D201gly2: product and SPCR review discussion

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:42 am

vincentfox wrote:I'll differ with Mike on Via. The CPU speed I could really care less about. How fast does a device need to be? The Achilles heel of the Via boards has always been their lousy drivers and other built-in components. I've got a couple of old Shuttle SV-24 cubes at the house and I think I'm going to get rid of them, too annoying to work with.

One thing I would like about going Intel is that I would *hope* driver support would be better. Being a Linux user this is important. Also my Intel-based boards have always been VERY stable. I would wish for a BIOS that lets me downclock the CPU as it's very likely overkill for what I need, or least have very good power-management.

Yeah, this is certainly a factor too, but having a more capable CPU at 1/3 the price doesn't hurt the Intel board at all.

mumford · Post by **mumford** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:02 am

What is the energy consumption of this thing?

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:48 am

mumford wrote:What is the energy consumption of this thing?

The CPU on v2 is supposed to be 19W TDP.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:46 pm

MikeC wrote:...having a more capable CPU at 1/3 the price doesn't hurt the Intel board at all.

Mike, tiny-mobo high prices reflect low sales volume (otherwise they'd attract mucho competition). The very low price of this new Intel board either reflects a high-volume application, or a marketing experiment on Intel's part to see what would happen to sales volume at the low price.

Your thoughts on this?

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:49 pm

Felger Carbon wrote:Mike, tiny-mobo high prices reflect low sales volume (otherwise they'd attract mucho competition). The very low price of this new Intel board either reflects a high-volume application, or a marketing experiment on Intel's part to see what would happen to sales volume at the low price.

Your thoughts on this?

Agreed, it's the most likely scenarios. They can also afford to do this -- while mITX may be the backbone of VIA's business these days, it probably represents barely a drop in Intel's bucke... no, olympic size swimming pool.

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:48 pm

Yep the price is quite appealing. Add a WD10EACS 1TB drive or two, and it seems like it'll make a fairly low-power NAS unit. Just waiting for it to show up on NewEgg now.

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:38 pm

One question just occured to me, the PicoPSU won't work with this board will it? It looks like it requires a regular PSU due to needing that extra 4-pin connector.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:00 pm

An ATX12V connector can be purchased and soldered to the +12V and GND connections on the PicoPSU. You can also buy a molex to ATX12V connector instead, which wouldn't require any soldering.

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:09 pm

vincentfox wrote:Yep the price is quite appealing. Add a WD10EACS 1TB drive or two, and it seems like it'll make a fairly low-power NAS unit. Just waiting for it to show up on NewEgg now.

Yeah. I've got the same idea...except using Windows Home Server (I have a free copy because I was an early beta tester). I figure it would draw a lot less power than my current setup of undervolted Opteron 144...

-D

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:12 pm

MikeC wrote:
mumford wrote:What is the energy consumption of this thing?
The CPU on v2 is supposed to be 19W TDP.

I'd heard some rather convincing news that the 19W figure is for the whole D201GLY2, not just the CPU. That would be even better if that were the case. Since you're somewhat of an industry insider as opposed to us schlubs, perhaps you could verify this?

Even if it is just the CPU that's rated at 19W, that's still phenominal, though.

-D

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:53 pm

derekva wrote:I'd heard some rather convincing news that the 19W figure is for the whole D201GLY2, not just the CPU. That would be even better if that were the case. Since you're somewhat of an industry insider as opposed to us schlubs, perhaps you could verify this?

Even if it is just the CPU that's rated at 19W, that's still phenominal, though.

-D

I've been chasing a sample of the D201GLY2 for the past few days, and got word from one of my Intel contacts that one might be coming our way soon, along with contact info about the people directly involved in its development -- for an interview. So stay tuned, a review and more detailed info should be forthcoming.

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 10:20 pm

djkest wrote:Wow that is pretty sweet. If only there was a mini-case with a pico psu, you could build a sweet little machine for sooo cheap.

What if only? Newegg has been selling this forever.

AuraAllan · Post by **AuraAllan** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 4:37 am

MikeC wrote:I've been chasing a sample of the D201GLY2 for the past few days, and got word from one of my Intel contacts that one might be coming our way soon, along with contact info about the people directly involved in its development -- for an interview. So stay tuned, a review and more detailed info should be forthcoming.

Thats very good news. I'm looking forward to that

Maybe they have been following this tread

Intel is lurking on SPCR

hans007 · Post by **hans007** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 4:53 pm

i would honestl love to see one with intel chipset, hdmi out, and say another ethernet port or, gigabit.

it makes sense that they made it the way they did though.

the sis chipset is cheaper than the intel one, and its designed for low cost in like 3rd world countries. that is where the volume is. i believe dell uses the first version of this board for a cheap computer in china. and people who want low cost you figure dont care about hdmi , or an intel chipset, or more ethernet.

so you figure the volume is how intel is getting this to us for $70 or so. when its in volume its cheap (thats probably how HP buiilds those cheap amd based media center pcs with mini itx amd nvidia boards).

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:07 pm

I have re-thought the gigabit issue. I have come to look around and analyze the issue, and I do not think this board would be capable of pushing gigabit traffic. At which point it's a total waste of time to worry about. If they want to save a buck that's fine.

