Did you ever consider a case like a
M350 Universal Mini-ITX enclosure as you didn't need a PSU, or did you want something where everything was in one box?

Very useful fact about not passing audio through the HDMI for any potential media fans! Although I did see a S/PDIF which should do the trick, but not ideal. Perfect for your musical needs tho

Hi Mike,

I had a look at the M350, which reminds me of a case that I think Tranquil PC used to use in their builds a few years ago. My original server was an off the shelf Tranquil PC with a D945GCLF2 motherboard but in a huge case compared to the M350. I really liked this setup - not powerful but more than adequate for its purpose, totally stable and well built. The only issue was that the case proportions were not quite to my liking, being narrower but deeper than a standard hifi separate. I wanted it to look like just another piece of hifi equipment but its dimensions meant it couldn't go comfortably above or below another separate, and to top it all was also too deep to fit on my hifi rack!

I chose the Lian Li mainly on looks and proportions really. It is significantly smaller in both dimensions than a hifi separate so looks fine at the top of the "pile" and good looking enough to have on show. It's a fairly tall case but I thought this might be good for providing a bit of airflow. I would have just put the old D945GCLF2 in the case, however, the Tranquil had a heat pipe cooler and they conveniently chucked away the stock mobo heatsink when they built it. I looked around for replacement heatsinks but then became a bit concerned that there wouldn't be much clearance between it and the HDD - didn't want to cook it. That's when I came across the low profile DN2800MT. There's loads of clearance with this board and I expect I could easily run it without the case fan, however, I want to get the maximum life out of it as possible as I'm not planning on upgrading for a good few years if I can help it! I'm using a Squeezebox 3, which is very old hat, but it does everything I want it to and works beautifully.

I removed the PSU included with the case to maximise airflow and also assist with the routing of cables etc - just need to make up a blanking plate now for the hole that its left behind!

Thanks for your comments,

Cheers
Russ

Ah for aesthetics I should have known! Lian Li cases have a much higher build quality then a lot of the small form factors floating around these days.

I was planning on building a HTPC using a large Silverstone case just to match my other separates as well, but I stuck with using my mac mini as my media player for now. Although it does look a little out of place! Glad it all worked out for you, I would love to see a few pics after you have added the finishing touches