PQI now works with Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4

As you might remember, I had lot of problems with assembling my Core i7 system. One of the main reasons appeared PQI DDR3-1066U memory. They were incompatible with Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 motherboard. I wrote Gigabyte about it back then. I don't know if they really considered this issue because of me, however, this RAM is working with the motherboard now. I tried them with current F6c BIOS. I don't know from which version they are compatible, but they weren't working with F3 BIOS for sure. As result I have 6GB of RAM now :).

Current status

I have not written anything for a long time. A current period is tough for me because of my studies. So, I have quite a little time to play around with my hardware. However, I am still have some projects and news. My some CPUs which I bought long time ago just arriving now :). I guess that I'll not post any new photos until June.

My VIA VT-310DP board is working again :). It is now powered with PicoPSU. It does not fit entirely into ATX power connector because of one big capacitor near it, however, the system boots without any problems. I am planning to make a small NAS server from it. Because of this I bought D-Link DIR-655 Gigabit router. It works already at home. Yet again, I haven't done any tests. I don't know which OS I'll use for my server, however, last night I installed NetBSD with ftp install (where is no CD-ROM, so it was the most easiest way). OS resides on 16 GB Patriot Xporter XT Boost USB flash drive. Hard drives will be used only for storage, however, I still waiting for them (famous Seagate's with bad firmware, but I got them quite cheap, so I'm taking the risk). Whether I'll use or not NetBSD depends on how successfully I'll manage to make my tasks on it (sharing, back-up, network, print server, RAID). Thats all for now.

Problems, linux, collection

My graphics card was broken again for about two weeks. It was changed with the new one (same model). I hope this time it will work more successfully.
I installed Fedora Linux 10 yesterday. Anaconda failed to boot in graphics mode. So I needed to install fedora in a text mode (it was the same with my via board). It is not a big problem to overcome, especially in fedora where you have yum and fedorafaq.org. However, for those people who dislike console it can be a reason to stop. Fedora looks nice and boots visually more faster than previous versions (as far as I know it was one of the main features in this version). I'll try to play with it later.
I have some new CPUs in my collection (several PA-RISC, dual PowerPC board, XBox ES cpus and others), however, I'll probably wait for all items to arrive before making any photos. It may take some time. I am going to stop buying them for half year at least (I need to save money).

Finally everything works

As you know I have bought new Intel Core i7 system. The first blog item about it was more than a month ago. However, the purchase didn't go very smoothly. System didn't boot and we found the reason only several days before the Christmas. It was a memory fault which hadn't been compatible with the motherboard. However, after I assembled the system with new RAM, it appeared that my PSUs are not enough for this system. My video card showed artifacts after several minutes. Because of this, until now I have used PCI video card which slowed down performance. I bought a new 600W PSU only yesterday. Everything went ok and finally I have my new computer in full configuration:
Intel Core i7 920
Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4
3GB(KVR1066D3E7+KVR1066D3N7K2/2G) DDR3 1066 MHz Kingston RAM (triple channel)
MSI R4830-T2D512-OC graphics card (Radeon 4830 512 MB)
FORTRON EPSILON 600W (80PLUS) PSU
Codegen M601-CA ATX case.

HDDs and DVD-RW are from my earlier mini-itx system.

DEC PDP-11 J-11 arrived

I have received my DEC PDP-11 J-11 CPU today. It is really big (for DIP package) and beautiful CPU. Photo shows comparison between DEC PDP-11 J-11 and AMD P8085-2. As always, you can watch my photos here.

Sun, C-Port, NEC, Godson, Intel i960

My cpu collection updated. There are Sun UltraSparc IIi, Nec VR12000, Godson 2-C, C-Port network processor (ES) and Intel i960. So quite a big update :). The number of chips reached more than 30. I'll get one more exception - DEC J-11 PDP-11 in the near future. It's DIP CPU, however, quite big and very beautiful. There will be and more updates (IBM PowerPC, some MIPS CPU, maybe XBox cpus and one HP PA-RISC).

P.S. My new computer with Intel Core i7 920 delayed because of some problems with the motherboard.

Reverse action

I ordered Intel Nehalem platform today. It will consist of Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 motherboard, Intel Core i7-920 CPU, PQI 3GB DDR3 1066 RAM and Radeon 4830 video card. The other parts will be taken from my current computer (hdds, dvd-rw). It is probably one of the cheapest solutions if you want to create computer with this new platform.

Intel finally released a cpu without FSB and I finally can jump into their platform once again. I considered to buy some new mini-itx solution or Phenom II, however, Intel showed that they could deliver their products fast. Just after an official release I was able to find their cpus and motherboard for sale in Lithuania. After some more time I could choose between five or six motherboards from different manufacturers. In contrast VIA released their VIA Nano long time ago, however, there is only one product announced by them recently (VB8001) which is based on it. And this mini-itx motherboard is still not in volume so it is difficult to buy (if it is possible at all). Phenom II looks quite promising is still several months away. I decided not to wait.

I think that I'll have parts in several days, maybe, even tomorrow. This platform should be main computer for 4-5 years (some updates during this time is possible).