[9fans] another dual-atom motherboard: jetway nc92-330

[9fans] another dual-atom motherboard: jetway nc92-330

[Richard Miller]

When my dual-processor VIA motherboard blew up, I cast about
for a quick replacement and ended up with a Jetway NC92-330-LF.
This is similar to Steve's Intel D945GCLF2 board (not to be
confused with Erik's supermicro X7SLA), but slightly more
expensive.  For the extra money you get extra expansion
via Jetway-proprietary daughterboards, a normal sized heatsink
compared to the Intel's very tall one, and a normal 20-pin
atx power connector compared to the Intel's newer 24-pin one.
Jetway NC91-330 is the same thing without the daughterboard
connector.

Experiences:

- sata disk and ide dvd/rw worked immediately with standard kernel
- rtl8111c gigabit ethernet worked after adding a new Macv
  code to the driver (patch ether8169-rtl8111c submitted)
- smp didn't work at first (crashed on boot) because the bios
  initialises the mp configuration table with rubbish  - possibly
  due to confusion over hyperthreading, there are two processor
  entries in the mp table, but the bios stores CPUIDs for four
  entries, thus clobbering the following bus descriptor entries.
  This happens whether or not hyperthreading is enabled in the bios.
  As a workaround I just patch the correct bus entries back into
  the mp table - see contrib/miller/jetway-nc92-330/mp.c, which
  I will one day re-do more elegantly before submitting as a patch.
- vesa works beautifully at 1600x1200x16, but only with *nomp=1.
  Luckily there's a pci slot for a vga card.

Re: [9fans] another dual-atom motherboard: jetway nc92-330

[erik quanstrom]

On Wed Aug  5 05:05:26 EDT 2009, 9fans@hamnavoe.com wrote:
> and a normal 20-pin atx power connector compared
> to the Intel's newer 24-pin one.

note that a 24-pin connector is preferable.  my atom
mb has a 24 pin connector but it is sold with a 20 pin
power supply.  the extra 4 pins are not required, but
they do give one extra flexability in selecting a power
supply.

this is analogous to having a 16-lane pcie connector
rather than an 8-lane pcie connector.

just to defend the intel and supermicro motherboards's
sata (it has nothing to do with the processor or motherboard):
this is an intel bug that i've verified exists on the following
southbridges: ich0, ich5, ich7r, ich9, ich9m, ich10r.  the bug manifests
when using sata disks in ide mode.  there is no problem
using sata disks in ahci mode or ide disks in ide mode.

i think defending against this bug will greatly reduce the number
of install failures.

anyway to contrast with the x7sla  you have:

	jetway		x7sla-h
gbe	1		2x
mptables	no		yes
s.b.	ich7		ich7r
p/sata	1/2		1/4 (ahci)
mem	1		2 slots
pci/pcie	1/0		1/2
audio	yes		no
fan	"noisy"		"quieter than my mouse"

here's the url for the jetway:
http://www.jetway.com.tw/jw/ipcboard_view.asp?productid=573&proname=NC92-330-LF
'
- erik

Re: [9fans] another dual-atom motherboard: jetway nc92-330

[Richard Miller]

> note that a 24-pin connector is preferable.  my atom
> mb has a 24 pin connector but it is sold with a 20 pin
> power supply.  the extra 4 pins are not required

I didn't know that - thought I would have to get a new power supply.

> anyway to contrast with the x7sla  you have:
>
>   jetway     x7sla-h
>    ...       ...

You missed an important distinction:

   jetway     x7sla-h
   mini-itx   flex-atx

I was replacing a via board in a mini-itx sized case.

Re: [9fans] another dual-atom motherboard: jetway nc92-330

[Charles Forsyth]

>the extra 4 pins are not required, but
>they do give one extra flexability in selecting a power
>supply.

the original uniprocessor intel atom board required
the extra 4 pin connection to be made (or bodged).