From: "Ed Durrant" <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>
Message-ID: <49BACD24.2050706@durrant.mine.nu>
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:16:20 +1100
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To: OS/2 Wireless Users Mailing List <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>
Subject: Re: [OS2Wireless] Re: My experience
References: <list-2359559@2rosenthals.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-2359559@2rosenthals.com>
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I understand where you are coming from. The last board I tried out (an 
ASUS M2N-MX SE Plus) I had to add my X300 Video, Intel Pro/100 NIC and 
SB Live! audio cards as the onboard chips were not supported. Although I 
only bought this board about a month ago, it is an older generation.

My point is that on the latest generation, there appears to be at least 
a little standardisation on NIC and Audio chipsets being used. Hence if 
we can get support for these, it may open up a range of boards that can 
be used. I would expect to still have to add a video card however, but 
one may be lucky with a particular board and Panorama but onboard video 
seems to be something that every manufacturer seems to use a different 
chip on their ranges of MBs.

Cheers/2

Ed.

warp4dennis wrote:
> Ed:
> The fact that eCS is weak in supporting onboard accessories such HDA 
> and LAN influenced my choice for a MB
> with so many PCI slots.   I have tried on several different occasions 
> to make use of the built in LAN connection with eCS
> but the lack of a suitable driver made it necessary for me to use a 
> PCI card.
> Audio with eCS is a hit and miss proposition which probably means I 
> will need to buy yet another PCI or PCI-E card, I haven't decided.
> Then I have a Capture board and a Promise Host adapter. Good thing 
> I've been able to keep my desires under control!
>
> Thomas
>
> Ed Durrant wrote:
>> warp4dennis wrote:
>>> Hi:
>>> FYI:  I'm not one who has got to have the newest 'what-ever'.  It 
>>> may have something to do with being from
>>> a not very well off family when growing up.  I was taught how to 
>>> save by buying at discount stores.  My mother
>>> would sew material from my old cloths on those spots that were 
>>> subject to wear so I could get more mileage out of
>>> vthe 'new'.
>>> And this has stayed with me through the years.  Even with the PC.
>>> Why by a whole PC when a new MB will do.
>>> For many months now I have noticed that MBs which use an AMD 
>>> processor are being replaced with others that  have newer chip sets 
>>> and CPU socket, so I put off buying a newer MB basically because 
>>> there were never enough
>>> PCI  slots.   Most come with only 2, some with 3.   That was until a 
>>> couple of weeks ago.
>>> Gigabyte advertised on the Internet a new MB that has 4 PCI slots 
>>> and is  AM2+ compatible.
>>> So I bought one. What I since found out is I am not able to use 
>>> Win2k with this MB.  The BIOS does not support Win2k. I have kept 
>>> using Win2k because I have found that Win2k gives me a whole lot 
>>> less gray hair.  Since the beginning
>>> of the year I have been using XP as my main OS and Win2k as backup.  
>>> I would have preferred to keep it that way,
>>> but the 'Spirits' are against it.
>>> I also bought a different Video card.  A newer one that has some 
>>> more 'oompf' for writing letters (ha, ha, ha).
>>> And this new Video card also has no driver for Win2k so the desktop 
>>> is shown at 640 X 480 pixels.
>>> Another thing I noticed with the newer MBs, there  is only one IDE 
>>> connection which makes it necessary for me to start using the SATA 
>>> connectors and cable.
>>> So because of progress it has become necessary for me to gut my PC 
>>> and replace the MB, two DVDs, three HDDs and a
>>> Video card in order for me to keep from being shut out.
>>> For you who are interested here is what I have in my PC or soon will 
>>> be.
>>> MB: Gigabyte GA-M720-US3
>>> Video Card:  Sapphire Ultimate Radeon HD 4670
>>> DVDs:  One Plextor PX 820a and one Samsung SH - S202n
>>> HDDs:  Two Samsung HD322HJ and One HD400LD.
>>> The Samsung HDDs are wisper quiet and so are the DVDs.
>>> I have only two fans for cooling.  One for the CPU and one for the 
>>> Power Supply which are very quiet.  When they are
>>> at work it is hard for me to tell even with one of the covers removed.
>>> I just thought somebody out there would want to know.
>>>
>>> Thomas
>>>
>>>
>> Hi Thomas,
>>
>>  I also noticed the change in new motherboard specs recemtly. They 
>> now come with more SATA connectors and as you say only one EIDE PATA 
>> connector (intended, I think for the DVD drive, so now that SATA DVD 
>> Burners exist, I suspect that will go soon as well).
>>
>>  Gigabyte have released several new boards and I'm not a gamer I tend 
>> to look at the lower end boards with as many things as possible 
>> integrated - the one I am considering at the moment is the Gigabyte 
>> GA-MA770-UD3. What is common across several new boards from both 
>> Gigabyte and ASUS and others is the use of the HD Audio chipset from 
>> Realtek, the ALC888 and the Gb NIC also from Realtek the 8111C chip. 
>> I think these perhaps should be the next target for support as they 
>> appear to be coming the standard on the cheaper boards.
>>
>>  I would hope we could get the 8111C supported under Genmac, perhaps 
>> initially in the "unsupported mode" but I wonder if the HD version of 
>> Uniaud will support the audio chipset? Most of these boards have 
>> onboard video as well however they also have a PCI-E X16 slot so its 
>> probably best to grab whichever (older) card that has SNAP support 
>> and add it in. Panorama may be able to support the onboard video 
>> depending what it is but an add-in card for the video would normally 
>> be the better solution and it uses a slot you cant use for another 
>> adapter in any case.
>>
>> Cheers/2
>>
>> Ed.
>>>
>