DC pharming on the Cheap

[IronBits]

Looking for the cheapest and best for stacking/monster pharm. ;)
BioStar 810LR-XP with
onboard VIDEO, LAN, SOUND, USB
supports
Socket A, ATX for AMD XP/ Athlon/Duron SDRAM,Athlon XP Pc Chip support cpu AMD Athlon XP 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100+/ 2200+ 2400+ AMD & Duron

The above looks about right, does anyone have any experience with this motherboard?
Is the ECS ??? motherboard better/about the same?

OS of choice would be Linux, next Windows98 -- any problems?
Mobo costs about $49, XP2100 runs about $85...
Any comments and suggestions/recommendations/thoughts?

[Paratima]

Not familiar with the one you mention, but I've got a couple of Biostar M7VIG's running now. The 810 sounds like the M7VIG's brother. Mini-ATX, vid/snd/lan/usb, plus it takes either SDR or DDR, which is very handy if you've got old SDRAM sticks hanging around.

Very stackable. They run like rabbits. They've got a BIOS update site. They cost me $60 each, locally. Hard to see a down-side. :p

[TheOtherZaphod]

I think the board you mentioned is a PC-Chips product that only supports SDRAM. It might run just fine, but those are two small strikes against it.

I'd suggest looking at the board Paratima mentioned. It is a KM266 board with dual memory support.

My experience with fully integrated boards (including KM266 and n220 boards) is that the CPUs crank along just fine, but that the memory bandwidth is lower than for comparable boards without the onboard graphics and other toys. For some DC clients that is more of an issue than for others. DF, for instance, seems to like faster memory.

[MrTRS]

Originally posted by Paratima
They run like rabbits.
I just got one of these little bunnies. It booted right up with my ram and cpu.
I'm letting it burn in for a few days running ecc2 with all default settings. I will get around to trying to get it to run a little faster.

Paratima, thanks for the info.
Ray

[Paratima]

Whew! :p Felt like I was on the spot! Hope you like it, Ray.

First thing is the JCLK1 jumper, that I bet you already found. Makes the difference between 100 & 133.

After that, have at it. Very "tweakable".

[dragongoddess]

Originally posted by IronBits
Looking for the cheapest and best for stacking/monster pharm. ;)
BioStar 810LR-XP with
onboard VIDEO, LAN, SOUND, USB
supports
Socket A, ATX for AMD XP/ Athlon/Duron SDRAM,Athlon XP Pc Chip support cpu AMD Athlon XP 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100+/ 2200+ 2400+ AMD & Duron

The above looks about right, does anyone have any experience with this motherboard?
Is the ECS ??? motherboard better/about the same?

OS of choice would be Linux, next Windows98 -- any problems?
Mobo costs about $49, XP2100 runs about $85...
Any comments and suggestions/recommendations/thoughts?

The 810LR is a PCS board. As far as BioSTAR boards go I have several and they work fine. They are great for DC projects since their costs are low. I also have a PCS board. I think its an 830lr. I would have to open the case and take a peek to be sure.

I would suggest that you go with the BIOSTAR M7VIT pro. It can be had at TCWO for 68.00 plus free shipping. The board can handle DDR 400 memory and up to a BARTON 3000. It has onboard sound and LAN. Throw in a cheap vid card and start crunching