Intel D201GLY: cheap, low power mini-ITX

sea2stars · Post by **sea2stars** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:20 am

Mine came in on Friday, but I'm waiting for a few more parts to come in and I need to start modding a humidor to toss everything into. So far it's going to have 1Gig of RAM and a 20Gig 1.8" drive; I'm debating whether I'm going to put in an optical drive (I think I have a slim slot load around somewhere) and/or a Gigabit NIC. This'll be my 24/7 'puter to give my HTPC a rest. Hrmm... I'll probably toss in a few cheap USB flash stick internally if I need additional storage.

js9g · Post by **js9g** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:37 am

To the people who own one of these, can someone tell me the max resolution of the on-board graphics? Anyone know if you can connect a HDTV to this board?

TK421 · Post by **TK421** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:56 am

Any body here interested in this board as a silent/low power sys. board?

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1132/a ... index.html

I just read about it and looks like it has a nice feature set.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:57 am

viewtopic.php?t=41859

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:09 pm

js9g - after updating bios and drivers it shows the max. resolution in properties as 2048x1536.

it has vga out only though. if you have a vga input, you should be fine. if not, there are some pci cards available for better output options.

js9g · Post by **js9g** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 8:38 am

Cool, thanx for the info!

aaoberon · Post by **aaoberon** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:03 pm

mcoleg wrote:js9g - after updating bios and drivers it shows the max. resolution in properties as 2048x1536.

it has vga out only though. if you have a vga input, you should be fine. if not, there are some pci cards available for better output options.

This would only apply to Windows only. In Puppy Linux and Ubuntu 7.04, the default xorg SIS drivers have awful tear/vertical noise at higher resolutions (above 800x600). Intel does provide driver downloads for suse , redflag, redhat, mandriva, fedora core 5 on their download site. I haven't tried any of these distributions with this board.

The little fan on the heatsink is a little buzzy. Off of my Kill-A-Watt meter, this board and a Travelstar hard drive draws 37W on idle.

I'm not sure I will keep it around.

js9g · Post by **js9g** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 1:49 pm

Strange... Mini-box tested the power consumption and found it to be 25W average with hard drive. Nothing like 37W idle. What other components/peripherals are you running with it, if any? I hope mini-box isn't being overly optimistic about their results.

aaoberon · Post by **aaoberon** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:12 pm

The key is PSU efficiency. My first measurement was done using an Enhance SFX 200W power supply. I did a retest with a Seasonic Super Silencer 460, and got 33W at idle with the motherboard and 20GB Travelstar.

From the description, it seems that Mini-Box is measuring the wattage of the DC output from the brick (12V) and not the wall power from the outlet (AC Input). If I used the same picoPSU and a Kill-A-Watt, I would get closer numbers but it would still be off by ~20% from the Mini-Box DC measurements at this level of power draw.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:10 am

it is about power efficiency. regular psu's found in smallish cases are not all that efficient...

js9g · Post by **js9g** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 1:01 pm

So would you guys recommend this setup for playing divx, xvid, matroska etc? Would the onboard graphics give bad picture quality on a 32" hdtv?

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:35 pm

can't really say. i would pair it up with a pci vid. card. there are a few decent ones out there.

jdmc · Post by **jdmc** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:23 am

I found a pretty in-depth review of the board from a Japanese site, including both power consumption and benchmarks compared to the C3 and Sempron 3000+

Translated article.

Original article: http://blog.livedoor.jp/materialistica/ ... 48938.html

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:07 am

Thanks for that translated link....jdmc. Being stuck with a single ide connector certainly has limitations when picking or even designing a SFF case. Two SATA connectors along with an ide connector connector gives the SFF case builder many more options.

The performance of the VIA boards is certainly lower, but for now, you have a much better choice of board components/layouts......

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 4:00 am

i just plugged this board into a brick psu and i am getting 30w idle, 40w load.

much better results than using it with t-atx psu.

a single shot, this board is...

with a single pci slot one can make it into a file box (with some sata/eidi/raid card) or a pvr (with a better vid. out and usb tv-in). or it could be a really kick-#$% simple use pc - it's cheap enough to justify having a second low power box just to browse forums :p. considering my c2d system is 220w idle with speed-step on, that's something.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 4:57 am

aaoberon wrote: The little fan on the heatsink is a little buzzy. Off of my Kill-A-Watt meter, this board and a Travelstar hard drive draws 37W on idle.

I'm not sure I will keep it around.

Excuse me. I am interested in the small fan on this board, can you describe how loud is it? Any possibilities to modify it? Thanks for your kindness.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:02 am

it's not too bad when inside a case... still, it's a 40mm fan, it's going to be a bit annoying. i think there's some thermal control circuitry on the motherboard so it doesn't spin at full rpm all the time.

you could use something like zalman's fan controller or swap it for a mini-kaze. i went ahead and changed all the sinks almost from the start to something more potent; never ran stock, can't stand it :p .

actually, whoever has the board, i'd recommend putting a better sink on the northbridge. that thing can get hot enough to blister a finger...

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:20 am

Thanks, glad to know that you can detach stock coolers. I need something cheap to upgrade my VIA C3 533. Performance doesn't matter at all, since anything would be a great improvement over my little download PC.

Intel provides a cheap, relatively powerful but restricted IDE Mini-ITX. Additional IDE or 2 SATA would be a perfect design.

sea2stars · Post by **sea2stars** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:16 pm

You could always toss in another IDE channel & SATA using a PCI card; $20 PCI SATA / IDE Combo. Not a perfect solution, but it's something.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:54 am

There's something need to be reserved for TV Tuner.

