From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 16 10:39:22 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3F6E137B401 for ; Fri, 16 May 2003 10:39:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from apollo.backplane.com (apollo.backplane.com [216.240.41.2]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9A85843F85 for ; Fri, 16 May 2003 10:39:21 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dillon@apollo.backplane.com) Received: from apollo.backplane.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by apollo.backplane.com (8.12.9/8.12.6) with ESMTP id h4GHdLVI029774; Fri, 16 May 2003 10:39:21 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dillon@apollo.backplane.com) Received: (from dillon@localhost) by apollo.backplane.com (8.12.9/8.12.6/Submit) id h4GHdLtK029773; Fri, 16 May 2003 10:39:21 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 10:39:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Dillon Message-Id: <200305161739.h4GHdLtK029773@apollo.backplane.com> To: David Raistrick References: <001801c31a5c$dd4b2a30$ada628cb@cmlaptop> cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: RE: Via EPIA Mini-ITX motherboard X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 17:39:22 -0000 I have a bunch of EPIA 5000's, M6000's (the fanless M), and two M9000's. I haven't had any problems, *BUT* I don't use sound or the secondary IDE controller on any of these (except maybe occassionally the sound on my workstation). I'm using an M6000 for my workstation, also diskless boot for the quiet. I consider it 'adequate' as well. Mozilla is a tad slow but still reasonably useable (and I never put less then 512M in these things anyway which helps). The 5000 was definitely too slow as a workstation. The M9000 is far more comfortable but also louder. The case I bundled it with from idot.com has two small fans and I've tried disconnecting them but the cpu gets too hot when there is no airflow at all. It's fairly easy to test the cooling, when you boot into the BIOS and bring up the cpu temperature display the BIOS is obviously doing a tight loop, so its equivalent to 100% cpu load and you can see the effects of various levels of airflow. I have been running two 5000's continuously for several months. One is running an ordb nameserver (continuous network traffic 24x7 at around 50KBytes/sec, uptime 104 days) under freebsd and the other is running linux. Both have small IDE disks. I've had no problems with either of them. Another thing to consider is power use. The DC brick that is typically used with the M6000 and the little 60W supply typically used with the 5000 can't produce what a normal PC power supply can and would probably have issues if you load up the peripherals (e.g. HD, CD, and a high-end video card). Finally, people tracking this thread should keep in mind that the only reason one ever gets these EPIA cards is for (A) quiet and (B) low power usage. If you want something faster even a low-end Intel or AMD based box will beat the EPIAs out hands down. I do most of my work over xterm's and ssh to the machines in my server room. But I like my office to be as quiet as possible. -Matt Matthew Dillon :> Yes, I have had these problems too. And even the HDD controller has :> done some pretty mysterious stuff. : :Mentioning the HDD controllers...I've not used any official Via boards, :but I've had my hands on a few other systems using the EPIA chipsets and :embedded CPUs...(600 and 933 samuel 2s) : :What sort of HDD problems have you seen? : : :I've seen complete system powerdowns related to IDE writes to the :/secondary/ controller when using solidstate flash media. (DOMs and CF) : :We have realtek nics on these, so I cannot comment on the vr drivers. :) : :Our vendor said that Via confirmed problems with the secondary IDE :controller...our vendor wasn't able to get a solution from Via so they :redesigned the board to use the primary IDE controller for the flash. : :I don't know for sure that this applies to the EPIA boards, but it'd be :worth a check if you're using flash media. : : :....david : : :--- :david raistrick :drais@atlasta.net http://www.expita.com/nomime.html