Re: NetBSD and the Intel D945GCLF(2) board..

[Michal Suchanek <hramrach%centrum.cz@localhost>]

On 29/01/2009, Martijn van Buul <pino%dohd.org@localhost> wrote:
> * Adrian Portelli:
>
> > I quite like the soekris boxen and also lately have been replacing them
>  > with ALIX boxes[1] as there a bit cheaper (for what I needed).
>
>
> Thanks for that hint! I knew about the Soekris boards, but they're a bit out
>  of range for what I'm willing to spend. That ALIX.2D2 board, however, seems
>  like it's more or less exactly what I need. It's a bit more expensive than
>  the Atom board I was looking after, but the built-in DC-DC converter makes up
>  for some of that, and so does the compactPCI slot and second NIC.
>
>  How is the performance of these? I've heard various opinions about the
>  Geode CPU, but they all seem to agree that they're rather slow..
>

It's not very fast but I guess I could live with that if I found a
reasonable board.

However

1) the boards sold with Geode tend to sport one of the slower outdated
models of the Geode CPU

2) unless you are lucky they cost about twice the cost of the Intel board

3) the features and expansion options even of the most barebones PC
board are much better than that of a geode board:
 - better CPU & RAM makes the board suitable for more than the
simplest routing tasks
 - more PATA/SATA interfaces to connect storage for NAS/cache/whatnot
 - decent onboard NIC (not via) with a PCI slot which allows adding a
GBit nic (the Geode boards usually come with one or few via nics and
no or one PCI slot)

4) the Geode boards have nice low power consumption but they do not
have enough power to support a HDD, save 2-3 of them so you need a
separate power solution for that or replace their default power
solution with something beefy enough

5) the ITX boards fit into any old PC case with a decent PSU, you need
a costly special PSU and case for the solution above

So unless you are a Geode fan you probably end up byuing an Atom
board. The additional cost for various parts you need for the Geode
board is likely not going to be paid by the lower electricity bills.
Plus the PC board is much easier to manage due to its more power and
same CPU subtype and hardware as most desktops.

The situation changes when you need *many* of them but for just one
the Atom solution seems much easier.

Thanks

Michal