i915GMm-HFS - Aopen desktop Alviso (PCie) board

Pakkapakka · **Joined:** Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:26 am **Posts:** 36

Akiba page (japanese):
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/ho ... 15gmm.html

Aopen Japan product page (babelfish link):
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfis ... m-hfs.html

Press release, some pictures (babelfish link):
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfis ... m-hfs.html

Interesting points:
-Both 2X DDR1 slots and 2x DDR2 slots
-Doth DVI and analog VGA (with luck both can be connected, GMA 900 supports this IIRC)

tay · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:40 am

very nice. Now they need to charge $150 for these things rather than 250. Akibahara district owns for new shit.

Pakkapakka · **Joined:** Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:26 am **Posts:** 36

Availability is March/April it seems.

I'm tempted to buy this one, since the Turion Athlon64s are expected to appear only towards (the end of) June. Perhaps some reports of actual power consumption data will be available some time before.

Can anyone identify all the ports on the AOpen board?
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/ho ... nhfs2.html

sthayashi · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:30 am

Whoa, it's the dream motherboard for HTPCs. It has built-in DVI, VGA, Component AND HDMI.

I want one. Preferably AFTER I get a nice new HDTV.
EDIT: For PakkaPakka
It looks like 7.1 audio output (maybe?), VGA, DVI, Component, either PS/2 or S-Video (I can never remember), HDMI, 2xEthernet, and 4xUSB. Not counting internal headers of course.

Pakkapakka · **Joined:** Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:26 am **Posts:** 36

sthayashi wrote:

EDIT: For PakkaPakka
It looks like 7.1 audio output (maybe?), VGA, DVI, Component, either PS/2 or S-Video (I can never remember), HDMI, 2xEthernet, and 4xUSB. Not counting internal headers of course.

Thanks sthayashi, I've never seen a HDMI connector to this day. Wonder if the AOpen board can provide sound through the HDMI interface...
Btw, are there any HDMI->DVI convertors on the market?

For me this is also the first mainboard to see without the typical legacy connector group: no serial, no parallel, no ps/2. I guess now I'll have to buy one of these PS2->USB converters to attach my MS Internet keyboard...

Looking at the product spec page a bit more it seems that the board has onboard Firewire (400mbps I guess) and serial headers.

Can anyone figure out what kind of heatsink retention mechanism is used? Is seems smaller than the old (i855GME-LFS) P4 mechanism...

tay · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:33 pm

sthayashi wrote:

Whoa, it's the dream motherboard for HTPCs. It has built-in DVI, VGA, Component AND HDMI.

No optical or coax which is surprising. HDMI is lousy. It buys you nothing over DVI (other than the crappy integrated sound) and is DRM encumbered.

Mats · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:51 pm

sthayashi wrote:

Can anyone figure out what kind of heatsink retention mechanism is used? Is seems smaller than the old (i855GME-LFS) P4 mechanism...

Since the hole placement is in a square I can only guess socket T. In a way it seems logical since the last board had socket 478, though I think they could have kept it that way. Theres no reason for a rectangular shape when the socket T is square shaped, anything else is waste of space... and they can't afford that.

Wait, it looks smaller than socket T. (Maybe we'll find socket 370 lugs, making it even more P3!!! Just buy a SI-97! Yeah right... just kidding)

Yeahyeah, both DDR & DDR2 slots, but still no 400MHz DDR support!!! LOL!!! :lol:

Well that's also a way to make DDR2 look better (by eliminateing the rival). The reason is of course that we're dealing with a mobile chipset, DDR2 draws less power. They kept DDR support just for those cheap laptops.

Edit: Or is the 533 MHz support for DDR too?

Mats · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 4:01 pm

I guess DFI's new mobo will show up really soon. Anandtech mentioned that it would use a desktop chipset (=cheaper?) but I think they wrote it before people knew that the mobile one was called 915 as well, so it was probably some misunderstanding somewhere.

It looks like the heatsink is just as wide as an IDE connector which is almost 60 mm (it is not socket T).... maybe a Zalman 7000 will fit with the clip in diagonal? :lol:

Otherwise I'll have to start up the CNC machine...

..wait, I don't have the mobo yet.

sthayashi · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:00 pm

tay wrote:

sthayashi wrote:

Whoa, it's the dream motherboard for HTPCs. It has built-in DVI, VGA, Component AND HDMI.

No optical or coax which is surprising. HDMI is lousy. It buys you nothing over DVI (other than the crappy integrated sound) and is DRM encumbered.

