Wanted: mobo recommendation

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 11-29-2003, 02:09 AM

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

I went with the Asus A7N266-VM/AA nForce220D from linuxvoodoo for $75 shipped. It's a uATX (9.6" x 9.6") form factor so it should fit in a fairly small case.

Maybe I just swap-out my mobo for this one? I've never done anything like that. Is it a big deal? How do I know if it'll fit in my old Gateway2000 PC Tower?

TIA,

**rickenbacherus** · 11-30-2003, 06:21 AM

Originally Posted by A. Jorge Garcia

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

I use a Linux router myself but I have bought several Seimens routers from www.pricewatch.com. for $25 shipped. Also the Realtek1839 NIC card always works great w/ Linux- even the cheap ones for $5 shipped.

BTW, what do you mean by a linux router?

TIA,

My first Linux router was a 486 w/ 16M, 2 3com 509b NIC's and a floppy running Coyote Linux 7 or 8 routers later I am using a Compaq small form factor 400Mhz w 128M ram and still using Coyote. They're really alot of fun and you can do alot with them. I've written a how to for adding an LCD display to your router here at Router Design if you're into that sort of thing. I just ssh into it and edit the configuration from there althogh there is a farily nice web based configurator as well, just like the commercial routers only you are using Linux and iptables for security as opposed to some engineers idea of security. Additionally you don't have to wait for a firmware release if a flaw is discovered. I also have a DNS cache onboard and a web server is also a possibility. There are literally dozens of router distros based on floppies, cd's and hdd installs. The beauty of a ram based distro is the same as Knoppix- reboot and it's back. Some people can't justify the cost or noise of the case fans or the space required but for me there is nothing to consider.

**rickenbacherus** · 11-30-2003, 06:33 AM

Originally Posted by A. Jorge Garcia

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

I went with the Asus A7N266-VM/AA nForce220D from linuxvoodoo for $75 shipped. It's a uATX (9.6" x 9.6") form factor so it should fit in a fairly small case.

Maybe I just swap-out my mobo for this one? I've never done anything like that. Is it a big deal? How do I know if it'll fit in my old Gateway2000 PC Tower?

TIA,

I have yet to find a tower that I can't mount a mobo in. The necessary holes may not be there but that's easily resolved w/ a cordless drill. Just add some mounts and you're good to go. Of course the only thing from a Gateway 2000 that would do you any good is the case as the p.s. is way underpowered. I did once have an IBM that was not AT or ATX but something quite proprietary and that would have required some major modification. As long as the 2000 is ATX it should probably work but you might be able to find a case made for a custom pc locally for little or nothing. My case is quite plain. I could care less about winning some beauty contest or impresing the local geeks with a green neon case that looks like something from The Matrix. Since money IS a concern for me I'd rather have good hardware and an ugly case.

**oldgeezer** · 11-30-2003, 08:48 AM

Ricky is correct, almost any old case can be cut to individual needs. There are a few proprietary (Dell, Compaq, Gateway) units to avoid, however, mainly because they have weird/slimline designs. The important feature is that the card slots always have the same relative disposition - this is true for all clones. If cash is a problem, pick an old AT case out of a skip (US: dumpster) and hack it to your taste. Another option is to buy a 'used' ATX case for around £8 + VAT/carriage from Ebuyer. Mostly, the serious metal bashing occurs inside and at the rear, so even a severely modified case looks no worse than usual from the front.
OG.
PS. Returning to topic - Ebuyer is showing a m/b for <£18 [http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...uct_uid=51254]. KT266 may be rubbish, but it can be made to function for mundane applications.

**rickenbacherus** · 11-30-2003, 11:42 PM

Well, it's all assembled save the 1G of RAM which BTW will not be here until Wednesday 12/3/03. It all fit quite nicely with the second psu fan pointing inward toward the cpu. There is about 1/4" clearance between the psu and the very tall Coolermaster hsf combo. Asus did a great job of laying this board out. The power connector is a bit close to the primary IDE channel but it's not a big deal. The CMOS battery and jumpers are buried behind the drive bays but hopefully I'm not in there too often.

It's so roomy not having any pci or agp cards in the way.

Asus also though of the overclocker and put four mounting holes in the mobo around the zif socket. You could mount a massive cooling system on this board.

