FreeBSD compatible mini-itx board

[TJ Varghese]

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Erik Nørgaard <norgaard at locolomo.org>wrote:

> Hi:
>
> I am looking for a new low power mini-itx board for my firewall/home
> server. I've had VIA boards but flacky disk controller and other problems
> have made me look for something else.
>
> So, going all Intel, I hope there will be no hardware problems. I'm looking
> at The Intel D945GSEJT with an Atom N270 processor and the following specs:
>
> Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset
> Intel 82945GSE Express Chipset Graphics/Memory Controller Hub
> Intel 82801GBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH7-M)
> Intel GMA950
> RealTek 8111DL Gigabit Ethernet Controller
>
> Does FBSD support this?
>
> I don't care about graphics basic VGA is enough as this will be a headless
> server. But I do care that the disk controller is fully supported as well as
> the NIC.
>
> Any suggestions of alternative boards? AFAIK the N270 is single core 32bit,
> a dual core and/or 64bit alternative would be interesting.
>
> Also: The Intel manual mentions: "Support for DDR2 533 MHz SO-DIMMs (DDR2
> 800 MHz and DDR2 667 MHz validated to run at 533 MHz only)"
>
> Will faster RAM result in a less stable system?
>
> And what is Serial Presence Detect RAM? I've never seen this advertised.
>
> Lots of questions, I know...
>
> Thanks, Erik
> _______________________________________________
>
>
I'd recommend the below instead, DDR2 is deprecated.

http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/db-D525MW/D525MW-overview.htm

I've had good results with these. These can do 8GB on amd64 (though the
aforementioned page only states 4GB) with 2x4GB DDR3 1066 SODIMMs. AHCI &
GbE work fine. The D525MW is dualcore+HT, there's also the 425KT single
core+HT variant. The latter doesn't have GbE...not worth it IMHO.