I believe Intel has enough power to be a TV recorder.

sea2stars · Post by **sea2stars** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:46 pm

Well. You'll have to toss an old PCI video card in there so you can actually watch your recorded TV shows on your TV, right? Then you'd have to use a hardware encoding USB based TV tuner.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:06 am

question for mcoleg, since you've got the thing running. So you've replaced the CPU heatsink as well as the NB heatsink. Can/have you measured the running temperatures? Can Speedfan read any temperatures or the fan speed? Does the MB fan connector actually vary the fan speed? Is there any BIOS setting for fan speed control?

Sorry for all the questions.....but I'm still considering which Mini-ITX board to buy.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:59 am

let me get back to you on this one. i just finished rearranging it... posted some in your other thread.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:23 am

i have installed one of these:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5934/ ... ?tl=g40c16

without installing the fan on it.

(btw, it's the by far one of the best n/b coolers i've used, and i've used plenty :p . very easy to install - just snaps right on, low profile and almost as heavy as some cpu sinks)

on desktop cpu temps in middle 40s; on load max was 77C, exhaust temp is 34C.

the whole thing is inside this case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811165041

with only one exhaust fan, pretty quiet as is, 9-volted.

there is some sort of thermal control on the board since on load fans spin-up. there's no mentioning of it in the bios but it's pretty efficient - without heavy loads the fans barely rotate.

i read cpu temperatures with coretemp. i'll try speedfan later on and let you know what it says.

i'll also try using that sink with the fan to check the temps and how much the noise level would go up. i have another 9v adapter somewhere so, i'll probably use that to slow that 40mm fan a bit.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:29 pm

well, i put that 40mm fan that came with the sink on, paired with a 9v cable.

the cpu temps dropped to 34C idle and 47C load; as expected, pretty much. the fan hasn't ramped-up yet so, don't know how loud it's going to be. if too loud, i have a mini-kaze to replace it with.

speedfan reads the temperatures correctly, both cpu and system. not too sure about rpm reading though - looks a bit high. it shows something like 4000rpm on cpu fan which it couldn't be.

there's no manual fan control in bios, btw. all is temperature-dependent and automatic.

Blue, hope that answers your questions.

jdmc · Post by **jdmc** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:41 am

After much consideration I finally decided to purchase this board to replace my 5 year old Epia 800. I've been running it for about 2 days in the same Morex Cubid 2677 that the Via board occupied, but I had to replace the ~50 watt power supply with an 80 watt since the 3.5" hard drive would not spin up. The motherboard itself consumes around 2.2-2.7 amps (12VDC), when measured before the DC converter.

I replaced the chipset heat sink with a one that was about 2x as high. I didn't record the original temps, but now at ~25C ambient the heat sink contact temp is about 60C.

I'm using an old Zalman fan controller on the CPU fan, I have it set to a quiet 2400rpm. At idle the CPU temp is 37C with a case temp of 42C, at 25C ambient. The bios does not control the CPU fan speed, and attempts to use Speedfan were unsuccessful.

The case fan speed is controlled internally by the motherboard, with no BIOS settings available as was mentioned, but Speedfan can be used to take control.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:14 am

jdmc....let me get this straight. On your board the CPU fan header is a fixed 12V......but the case fan header is temperature controlled, and can be controlled by Speedfan without conflicting with the on-board control, which cannot be changed or disabled in the BIOS?

I tried to find a manual on the Intel website.....but was unable to do so. Anybody found one on-line?

dougz · Post by **dougz** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:44 am

Bluefront:

I tried to find a manual on the Intel website.....but was unable to do so. Anybody found one on-line?

Manual can be found at http://download.intel.com/support/mothe ... 001_en.pdf

Didn't spot anything in there about fan speed control. Don't know if there is anything in the "BIOS Maintenance Menu" mentioned on page 35.

dougz · Post by **dougz** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:58 am

More docs on the board can be found at --
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboar ... manual.htm

The document --
http://download.intel.com/support/mothe ... nu_v07.pdf
does have fan speed options mentioned on pages 5, 13, and 14.

The option "CPU Fan Control - [Enabled/Disabled] - Allows the CPU fan to be controlled in order to optimize acoustics. If disabled, the CPU fan will run at 100%" seems to be what you need.

[Edit -- This assumes that this option is supported in the BIOS menu, if enabled with the jumper, per manual instructions. Can't find anything that documents the specific BIOS menu options]

jdmc · Post by **jdmc** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:03 am

Bluefront wrote:On your board the CPU fan header is a fixed 12V......

Correct.

Bluefront wrote:......but the case fan header is temperature controlled, and can be controlled by Speedfan without conflicting with the on-board control, which cannot be changed or disabled in the BIOS?

It seems that Speedfan overrides the on-board control. In my case I set desired temps quite a bit higher than the built-in settings, since the case sensor is near the outlet of the case. Other than having to tweak Speedfan's settings, the fan is working according to how I've set it.

There are no fan settings in the BIOS

Bluefront wrote:I tried to find a manual on the Intel website.....but was unable to do so. Anybody found one on-line?

I skimmed through the manual from the CD, it said nothing about fan speeds. I've quoted the section regarding fan headers.

D201GLY Manual wrote:Fan Headers
The Desktop Board has a 3-pin processor fan header and a 3-pin chassis fan header.
See Figure 11 on page 32 for the location of the chassis fan header.