The nVidia 220D chipset also has it's own little heatsink. It's not that much smaller than those used on the old p133's and such! It too sits out by itself with lots of room for air circulation. I always round my ide cables and tuck everything away nicely so cooling shouldn't be a problem inside. I'm still researching the Asus ipanel under Linux.

There is an update to the manual for the jumpers on this board that is available at the Asus site but it was included with my manual as an inserted page.

**rickenbacherus** · 12-06-2003, 05:06 AM

http://www.ms4me.com came through as promised. IG of Kingston deliverd as promised. Also got RAM cooling fins all for $150. IT booted right up out of the chute. THe CPU was correctly recognized as an XP2200. I booted Overclockix because it has the nforce drivers. It got sound and networking up right away. I had to boot Knoppix to get a proper XF86Config-4 file though. ALso I had to boot w/ nousb on both Knoppix and Overclockix to get them to finish booting. Morphix died just before starting the X server. After installing Overclockix and adding the new XF86Config-4 w/ USB mouse entries USB worked fine. Then I used Kano's nvidia kernel and experimental X install scripts. It took all of about 45 minutes and theat was only because I had to keep refilling the beer mug.

DRI is working and glxgears gets me about 640 FPS. Not blazingly fast but about what you'd expect for an older chipset. The only thing I haven't yet had a chanceto tinker with is the 5.1 audio. I still need to get a proper audio cable for the dvd+rw drive as well. All said I couldn't be happier. I thinkn that the Asus A7N8x may have been a better choice and it has the nforce2 chipset. Of course it certainly isn't hard to add whatever video card you might like to this one.

Next- overclocking

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 12-06-2003, 02:29 PM

Wow, Ricky, you're amazing! This project looks cool. About how much total time and money do you think you invested in this project?

TIA,

**oldgeezer** · 12-06-2003, 03:51 PM

Overclocking is fun! Is your cpu 'locked'? What stepping does it have? What is the default Vcore? You can get the 'wire trick' and painting guides from www.ocinside.de. Will you stick with aircooling? We can help, if you need it.
OG.

**rickenbacherus** · 12-07-2003, 07:04 AM

Originally Posted by A. Jorge Garcia

About how much total time and money do you think you invested in this project?

TIA,

I'd say about $350. Keep in mind however that I'm using my existing keyboard, mouse & 17" monitor. I could get the monitor for $25 used, kb for $5 and the USB cordless mouse for $12 shipped. Let's just make it an even $400 for the whole machine. You could even do it for less. Go a little cheaper on the mobo and 512M RAM should be enough for a normal household pc. That could be $100 saved right there. Of course if you're into RAM intensive applications then maybe not.

For example: You can get an XP1900 for $50 shipped. Add one of the previously mentioned mobo's and for $100 you've got 2 of 3 expensive components. $60-$70 for RAM I see no reason you couldn't build a decent machine for $250-$300.

If you get a mobo that doesn't have everything onboard some of the easiest to add would be:

pci NIC- $5 shipped. Realteks work great w/ Linux as does anything w/ the Tulip driver. Plenty of others too.
pci sound $10 shipped. You can get a good sound card for this money.

I have an older Radeon AGP card that gets about 800fps in glxgears. You could get a GeForce2 MX400 64MB for $33 and a 32M version for $24. There are Radeons for the same money. I'm not really into gaming my self so it isn't a big concern for me to have the fastest graphics card available. As long as it works.

You should be able to run the suggested system w/ a 250W p.s. no problem that you can probably find for free. I am constantly amazed at what I find in old pc's. I have bought $5 or $10 pentium1's and a suprise 20G hdd. Get something in the 300-400Mhz range and you should have a case and powersupply at least. I routinely see all sorts of systems in the Thrifty Nickel, local & Denver paper & other local papers.

Personally I never go out and buy anything that costs more than $50 without doing some seriuous shopping around. Also, there was no hurry as I already had a functioning pc. Time wise I would say very little in actually assembling the machine and quite a bit in looking around for the various parts.

**oldgeezer** · 12-07-2003, 09:17 AM

No good reason to buy any AMD XP cpu below 2400 now that the Duron 1.6 is available mailorder from Europe/Asia! It runs as an XP2200+ (with full cache if L2-4 is closed) at 147GHz. Other folk have clocked this one as high as 203FSB. Newer samples may need their multiplier bridges reconnected. Recommended UK supplier: www.cclcomputers.co.uk - ships overseas.
OG.