Finally a Mini-ITX that can

MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
edited August 2008 in Hardware
I got one of these last week: http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/D945GCLF/index.htm

Got it for $69 bucks from the Egg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121342

Slammed in a 2GB-667 DDR2 stick and it really turned out to be a hot little machine. It has the new Intel 1.6GHz Atom processor which is hyperthreading and draws a whole 4 WATTS! This board with a DVD burner, 250GB Sata 2 hard drive draws about 14 watts. Almost no heat at all. It boots XP in about 20 Seconds. I ran Orthos on it for 16 hours. No hiccups at all and the heat sinks were still cool to touch. (There is a fan on the chipset, but not the cpu). It has DX9C video, but I wouldn't play Crysis on it. I am using it as a file server, teamspeak server, and a UT3 dedicated server. We had 4 guys playing on the server and 10 BOTS on a dozen or so maps. All smooth as glass.

I spent a whole $109 bucks for everything. It ain't a powerhouse, but it is surprisingly powerful for a 6.75 inch square motherboard. A great "E-Machine" or kids machine. It surfs the web and emails like a champ. Opens most apps as fast as my "BIG" machine. I replaced a 201GLY with a 1.3 Celeron in it cause it was making my room too hot. Not anymore and I get to save a bit on the electric bill too.

I'm totally amazed since 11 of these processors will fit in a penny. If you're looking for a good little board, give this one a shot. You can always say you are doing your part to Go Green and save the planet :bigggrin:

Comments

  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited June 2008
    Cool deal. I'd love to see more pix of it all together.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited June 2008
    That's just what I've been looking for to replace my aging PIII dually webserver.
  • bullzisniprbullzisnipr Topeka, KS
    edited June 2008
    This is EXACTLY what i was looking for. Im really glad you found this and posted it. My plan is to integrate a PC into my Jeep with a 250GB 2.5" Sata HD mainly for music and have a TV-Out for tailgating and events like that. Also, since i want to outfit it for storm chasing this would be perfect to integrate a touchscreen for radar via a mobile broadband chip.

    But i guess i could take the easy way out and mount my laptop in there, but where's the fun in that? :D

    Sweet find though man. Have fun building!
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited June 2008
    Looks very interesting... Show some pics!!!
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited July 2008
    what case did you use ?

    Tex
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    OMG TEX!
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    There's a really good review on Newegg. Check out this folding data from it:
    Ran Folding (notfred's boot CD) and got 67.4 points per day (ppd) using 34 Watts, for a score of 1.98 points per watt (ppw). The Folding CD runs both 32 and 64 bit benchmarks using the Amber, Tinker, Gromacs, and Gromacs 3.3 protein folding algorithms. Pentium M 1.73GHz got 100.3 ppd with 39 Watts (ppw = 2.57). Compare this to VIA C7 1.5GHz folding 27.8 ppd using 37 Watts (ppw 0.75). Core 6400 got 282ppd at 120 Watts (ppw 2.35). AMD Opteron got 244ppd at 133 Watts (ppw 1.84). So Atom's ppw of 2 is very good compared to VIA C7 of 0.75. I also ran nbench and other CPU tests, and everything correlated well with the Folding results.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited July 2008
    I was just about to jump on one of these for a home brew nas :) Great little board
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    If you get one Mike, do a story on it. We need a homebrew NAS article. Lots of us have old parts lying around that might work well in that environment.
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    Wonder what games u could play on this?
  • edited July 2008
    They have a guy on the OCForums Seti team running one of those and it's putting out more ppd than a P3 1.4S server chip. Great bang/buck/watt setup. :thumbsup:
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    Well I'm sorry it took so long, but I've been a might overworked. Did 2 Win2K3R2 servers and a 2K8 Domain master in 3 different companies in the last 2 weeks. Here's a few pics of the little fellow. One to see the scale of it and a few of it mounted in my big old Mozart TX case. Forgive the mess because cable management wasn't even started yet.

    It is still just humming along. One thing to take note of, the small heatsink is the cpu and the one with the fan is the chipset :) Just a bit upside down.
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    Last 2 pics.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    Wow, that looks great! That is a huuuuuge case :P

    If that had a PCI-express slot on it I would probably bite and use it in my upcoming server box :\
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    Yeah it is a big case, but I really like it. Had to stock up on 36 inch sata & ide cables, but otherwise I love the room. I originally had a Koolance water cooling system and was gonna move a built up water cooling rig into the case, but dropped the idea when the new cpus don't really run near as hot anymore. Had a bunch more pics when I bought it in this thread http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55617

    Everybody has there own idea of a case and I like BIG things :bigggrin:
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Well I just ordered this along with a $60 Mini ITX case off newegg for one of my dad's new workstations - hopefully it will work out well.

    Should help on the power bill too :D

    cheers
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited August 2008
    That thing with the fan on it is the processor.
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    That thing with the fan is NOT the processor. I have the board. See diagram below:

    Note the position of item F - Processor
    11
    Table 2. Desktop Boards DG945GCLF Components
    Label Description
    A PCI bus add-in card connector
    B Front panel audio header
    C Back panel connectors
    D 12 V processor core voltage connector (2 x 2)
    E Rear fan (3-pin) header
    F Processor
    G DDR 2 DIMM connector
    H Main power connector (2 x 10)
    I IDE connector
    J Serial ATA connectors (2)
    K Front panel header
    L Battery
    M BIOS configuration jumper
    N Hi-speed USB 2.0 header


  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited August 2008
    I know its weird but all the info I have is thats the chipset not the cpu with the fan...

    So I know Missleman used a huge case. I need a GOOD tiny case to hold one dvd and one HD plus MB. So come on you guys that research this stuff a lot... Whats the cool/hot looking mini ITX case these days??

    Thanks

    Tex
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited August 2008
    Oh..I could've sworn that was the processor. Sorry guys.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    IT it only had to pci slots for dedicated network cards it would be an awesome gateway.
  • DummyDummy Australia
    edited August 2008
    OK ...this has absolutely nothing to do with your thread ..I'm new here and as my name suggests I need help. My first port of call on this site was to post a new thread ...but I just cant find the "Post a New Thread" button anywhere and I have looked high and low. Read all the stuff at the beginning which told me to press the "New Thread" button ...but I'm such a Dummy I cant find it.
    PLEEEEEEESE help me!
    Your ever grateful friend...I hope
    Dummy:(
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited August 2008
    Here you go.
    newthread.jpg
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