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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.freebsd.misc Subject: Advice on mother boards? Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 00:06:22 -0500 Organization: The University at Albany Lines: 61 Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.93.970310000604.4723C-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.freebsd.misc:36865 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