Do you know of a motherboard that meets these requirements?

[lowrider]

I'm going to build a computer that will mostly be used as a server, but may also be used to play games once in a while. The goals of this system are that it is 1)small and 2)quiet.
I'm having a lot of trouble finding a good motherboard that meets my needs.

Here are the requirements:

MicroATX
Socket370 (needs to support a 900 MHz Celeron)
3 PCI or 2 PCI and built in LAN (other 2 PCI slots will be for modem and HomePNA card)
Built in video and sound
AGP Port
ATA100

What's really making this difficult is finding a board that has built in video and an AGP slot. The plan is to upgrade to an AGP card later, but I suppose I could skip on the "built in video" requirement.

Here's a link to a possible solution...
http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/p6vxm2.htm

If you know of any others please post them!!! Also post a link to where I can buy one. I have found a couple suitable motherboards but can't find them for sale on-line anywhere.

Thanks

-Low

[Kuasimodem]

Here's a few different brands (http://www.directron.com/audiovideo.html) at pretty decent prices.

If you're not going to do any overclocking, I'd go with one of the Intel boards, like this one (http://www.directron.com/d815eea2.html).

OOPS! you wanted MicroATX, then go with this one (http://www.directron.com/d815efvl.html).

[lowrider]

I forgot a requirement. I don't want to spend more than $100 on the motherboard.

I notice that for a lot of boards it says they support PIII up to 1GHz and Celeron up to 766 MHz. If a board can support a 100 MHz FSB PIII, why can't it support a 100 MHz Celeron, or can it?

[Peter M]

Then how 'bout one from the company that specializes in low cost true all-in-ones?

http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M779MR.html

Uses SiS 630S chipset, has AGP and three PCI, onboard 4-channel C-Media 8738 PCI sound w/ modem riser (blocks out one PCI).

Supports Coppermines with up to 133 MHz CPU bus.

regards, Peter

[Peter M]

... and in all-in-one-ness, this one can't be beat.

http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M810LMR.html

Has AGP, two PCI, graphics, sound and 10/100 LAN onboard (!), and AMR V.90 modem riser included. SiS 730S chipset. Latest revision v5.x even has 4-channel sound.

It's a Duron/Athlon board, so it's only useful to you if you don't have that Celeron already. Consider it.

regards, Peter

[otheos]

Peter

are you sure (have you seen one) the 810LMR has an AGP slot? I think it's missing (but cannot tell from the picture of your link). I know the 730S chipset has AGP 4x graphics but the absence of an AGP slot limits upgradabuility.

If it has an AGP slot, I will buy one NOW for a second linux box (with a $35 Duron 700).

[lowrider]

Peter, the M779MR looks like the board I need, but does it support 800 MHz Celerons and higher? It says "Celeron 266~700MHz CPUs".

I don't have a Celeron yet and I'm even more of an AMD fan, but in this case, AMD doesn't have anything to offer that fits my needs except maybe the K6-2's or K6-3's.
My reason for deciding to go with a Celeron is that it can be used with a 150W PSU. I wouldn't want to try running a Duron with that amount of power!!!

Do you have any links to sites that sell the M779MR???

Thanks

-Low

[Peter M]

otheos, M810LMR from revision v1.6 up potentially have an AGP slot (it might still be left out for certain OEMs). We're at v5.0 right now, so any board lying on a retailer shelf right now should have it.

lowrider, I'd also not run a Celeron-900 on such a wimpy PSU. Re the M779, it should run Celeron-900 since the -700 capability already indicates it knows about FCPGA Celerons; 100 MHz bus capability is there as well.

For REALLY low power consumption, try 787CLR. This thing has VGA, sound and LAN onboard (VIA PLE133+686B chipset plus a Realtek LAN chip), accepts (or even includes, dunno) an AMR V.90 modem card, and then still leaves you with 3 PCI or 2 PCI/1 ISA (!). No AGP slot however.
But, that's the sick part, it comes with a CPU - a 667 MHz VIA C3. Lowest power consumption of any desktop CPU currently, with little cooling requirements.

http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M787CLR.html

Or go with a 779 and a faster VIA C3 CPU, best one of those brandnew ones that have L2 cache and are made on .13 micron manufacturing. PC-Chips's current boards are ready for these, and you might not even need a CPU fan.

As to where to buy all that stuff in your part of the world, no idea.

regards, Peter

[otheos]

Thanks for the info Peter,

I just ordered an 810LMR (I hope it comes with AGP slot).

I am going to install RH7.1 on it. Have you got any pointers for supported hardware?

