Quote:
Originally Posted by ghost77
I'm planning to build a new budget desktop PC running on FreeBSD 7.1_REL AMD64.  Since Dual Core price is dropping, I will likely goes for the cheapest Intel Dual Core 2200 CPU.
The mainboard I'm looking at is Asus P5KPL-AM /PS and Gigabyte G31M-ES2L. Both have on-board Intel GMA 3100 GPU. |
Here is the list of most recent Intel GMA's:
There are also G45/G43/G41 but they are to pricey currently IMHO.
I personally have Intel Q35 at my motherboard (along with Intel Gigabit NIC which is rare on cheap boards).
Everything works great I got about 1000FPS @ glxgears, WINE is succesfully running Fallout 2 etc ... but its i386 and I did not tried amd64 (since I have 'only' 2GB of RAM so I do not need 64bit here).
If you insist on G31, then get at least G33 which comes with ICH9 southbridge (newer, less heat, etc) while G31 comes with ICH7 a really old and bigger TDP one (from the times of 945G), so at least take G33, but I encourage you to take Q35 Intel based motherboard with Intel Gigabit NIC.
I personally have Intel Q35 + Core 2 Duo e6320 + 2 x 1GB RAM 800 (5-5-5-15) + DVDRW + 1 x 7200RPM 3.5 HDD and this box comsumes 62W @ idle and 83W @ max load, so ots pretty 'green' also.
The difference between Gx5 / Gx3 / Gx1 like (G45/G43/G41) and (G35/G33/G31) is that Gx5 gets best GMA with hardware accelration lighting and so and movies accelration (like HD) , Gx3 gets this GMA without this accelration and movies, and Gx1 is like Gx3 but with ICH7 instead of something newer.
Qxx shipsets are like Gx3 but with Intel NIC mostly and with lowered TDP.
... and btw, G965 (X3000) is not supported @ FreeBSD, I had one some time ago, but X3100 @ my laptop flies beatifully with FreeBSD.