PCIe Core2 Duo Motherboard?

[jekillen]

On Jan 21, 2007, at 9:03 PM, Andrew Fremantle wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm looking at building a few new general-purpose servers in the near 
> future. I'd like to use Intel Core 2 Duo processors in these machines. 
> I'm currently evaluating a machine with a looks-good-on-paper 
> motherboard, the Intel DG965OT. However, I have come across two major 
> problems with this board.
>
> First, the board locks up several seconds after finishing it's kernel 
> initialization. Sysinstall runs and displays the region/country list, 
> then freezes solid a few seconds later. This does not happen if I 
> select to boot without ACPI support.
>
> Second, this board has 1 PATA and 6 SATA connectors. FreeBSD detects a 
> generic PCI ATA controller, and then fails to detect the optical drive 
> attached to it. This problem is not unique to FreeBSD. I understand 
> the Linux folks have similar troubles with the Marvell controller. The 
> kernel appears to detect four of the six SATA headers on this board.
>
> So my questions are
>
> 1) Does anyone know how to make this board work properly with FreeBSD?
>
> 2) Can anyone suggest a well supported board with gigabit lan, onboard 
> video, and PCIe expansion, that accepts Core2 Duo CPUs?
>
> Also, the amd64 documentation states support for Athlon64s, Opterons, 
> certain Xeons, and EMT64 capable Pentium 4s, Pentium Ds, and Celerons. 
> Will it not run on Core 2s or is this a shortcoming in the 
> documentation? I though the Core 2s were 64-bit capable.
>
> - Andrew

If you are willing to try AMD64 I have built one with
ASUS M2N32 WS pro. It has two PCI-e slots and
two PCI x slots. Uses new AM2 socket and DDR2
memory, is not modestly priced at over $300 for
the board alone. But there is also a model
M2N32 SLI version that does not come with the
PCI x slots and is somewhat less expensive.
You might consider, I believe you can get
AMD 64 dual core processors to use with it.
But perhaps since you already spent the money
on Intel, you are not willing to go this route.
Oh, yes, the boards have dual gigabit built in
NICs that appear to be well supported chip sets.
It also has 6 internal SATA busses and 3 external
SATA buses.
I got the M2N32 WS Pro because I wanted to use
two 15 k rpm SCSI drives along with an SATA
boot drive. The SCSI adapter I got, LSIlogic,
would only fit in PCIx slots.
I have installed FreeBSD v6.0 and have had no
problem with sysinstall what so ever. And it boots
just fine, so far.
Hope this helps
JK