Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.wildstar.net!news.ececs.uc.edu!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-feed3.bbnplanet.com!aplcen.apl.jhu.edu!night.primate.wisc.edu!tmpnews.crd.ge.com!news.crd.ge.com!rebecca!lilith.albany.edu!jk7023
From: Jaime Kikpole <jk7023@cnsunix.albany.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc
Subject: Advice on mother boards?
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 00:05:53 -0500
Organization: The University at Albany
Lines: 61
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.93.970310000534.4723B-100000@lilith.albany.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: lilith.albany.edu
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
X-Sender: jk7023@lilith.albany.edu
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:5590
I was wondering if anyone had experience (good, bad, or
anything else) with the OPTi Viper series of mother boards. I'm
trying to find out if I can use one in a Linux or FreeBSD system
successfully. A friend of mine said that if a mother board works with
any Unix, then it will probibly work with them all. But that a few
manufacturers took shortcuts that made the mother board OK for MS-DOS
related OSes and non-functional with Unixes.
The specs that I could find on the mother board that was
offered are as follows. (This is dirrectly out of Lynx from the place
that I'm considering buying it from.)
Pisces Motherboard - $62.50
OPTI Viper Chipset
Supports either 75/90/100/120/133/166/180/200MHz with 321 ZIF
Available Voltage Regulator Module [VRM] for Cyrix 6X86 CPUs
Supports Pentium P55C
Supports Cyrix 6x86, AMD K5 CPUs
Uses 72-pin SIMM modules x 4 auto banking up to 128MB
Supports Fast Page Mode and EDO RAM
Supports cache module socket either 256K or 512K P/B module!
3 PCI, 4 ISA BUS Slots
ALL 3 PCI slots support Master mode!
Supports 4 EIDE devices with ON BOARD PCI IDE supports modes PIO mode 0 to
mode 4 at max transfer of 16.67MB/s
ON Board super Multi I/O chip that supports 2 serial 16550, 1 parallel
with ECP/EPP and a floppy disk interface and 1 USB port
Add $3.00 For Voltage Regulator Module [VRM]
Add $15.00 for 256k Pipeline Burst Cache
Add $30.00 for 512k Pipeline Burst Cache
AMD K5 P75 Only $39.00!!
I'm also curious about this 486 mother board that I found.
Any advice on *either* of these would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
in advance. Also, general advise on finding a low-cost mother board
(for 486 or better) that can run FreeBSD and/or Linux well is appreciated.
PCi/VLB/ISA 486/5X86 Motherboard - $59.00
[LINK]
UMC Chipset!
Supports ALL Intel, AMD, and Cyrix 486/5X86 CPUs from 25MHz to 133MHz
3 PCI Local Bus, 4 16 Bit ISA, 1 32 bit VL-Bus Master Slot
128K/256K/512K/1024K asynchronous SRAM module supported
Uses 4-72 pin SIMMs up to 128MB using 2M, 4M, 8M, 16M, 32M, & 64M SIMMs
On Board DUAL PCI EIDE Interface
Floppy Drive
ECP/EPP Parallel
2 16550 UART enhanced Serial Ports
Supports Flash ROM, PnP, Green Feature, NCR 810 SCSI BIO
AMI WINBIOS
Add $13.00 for 256k Cache.
Jaime