AMD finally going the ITX way (1)

Long time, no see…

In my quest of splitting my main workstation into a Mini-ITX Home Server and an eATX Supermicro DP board, here’s how things are settling for 3Q:

#1: Gigabyte GA-2AIEV-RH (v1.0)

Gigabyte GA-2AIEV-RH

Pro: 6 SATA2 ports, also onboard RAID-5 – Home Server codename “Vail” would do nicely with that

bootable CF card – I’d go for a 32 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro here

industrial LVDS connector, nice to reuse an old laptop LCD panel, perhaps?

last but not least, PCI Express x16 operating @ x8 gen. 2.0 – your choice, video, RAID, or even OCZ Colossus

Con: 65W TDP CPU limitation. From the looks of the PCB and phases this won’t work with 95W CPUs.

Of course, availability

Wish: If only gigabyte R&D would redo this with SO-DIMM DDR-2 to save space for extra circuitry to support 95W power to CPU

#2: J&W MiniX 785G-SP128MB

Very nice industrial feel for this board:

MiniX 785G-SP128MB

Pro: best capacitors and MOSFETs on a AMD ITX board I’ve seen so far

onboard Radeon HD 4200 with sideport memory is a great choice

Realtek 7.1+2 audio (ALC885)

SO-DIMM DDR-2, very nice fit in ITX format

Unoficially works with 95W TDP CPUs. Phenom II X2 555 anyone?

Con: PCI Express x16 operating @ x4 gen. 2.0. Mainstream video cards shouldn’t have trouble though

Nowhere to be seen in Europe

Wish: How about replacing the useless IDE connector with 2 extra SATA ports?

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~ by betaphreak on June 9, 2010.