[CentOS] How to select a motherboard -- Intel i865 v. i875

Thu Dec 15 15:54:10 UTC 2005
Bryan J. Smith <thebs413 at earthlink.net>

David Fletcher <centos at fletchersweb.net> wrote:
> I've only put CentOS onto a fanless mini ATX board with an
> Eden chip on it, which works fine.

As I noted in another e-mail, ViA's C3/Eden platforms
typically lag their AMD/Intel chipset offerings.  So by the
time the C3/Eden version of logic comes out, Linux already
has support.

The CLE266 works flawlessly for me -- and I can drive 480p
HDTV video with it (although not 720p).  I haven't tried the
new CN400 yet, let alone the nano-BGA dual-processor C3
option in Mini-ITX.

> But I have installed Fedora onto three home built units
with
> genuine Intel motherboards, model D865PERL, with Seagate
SATA
> drives, which have given me no trouble at all.

Just FYI, if you're interested in stability, choose the Intel
i875.  The i865 roll of the same line as the i875, but do not
test to the tolerances required for the i875.

This pin compatibility led several vendors to introduce an
i865 version of their i875 mainboard design, without
retesting the PCB for the lesser i865.  The most infamous was
the Asus P4P800 using the i865, which used the exact same PCB
as its premium P4C800 with the i875 -- but wasn't nearly as
stable/reliable.

For workstations or servers, spend the extra $100 or 200,
respectively, and get the Intel E7200 or E7500.  World of
difference in I/O.  The latest E7221 for LGA-775 has all the
goodies a single processor server would want -- PCI-X, PCIe
x8, DDR2, etc...


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