I do wish I could find a cheap-ish 2-port ethernet PCI card for it though, to make it a firewall system with 2 internal networks. However, the 2-port ethernet cards I find seem to all cost more than this whole motherboard. Ugh.

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:38 pm

vincentfox wrote:I have re-thought the gigabit issue. I have come to look around and analyze the issue, and I do not think this board would be capable of pushing gigabit traffic. At which point it's a total waste of time to worry about. If they want to save a buck that's fine.

I do wish I could find a cheap-ish 2-port ethernet PCI card for it though, to make it a firewall system with 2 internal networks. However, the 2-port ethernet cards I find seem to all cost more than this whole motherboard. Ugh.

You're probably right on the gigabit issue. With regards to 2-port NICs, try used (e.g. local PC Recycle-type store or EBay). Here in the Seattle area, there are a lot of used 100BT dual-port cards floating about due to Microsoft & Boeing surplus.

-D

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:16 pm

A search for 'Dual NIC' on EBay resulted in a plethora of hits. Best bet is probably one of the Compaq 10/100 32-bit NICs. Having worked with them in the past, I have to say they're near bulletproof. You can probably pick one up for less than $15 shipped.

-D

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:46 pm

I just bid on a lot of 3 dual-NIC cards on EBay, thanks for the idea.

wim · Post by **wim** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:36 pm

next billion users..?

are they planning to flog these things in africa or something

vim.au · Post by **vim.au** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:59 pm

wim wrote:next billion users..? are they planning to flog these things in africa or something

I think that's the plan! Though they probably have Asia in mind IMO, rather than Africa.

I just hope they leave some for the poor needy geeks in the 'west' as well

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 11:32 am

damn this thing would be so nice and so cheap too. it would be perfect if only it had GbE.... and intel chips

but at the price it is I could probably buy one temporarily for a server and then upgrade to a GbE board sometime.

Muzza · Post by **Muzza** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 2:43 am

does anyone know where i could get one of these in the uk?

www.dabs.com has them listed but none in stock and no estimate as to when they will be available.

Cheers.

SZ · Post by SZ » Thu Nov 08, 2007 2:56 am

Don't known about UK but the cheapest place I've found in Europe is
www.mini-itx.de, D201GLY2 costs 64 euro there and delivery is cheap, although looks like the shop web page is down currently.

73 euro in http://www.mini-box.de/catalog/il/844 and they got eBay shop where it's cheaper.

55 euro here in Estonia

going to order soon...

Palindroman · Post by **Palindroman** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:16 am

mumford wrote:What is the energy consumption of this thing?

Well, yesterday I read something not so convincing about that on a German website.

Power Consumption:
D201GLY2+Samsung HD501LJ (SATA)+1GB DDR2-800 Aeneon
1) 550W LC Power Silent Giant (140mm fan): Idle: 61W; Load (Boinc): 71W
2) 145W Noname PSU (80mm fan): Idle: 54W; Load (Boinc): 66W; Last (3DMark): 68W

Swap that second PSU with a PicoPSU and the Samsung drive with a 2.5" and you're still looking 35-40 watts which I find rather high as you can build 20 watt machines with VIA or micro-ATX (okay, more expensive).

Also the temperatures during benchmarking that were measured with an IR-thermometer don't look very promising:

CPU-Temp.: ~61Â°C
NB-Temp.: ~74Â°C
SB-Temp.: ~39Â°C

The writer rightly questions whether this fanless board would run stable in a case with bad airflow, especially in hot third world countries.

Can anyone confirm these figures?

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 8:33 am

Hmmm, I could believe it. Standard desktop RAM, and SiS chipset I don't think they've gone all-out on the design as far as power-conservation.

I'm actually quite intriqued by the OLPC "give one, get one" thing that's opening up on Monday. I'll probably do it, for the dual-benefit of donating a computer and seeing how it is for myself. From the reading of it, seems like about as low as you go in power-usage without switching to an abacus.

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:30 am

check out this post in a german forum I frequent.
3watts when the board is turned off, 23 watts when turned on (however turned on means in bios I think, but he has no ram yet - if so bios is usually pretty close to full load).

Palindroman · Post by **Palindroman** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:05 pm

klankymen wrote:check out this post in a german forum I frequent.
3watts when the board is turned off, 23 watts when turned on (however turned on means in bios I think, but he has no ram yet - if so bios is usually pretty close to full load).

From that picture I can tell that he's not measuring from the wall, but somewhere between a PicoPSU and an AC/DC adapter. Would that make any difference?

vimaxus · Post by **vimaxus** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:41 pm

Any idea if the cpu it can handle 720p?

Google-ing revealed very little information. I understand it has a lower freq that the first one but faster.. ok I can live with that but I intend to use it as a media pc in spite of only the vga output so I need it to decode 720p (1080 would be ideal).

floffe · Post by **floffe** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:15 pm

MPEG2 720p might be possible, but certainly not any more demanding codec.

yama · Post by **yama** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 11:34 pm

I was really interested in this board until I heard about the temperatures it gets to. Hell, I could risk 70c on a sempron without a cooling fan and it would probably be a lot faster.