945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

[bgavin]

I picked up this board new from an eBay seller... i945G chipset embedded graphics for a server project. I was very pleasantly surprised to see the board entirely populated with FC and FJ Panasonic caps. Micro-ATX boards seem to be somewhat harder to find, and I got lucky with this one. I wanted the small form factor + embedded lo-tech video. DDR2-667 and four SATA 3.0gb.

It is socket 775, but won't take any of the Core 2s, so I found a nice P4 641 3200/2M/800 Cedar Mill for $46. SL9KF, latest D0 stepping. 65w TDP. The guy is selling 50 of these with a refund warranty. Considering the low wattage, I can probably get away using a stock Core 2 fan that is unused after a HSF upgrade.

[Fizzycapola]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

Stock C2DHS is great. Blows away most aftermarket HSC's. Apart from the Gigabyte GH-PSU22-LB.

I recently found a board off ebay also, I was surprised to see someone had replaced profesionally every cap nearly with SEPC Oscons. But it is a bit of a lucky dip. Some people are a bit psycho money grabbers. Atleast the bad sellers can't leave you bad feedback anymore. I frequently leave bad feedback now, for the smallest reasons and loving it.

[bgavin]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

At least the bad sellers can't leave you bad feedback anymore.

What changed? This is news to me...

I put up with retaliatory negative feedback, because I devote a whole web page to these assholes. My negative feedback is just a web link to my site where the bad seller has all his dirty laundry exposed. I publish all his crappy emails, profanity, and Safe Harbor findings. Forever.

[bgavin]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

Stock C2DHS is great. Blows away most aftermarket HSC's. Apart from the Gigabyte GH-PSU22-LB.

The Gigabyte cooler performs on a par with the SI-128. Both keep the MOSFET and VRM areas cooled well. I use the Scythe Zipangs, but they are very big and irritating to install with the TR bolt-through kit. Thanks for the tip on the GH-PSU22-LB. It looks like an excellent competitor for down draft coolers. I won't use side-draft, due to lack of VRM cooling.

The only downside is it doesn't appear to cool the NB on typical P35 boards. This is an advantage to SI-128 and the Zipang, especially the Zipang. The huge wing span covers both VRM and NB.

[Fizzycapola]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

Indeed, I think the ones you mentioned are newer coolers. It would really depend on air physics what to choose, ideally you want your board parts receiving primary not secondary air streams already though. And no PSU 120mm stealing your primary air either. Traditionally I have thought this is achievable by having a case with more in fans than out, to create a saturating pressure of primary air available to all parts inside the computer. Slightly my own limited understanding pseudo physics but probably better physics than a high school maths teacher teaches, like probability is never 1/6 on a di in real mathematics and lottery numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6 have never won despite being somewhat mathematically equal to 4,9,14,42,46,48.

My main point is I have an "Power Gaming System" E6850 CPU with stock cooling and 1 80mm quiet system fan. 36 oC in Windows internet browsing and low 40's in games when playing Trackmania. In the old days such low temperatures were a holy grail for Athlon or Pentium owners.

[jpdoe]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

One problem faced when installing additional fans is the low quality openings present in most cases I had to deal with. The worst are those where the opening consists in a set of small holes. Armed with a dremel tool, I've become a fan of small case mods. The difference in air flow between a full opening and a low quality one is impressive. If you don't believe me, compare the amount of airflow an 8cm fan generates when run out of the case (without barriers) and when installed in a cheap case with low quality openings.

[bgavin]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

I'm running this board on the open bench while I configure the operating system.

The RealTek RTL8139 won't start. I have the exact driver match (VEN, DEV, SUBSYS) but get the "This device cannot start (Code 10)" flameout. Pity. It also fails under BART-PE, so I know it isn't a Server 2003 R2 problem.

I am running an ATX-20 in place of the ATX-24 connector, until the new PSU arrives. I doubt this is the cause, but I could remain hopeful.

Both i945G/GZ rev. A2 bridges run hot unless actively cooled. With a Rocket cooler in the adjacent PCI slot, I keep both bridges and VRM under 30C on the open bench. CPU runs about 24C with a stocker Core 2 Duo bifurcated cooler. CPU is 63w TDP.

Temps rise after 30 minutes without the Rocket cooler.

VRM < 34C
NB 32C
SB 40C

VRM and field caps remain at 30C or less.
Memory VRM caps are the highest temps at 42C without the cooler.

[jpdoe]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

is it a LAN PCI card or is the realtek chip an onboard device?
There are PCI cards with conterfeited realtek chips.

[bgavin]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

Onboard, unfortunately. I'll give it one more test when the proper ATX-24 PSU arrives this week. I really do not think this is the cause, though.

[zandrax]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

@ bgavin: try plugging a PCI ethernet card with the same Realtek chip (the 8139 is so cheap and popular you can find it even into Easter eggs : not a favourite of mine though) and disabling the onboard one in bios: this should help in diagnosing whatever the problem lies in the lan chip (new card works) or Windows driver / resource assignment (e.g. IRQ conflicts: PCI cards are supposed to share IRQs, most of times they do but sometimes badly written drivers hang) / generic software issue (card don't works).
Try with a card employing another chip too: for servers I'd consider Intel or Broadcom powered ones (Broadcom drivers, once the weakpoint, got better in 2007).

Zandrax

[bgavin]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

It is definitely the hardware. I have a bin full of NICs, and RLT8139 is very common. A card in the PCI slot runs fine.

The broken NIC is annoying, but not a show stopper. The board is a micro-ATX from MSI, with two PCI slots open. I have one slot occupied with a Rocket V cooler, so the other is now occupied with a NIC card.

The machine is working fine as my new web and mail server. It seems MSI is one of the dwindling number of vendors that still provide uATX boards with embedded video. These work well for servers that do not require advanced video capabilities, or the heat they generate.

[zandrax]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

Glad to read the pci card worked: the onboard lan is faulty, disable it to avoid addressing conflicts.

Zandrax

[bgavin]

Re: 945GM2-FH, Breath of Fresh Air

Did that, up and running fine. I like these MSI boards (mostly). Cheap to purchase, Panasonic FL and FC on board, and embedded Intel video. Downside is no voltage control for memory, so I can't use Corsair 2.1v 4-4-4-12 memory. The stock 1.8v is usually 5-5-5-18.

I found another MSI board, G31M3-L v2, for $50 new from an eBay seller. The 3.2 P4 Cedar Mills are still for sale for $46, so the pair would give me another nice server platform for $100. The 63w TDP lets me use the stock Core 2 Duo coolers I didn't install on the other systems. This newer board has polymer caps.