Intel D201GLY: cheap, low power mini-ITX

wsc · Post by **wsc** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:52 pm

Intel's D201GLY is starting to show up around the web. The board is sold with a 1.33Ghz Celeron soldered on for only $77. The board seems pretty limited in capability, but for the price, there are plenty of interesting things to do with it. Supposedly the whole board consumes 27 watts... Does anyone have one of these things yet? I'd love to see what the BIOS looks like and some actual power figures.

murtoz · Post by **murtoz** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:58 pm

I've seen the board itself and it looks pretty cute. Not actually seen it running so can't say on the bios options, but they appear to be documented here

Oh and be aware it uses DDR2 laptop memory (240 pin).

wsc · Post by **wsc** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:56 pm

It is DDR2 but I believe its regular DIMM and not SO-DIMM used in laptops...

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:09 pm

That little fan attached to the heatsink looks noisy. One would probably need to be up on duct-fu to make a near silent system out of this.

anaqer · Post by **anaqer** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:41 am

According to wikipedia, that 27W figure is the TDP for the processor alone.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:50 am

Looks very good for the price. Only one IDE port seems kind of limited, though. I know it's a low-end board, but one or two SATA ports would've been nice.

EDIT: 27w TDP isn't bad at all IMO considering this probably outperforms Via's C7 based boards many times over. Also looks like the 65nm ULV Celerons at 5.5w TDP and run 1200MHz 0.975V max. I don't see why you couldn't run the Celeron in this board at 1.0V or so and and effectively have a processor w/TDP 7-8 watts that kills any Via CPU out there.

In this case one could probably just rip the CPU fan off as well and call it good.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:51 am

Also looks like the 65nm ULV Celerons at 5.5w TDP and run 1200MHz 0.975V max. I don't see why you couldn't run the Celeron in this board at 1.0V

if I am not mistaken the CPU is soldered on so you cannot change it. Also the BIOS appears to have no CPU voltage options so you cannot undervolt the CPU (no speedstep either). IMO cheapest AM2 Sempron + undervoltable mobo (for example: AM2 Semp 3K + ECS mobo $70) will give similar results with more flexibility and only slightly larger dimensions.

dougz · Post by **dougz** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:30 am

IMO cheapest AM2 Sempron + undervoltable mobo (for example: AM2 Semp 3K + ECS mobo $70) will give similar results with more flexibility and only slightly larger dimensions.

I'm with you on the Sempron part, but ECS/PC Chips mobos are simply not of the same quality as Intel mobos (or most first & second tier makers).

Almost any other low-end mobo would be a better bet.

pipperoni · Post by **pipperoni** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:11 am

jaganath wrote:if I am not mistaken the CPU is soldered on so you cannot change it. Also the BIOS appears to have no CPU voltage options so you cannot undervolt the CPU (no speedstep either). IMO cheapest AM2 Sempron + undervoltable mobo (for example: AM2 Semp 3K + ECS mobo $70) will give similar results with more flexibility and only slightly larger dimensions.

"Slightly" would be a bit of an understatement considering a mATX board is twice as big. If you have the space for an mATX board, by all means go that route instead as you get a much wider selection of parts and features.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:31 am

apart from a carpc, I fail to see what application would be severely compromised by the mATX's extra 7cm along each side.

bean1975 · Post by **bean1975** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:31 pm

That CPU cooler looks much like a chipset cooler. I wonder whether a NHP-2200, a HR-05 or similar beast would fit and would be enough.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:50 pm

jaganath wrote:
Also looks like the 65nm ULV Celerons at 5.5w TDP and run 1200MHz 0.975V max. I don't see why you couldn't run the Celeron in this board at 1.0V
if I am not mistaken the CPU is soldered on so you cannot change it. Also the BIOS appears to have no CPU voltage options so you cannot undervolt the CPU (no speedstep either). IMO cheapest AM2 Sempron + undervoltable mobo (for example: AM2 Semp 3K + ECS mobo $70) will give similar results with more flexibility and only slightly larger dimensions.

You may very well be correct. I assumed since Wikipedia listed a variable voltage (1.0-1.3V) that it supports EIST, but a quick Google search did not bring anything up to prove or disprove this, so I dunno. Assuming it does support EIST, one should be able to lower voltage to 1.0V in Windows using RMClock or similar software.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:05 pm

Assuming it does support EIST, one should be able to lower voltage to 1.0V in Windows using RMClock or similar software.

AFAIAA no Celerons have speedstep; this is partly why they are cheaper than the Pentium or Yonah cores on which they are based.

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 11:21 pm

Speedstep is not that important if C1E is implemented given that the system idles a lot. Some Celerons have C1E.

dougz · Post by **dougz** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 3:12 am

Is there a mini-ITX case that could take this board, along with a full-size PCI card, one internal 3.5 inch drive and one external 3.5 inch drive?

At minimum, I could skip the external, but I want PCI. Also, it looks like you'd want some height for the fan to disperse air with low impedence.

