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Picking an OS for a Low-Powered Platform

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This board is underpowered for Windows Vista, regardless of which version of the OS you choose. The single-core CPU is too slow to ensure that the system runs smoothly without stuttering.

With Windows XP installed, the board proved quite snappy, though, as long as we didn’t throw large or memory heavy applications at it.

We also booted the system using the most recent distribution of Ubuntu Linux; as it turns out, the graphics solution was not supported. The result was that the screen was streaked, and the X-Server would crash after only a few minutes. Nonetheless, the board is well-suited to Linux-based router distributions like the current version of IP-Cop. Since the on-board NIC is recognized and installed without a problem, you just have to add a second network card and you’re set to go.

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MagicWok 25/07/2008 10:43
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Good article... But dollars... Really?

Think I'll just follow most readers and just concentrate reading the US site of Tom's from now on.

lenshand 25/07/2008 17:20
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I agree. This is a good article............but............
I cannot source this board in the UK (all are saying out of stock). Also, why bother to have a UK site when most articles relate to USA, ie dollars.
It is much better to just log in to the USA site

tacsimmox 26/07/2008 18:54
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Wouldn't the Intel Little Falls (M-ITX) board with the Atom processor be a better choice? Same price (if not even lower?) and uses less power?

rtfm 26/07/2008 19:46
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Ditch the serial & parallel ports, give me a gbit network card and I'm sold! Oh and like other people say, prices in £ ffs

wild9 26/07/2008 23:13
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I'm forever being asked to build fast computers, and this proves once again that unless you actually use that power (and wisely), you're not going to see a huge difference. Intel..AMD..doesn't matter; you just don't need to spend a fortune these days and both platforms offer great power thermal envelopes.

wild9 26/07/2008 23:36
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Quote :We can’t really say that the board’s power consumption was especially low—an AMD 780G board paired with a Sempron processor draws even less power when idle. On top of that, the AMD system offers markedly better performance and can even decode HD video content thanks to its 780G chipset graphics.


..if only AMD would market these features more.

wild9 26/07/2008 23:45
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One thing does stand out: no 'C1E Speedstep' support..you'd have thought with a system like this, that such a feature would be standard. Guess it's just an easy way of getting rid of old S-479 gear.

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