There's S/PDIF IN?!?!?! WTF? That means that one of those audio connectors is an optical connector. But why would you want that to be an input when clearly everything else is oriented for a home theater platform?

Any word yet on the price, either here or in Japan?

tay · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:04 pm

I am confused with your post sthayashi.

Could you please clarify :wink:

sthayashi · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:13 pm

tay wrote:

I am confused with your post sthayashi.

Could you please clarify :wink:

On the translated spec page, down by I/O Back Panel, they mention S/PDIF_IN. It's never been clear to me why someone other than an audio professional needs S/PDIF_IN on a computer. S/PDIF is digital and is usually either Coax or Optical.

Optical ports can look just like a normal audio port, which leads me to believe that one of those six audio jacks in the back is one of them. There are actually two kinds of optical ports. The square ones with the tab that you pull out in order to use (Often found on Stereo/Surround receivers). Then there are the audio jack looking ones that are popular on smaller devices. Some sound cards have them as do some MD players (at least the ones I saw when I was actually living in Japan).

tay · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:29 pm

Ahh ok thanks. But that begs the question (actually it doesnt but whatever), wheres the digital out?
I do have an MD player with the optical in that ive never used heh. Anyway thanks for the clarification. This platform has some serious potential and I'll dump AMD/nvidia happily for it if the price isnt stupid like current boards.

grenadier · **Joined:** Sun Dec 14, 2003 10:29 am **Posts:** 52

I wish they would just market a stripped down desktop version of the i915GMm without all these media features, dual LAN, etc. and cut the price down a bit. I've got an audigy 2 and a geforce 6600 w/component out so I don't need any of these extra features.

All I want ouf of sonoma is for someone to offer a cut down board for less than $150 that has a standard 478 or 775 mounting mechanism. Hopefully that's not too much to ask.

sthayashi · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:50 pm

I can't help but wonder if the costs are high due to the chipset being expensive. I'm also wondering if Intel is only selling these chipsets as part of the Centrino package and that these motherboard manufacturers are having to buy Centrino and then throw away the excess.

Either that or they say, "You can buy an Alviso chipset if you buy 100 915P chipsets as well"

Mats · **Posted:** Sun Jan 30, 2005 8:46 pm

grenadier wrote:

I wish they would just market a stripped down desktop version of the i915GMm without all these media features, dual LAN, etc. and cut the price down a bit. I've got an audigy 2 and a geforce 6600 w/component out so I don't need any of these extra features.

All I want ouf of sonoma is for someone to offer a cut down board for less than $150 that has a standard 478 or 775 mounting mechanism. Hopefully that's not too much to ask.

It would be really great if some cheap mobo maker like ASRock made a PM mobo with a regular 865 or 915 chipset. They have already made some really crazy mobos so it wouldn't surprise me. Just because the PM works at such low FSB it would make any regular cheap P4-like mobo enough even for the highest overclocking.

HellDiver · **Joined:** Sat Jan 08, 2005 7:27 am **Posts:** 29

Mats, it'd be impossible, as it's a totally different bus spec.

Mats · **Posted:** Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:13 am

HellDiver wrote:

Mats, it'd be impossible, as it's a totally different bus spec.

No, it's not. Yes the sockets have different pinouts but that's another story. I'm not talking about using a regular P4 mobo, just a cheap regular P4 chipset. There are already such solutions (PM with P4 chipset) although that's server solutions (I think it was a 75xx chipset made for P4/Xeon).

Edit: Another example is the new DFI mobo for PM based on the 852 chipset which is made for mobile P4.

Mats · **Posted:** Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:42 am

Here's the PM server board with a Xeon chipset. Block diagram:

Speaking of odd Intel combinations: The ASUS 875 mobo for dual Xeons.

Pakkapakka · **Joined:** Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:26 am **Posts:** 36

sthayashi wrote:

Whoa, it's the dream motherboard for HTPCs. It has built-in DVI, VGA, Component AND HDMI.

I want one. Preferably AFTER I get a nice new HDTV.
EDIT: For PakkaPakka
It looks like 7.1 audio output (maybe?), VGA, DVI, Component, either PS/2 or S-Video (I can never remember), HDMI, 2xEthernet, and 4xUSB. Not counting internal headers of course.

I am not an expert in these matters, but it appears that the small D connector is not HDMI but the Japan-specific "D-Terminal" video connector.