Looking for a small home server. This and the DTX mobos are my favorites. They appear to have height issues with coolers too.

pipperoni · Post by **pipperoni** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 6:01 am

jaganath wrote:apart from a carpc, I fail to see what application would be severely compromised by the mATX's extra 7cm along each side.

Then you must equally fail to see why anyone would bother with mATX over standard ATX. mATX only buys you 6cm in one direction.

Bartender · Post by **Bartender** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:03 pm

These guys have the board and did a power consumption test
http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-D201GLY-M ... 8Ta38Lc350

Bartender · Post by **Bartender** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:05 pm

Would some of you guys buy this board and test it out for Linux compatibility?

I'm a little nervous about the SIS chipset

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:48 pm

i have it on order but i don't think i'd be installing linux on it yet, sry m8

there could be some software solutions for undervolting, like for laptops; we just have to try it...

Inspector 2211 · Post by **Inspector 2211** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 7:00 am

I got this board a few days ago from eWiz. In the meantime, many dealers have it in stock.

The fan is quiet and the board runs Linux both from a harddisk and from a USB flash stick.
I could not, however, get the board boot from my external USB-CDROM drive.
It is not suitable for 1U applications since the heatsink+fan is way too high.

Judging from changing pages in the BIOS screens, the board feels "slow". I'd bet it is still faster than anything VIA has to offer in the miniITX form factor. I haven'd done any real benchmarks yet, however.
Would be interesting to pit this 1.33 GHz board against a 2.0 GHz VIA C7 board, which is not available from VIA itself but from 3rd party manufacturers.

Bartender · Post by **Bartender** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 9:31 am

Which Linux distros did you try out?
So, even in BIOS responses to keystrokes seemed sluggish? Bummer

sea2stars · Post by **sea2stars** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 2:02 pm

Whats with the One S-Video output port (optional), that I've seen listed on www.mini-itx.com? It's shown in one of their images of the board, but I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere online. I'm thinking of picking this board up and having a way to output to a TV would be nice.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:03 pm

Interesting board. Didn't Intel make a processor/board for the developing countries called the "Shelton"? Maybe this is the US version of that.

If the processor could run passive I would switch from my Epia EN12000 in a heartbeat. But then again, maybe not, since the Intel board only has a 100mbps NIC whereas the EN12000 has a 1GB NIC.

Someone in this forum asked about application of such a board. I can answer that - A low power consumption board like a mini-ITX can be used to build a file server or PVR server that can be left running 24/7. I built such a system based on the fanless Epia EN12000. I put a 500GB WD ATA drive and a Hauppauge 500MCE dual-tuner TV card into this small case (http://www.logicsupply.com/products/2699b). For cooling I ripped out the noisy dual 40mm fans and placed a 80mm fan inside running at low RPM. It's virtually silent.

This Intel board with some teeth opens up some possibilities.

mellon · Post by **mellon** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 9:57 pm

Inspector 2211 wrote: Judging from changing pages in the BIOS screens, the board feels "slow".

I don't think it is possible to judge the performace of a computer by the snappiness of the BIOS. At work I use CPUs ranging from old 233MHz Geodes to 1,4GHz Pentiums and the BIOS speeds fell more or less equal. Which is of course to be expected since the BIOS does not consume any significant resources.

All in all, most likely the issue is related to a hasty implementation of some BIOS feature, perhaps the screen redraws are only done in tandem with sensor polling or something.

Max Slowik · Post by **Max Slowik** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:47 pm

ECS/PC Chips mobos are simply not of the same quality as Intel mobos (or most first & second tier makers)

Wikipedia is down, so I can't fact-check this, but I'm pretty sure ECS is one of the largest board manufacturers in the world. They're like Foxconn--they make boards for Asus and MSI, boards that get re-branded after ECS makes 'em. If memory serves, they make Intel's boards.

Max Slowik · Post by **Max Slowik** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:50 pm

Sluggish BIOS functionality can be a sign of underlying hardware problems. Not always, but I've noticed it in computers with blown caps as well as bussing irregularities.

yschandra · Post by **yschandra** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:06 am

Can any one tell me what is the height of the CPU cooler on this board?

Subhash

yschandra · Post by **yschandra** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:07 am

yschandra wrote:Can any one tell me what is the height of the CPU cooler on this board?

Subhash

Actually I am planning to use it in Silver Stone LC-9 case (http://silverstonetek.com/products/p_sp ... 9&area=usa), however that appears to be a problem.

Is Silver Stone LC-12 (http://silverstonetek.com/products/p_sp ... 2&area=usa) is good enough for this board?

Subhash

line · Post by **line** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 5:53 pm

Saw this thread on AnandTech: Intel D201GLY Board - My Experience by sprockkets

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:15 am

huh, not much interest in it, is there?

has any one gotten it yet ('cept me, of course

)?

Intel D201GLY: cheap, low power mini-ITX

Intel D201GLY: cheap, low power mini-ITX

Works just fine under Linux and the fan is very quiet

Re: Works just fine under Linux and the fan is very quiet