[mudoggy]

OOps.. already covered, but sometimes repitition is good:

At the bottom of the above 810LMR link, the fine print says:

** After PCB V1.6 , this mainboard provides an optional AGP4x slot. We recommend the user should use one of the AGP VGA cards that we have tested. We will test more AGP VGA cards in the future.

Model Chipset Memory Manufacture
3D Blaster GeForce 32M Creative CT6940
ATI PERMEDIA2 8M WinFast 3D L2300
GeForce 256 32M ASUS V6600
GeForce 2 MX 32M ASUS AGP-V7100
GeForce 2 GTS DDR 32M ASUS AGP-7700D
GeForce 2 GTS DDR 32M ELSA GLADIAC
GeForce 2 GTs 32M WinFast
GeForce 2 MX 32M WinFast
Matrox Productiva G100 8M Matrox
Matrox Millennium G200 8M TAGRAM
NVIDIA GeForce 256 DDR 32M AUSU V6800
NVIDIA GeForce 256 32M Creative CT6970
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Vanta 32M Top solution
RIVA TNT2 M64 16M PixelView
RIVA TNT 16M WinFast 3D S320
RIVA TNT2 32M AUSU AGP-V3800
RIVA TNT2 32M Creative CT6810

***
We'll see which one you get! Good luck!

[Peter M]

Well, the 810 unsurprisingly is all-SiS.

So, Linux support ...

SiS 730 AGP - supported in kernel 2.4.9
SiS 5513 IDE - supported
SiS 7001 USB - supported in 2.4.x
SiS 900 LAN - supported
SiS 730 graphics - supported in XFree 4.1.0 (driver is still very young)
SiS 7018 audio - supported in kernel OSS, ALSA support absent as yet.
PCTel AMR modem on SiS modem engine - unclear, a pctel.o module exists, but there needs to be an engine driver as well.

regards, Peter

[otheos]

other than the 2.4.9 kernel support for the AGP I guess I'll do fine, since I will not be using the PCtel modem anyway (and will only upgrade to a different AGP card later). I don't want to recompile the kernel (at least not for now). I just need to set this up for a medium size server, but I need X so I guess I will have to upgrade XFree.


Thanks for the help and sorry for taking this OT.

[otheos]

This is what I ordered:

PC Chips 810lmr V7.0 266Fsb Socket A Video/Sound/Lan/Modem
mfr #:*MB-810/V7.0


Peter, you said we're at v5.0 now, so what's with v7.0?

[lowrider]

Otheos, where did you order the board from and how much was it? When you get it setup and running please let me know how you like it. I've found a few MicroATX cases that will fit a standard ATX power supply so I might be able to build a small Duron system afterall.

I'm still taking suggestions for microatx boards. :)

[otheos]

Ebuyer.com (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=27187) in the UK.

They also have 300W PSU's for £19inc.

[davesdynamite]

Otheos/Peter/anyone else,
Have you been able to get the AMR modem to work?
(on PcChips M810LMR mb)

I just got one of these boards, but the PC Tel AMR modem hasn't been able to work, .. driver installed okay, but then it says that modem isn't responding..

Just wondering if you've had any issues with this.
(I'll try posting in tech support too)
Thanks,
dave

[lowrider]

dave, I don't have that board, but maybe you need to enable the modem in the BIOS.

-low

[lowrider]

Here's a review of the ECS K7SEM. http://www.socketa.com/reviews/ecs/k7sem/

I think this is the same board as the M810LMR.

[otheos]

Something to think about there but SocketA.com has the poorest reviews on the web (same goes for AMDZone).

While it's worth taking notice of the issues, I won't take their word for it. I don't mean to be harsh on them but having read their other reviews, I don't trust them at all.

More to that, they alwasy manage to completely miss the point of the review. What has quake to do with a microATX board? Where is the discussion about the onboard LAN/Modem/Sound/Video in terms of useability? This board is an office board not a gaming one (nor an overclocking one).

Maybe this is the worst board out there but this was a good oportunity for me to say what I think about these two sites (as far as reviews are concerned).

Two examples:

Duron 1000 (Morgan) -> downclocked to 933 (7x133) and compared with overclocked Spitfile and T-Bird at 933. This is the first 1G budget CPU! What were they thinking?

Radeon AIW with respective Geforce (tuner/capture) -> only quake/half life test! These cards are more that GFX cards! Where are the capture abilities (format, size, codecs) TV/DVD/Video quality, TV out setup/quality. Again completely missed the point.

And this motherboard review is one more of these examples.

Sorry for the OT but I was looking for a good oportunity to say something about these people.

[lowrider]

Hey, no need to apologize. I wasn't implying that the board isn't good. That was just the only review I found. I need a board for the same reason as you (a server) but I'd like to be able to play games on it occasionally. The M810LMR probably isn't the board for me. Should suit your needs perfectly though.