I'd love to be proven wrong though..

sthayashi · **Posted:** Fri Feb 04, 2005 11:01 am

Pakkapakka wrote:

I am not an expert in these matters, but it appears that the small D connector is not HDMI but the Japan-specific "D-Terminal" video connector.

I'd love to be proven wrong though..

I don't think you will be. I've never looked at HDMI very carefully, and the D-Terminal looks vaguely like HDMI, but not quite. Have a look at HDMI yourself.

Pakkapakka · **Joined:** Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:26 am **Posts:** 36

sthayashi wrote:

Pakkapakka wrote:

I am not an expert in these matters, but it appears that the small D connector is not HDMI but the Japan-specific "D-Terminal" video connector.

I'd love to be proven wrong though..

I don't think you will be. I've never looked at HDMI very carefully, and the D-Terminal looks vaguely like HDMI, but not quite. Have a look at HDMI yourself.

After having a look at pictures of both D-terminal and HDMI, it seems very likely that the connector is D-terminal.
The babelfish translation also outputs the connector as "D terminal output".

sthayashi · **Posted:** Thu Mar 03, 2005 12:48 pm

Late news, but here's what The Register has to say

The Register wrote:

Motherboard maker AOpen has followed up its recent Pentium M-based desktop board with a new model equipped with the latest generation of Centrino technology.

Like its predecessor, the i915GM-FHS is pitched at desktop machines being developed for low-noise roles, such as living room PCs. The new model uses Intel's 915GM chipset, which supports a 533MHz frontside bus speed Pentium M CPU.

The board relies on the chipset's integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 900 engine for video, but there's a PCI Express x16 slot for the addition a more powerful graphics card. There are x PCI Express x1 slot and a pair of PCI slots for further expansion.

AOpen has included two Serial ATA and two Serial ATA II ports for internal storage, along with an Ultra ATA/100 link. The board provides two DIMM slots, a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports, two Firewire ports and eight USB 2.0 sockets.

The i915GM-HFS is due to ship early March for around $300

dago · **Posted:** Mon Apr 04, 2005 11:32 pm

Ok, seems I miss this topic and I post a duplicate :oops:

(I swear, I searched for "aopen i915" before posting).
:arrow:

sthayashi, you can delete the other one.

Still, I've got a small informative news : the street price is 104€

I guess the remaining price problem with centrino is now the CPU, but all in all, you can have something for less than 300€.

Additional links :
Connectors
English product page

I also guess the "D connector" (D-Terminal) is also known as "DFP-20". [/url]

egghat · **Joined:** Fri Mar 07, 2003 5:38 am **Posts:** 73

Street price is 240 Euros (~300 USD) in Germany (http://www.geizhals.at/eu/). Where have you seen it for 104 (that would be less than half the German price)? I'm quite sure that 104 Euro is an error.

Btw. both dealers, that claim to have these boards already are notoric liars. They always claim to have all the things available that noone else has (and then in the end, they can't deliver as well).

Bye egghat.

dago · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:03 am

Indeed, the price was too good to be true

It was a mistake with another i915-based card from aopen.

The card name has been updated, and not new s479 one in their catalog.

SpHeRe31459 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:11 am

Pakkapakka wrote:

sthayashi wrote:

EDIT: For PakkaPakka
It looks like 7.1 audio output (maybe?), VGA, DVI, Component, either PS/2 or S-Video (I can never remember), HDMI, 2xEthernet, and 4xUSB. Not counting internal headers of course.

Thanks sthayashi, I've never seen a HDMI connector to this day. Wonder if the AOpen board can provide sound through the HDMI interface...
Btw, are there any HDMI->DVI convertors on the market?

Guys that isn't HDMI, it is a Japanese standard called "D terminal" it is a way to send a Hi-Def RGB signal. You can see it mentioned in the 3rd link provided (the PR material). A bunch of AOpen's graphics cards have this too. A few weeks back I noticed this Abit Radeon and saw the mention of the "D Connector" I spent quite some time trying to figure out what it was.

HDMI's connector looks a bit different.

vdorta · **Joined:** Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:39 pm **Posts:** 26

For TV it has both component (as good as HDMI) and S-video, plus DVI output for a monitor.

I'm starting from zero to build my first computer and now this board is my first pick for a small, quiet computer, inside either Aopen's great-looking H360 case or in the In WinV523T, provided the exhaust fan is 92mm, as it looks to be.

i915GMm-HFS - Aopen desktop Alviso (PCie) board

Who is online