Re: Suggestions for fastest eCS compatible hardware

The time has come to replace a computer and I need to
find out what are the fastest eCS compatible hardware
components in the following categories:

motherboard (chipset?)
CPU
hard drive (interface?)
video card (slot type?)
sound card
LAN (GigE)

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Hi Bennie

Bennie Nelson wrote:
> The time has come to replace a computer and I need to
> find out what are the fastest eCS compatible hardware
> components in the following categories:
> 
> motherboard (chipset?)


I'd probably go for an Asus M2N-E (or very similar) mainboard using 
nForce chipset based simply on the fact that the Asus A8N-E board in 
current use has been reliable - may not be the fastest though; guess 
you'd have to check review sites for those sort of comparisons.


> CPU


The above board takes an AMD64 x2 CPU to fit an AM2 socket. You pick the 
speed - How fast do you want your system to wait for input?

To enable both cpu cores you would need to install the SMP kernel 
(14.104a) and the ACPI driver package - which is only available to 
Software Subscription customers; or wait for eCS2.0


> hard drive (interface?)


Use the onboard SATA2 controller with a reasonable size disk; Samsung 
SATA2 drives seem reasonable in terms of price and performance - and 
reliability to date.


> video card (slot type?)


PCI-e, ATI based

Look for something on eBay if SNAP is the driver you plan to use as SNAP 
does not support anything later than an X800.

Also worth noting is that SNAP has issues with the SMP kernel which 
could lead to screen corruption and system "freezing" when using the 
SNAP accelerated driver; the SNAP VBE "fallback" driver selectable
using 
the gaoption.exe app works OK though.


Not sure what chipsets Panorama driver supports. Yet again you need 
Software Subscription to get this driver.


> sound card


I suspect that the onboard sound on the above mainboard is HD Audio and 
may not be supported by Uniaud yet. If that turns out to be correct I 
think I would look for a PCI soundcard with supported chipset on eBay. 
There is a fairly recent list of supported PCI and onboard chipsets that 
might be of use here
http://www.os2usr.org/os2sound.html


> LAN (GigE)
>


Use the onboard chipset - probably with the nveth driver available from 
hobbes.


> Any help will be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Bennie Nelson



Hope the above is an OK starting point  :-)


Regards

Peter Brown wrote:
> Hi Bennie
> 
> Bennie Nelson wrote:
>> The time has come to replace a computer and I need to
>> find out what are the fastest eCS compatible hardware
>> components in the following categories:
>>
>> motherboard (chipset?)
> 
> 
> I'd probably go for an Asus M2N-E (or very similar) mainboard using 
> nForce chipset based simply on the fact that the Asus A8N-E board in 
> current use has been reliable - may not be the fastest though; guess 
> you'd have to check review sites for those sort of comparisons.
> 
> 

This looks like a very good choice (I looked at the comments on the
en.ecomstation.ru web site.)

>> CPU
> 
> 
> The above board takes an AMD64 x2 CPU to fit an AM2 socket. You pick the 
> speed - How fast do you want your system to wait for input?

I really don't care how fast it waits for me. :)

> 
> To enable both cpu cores you would need to install the SMP kernel 
> (14.104a) and the ACPI driver package - which is only available to 
> Software Subscription customers; or wait for eCS2.0
> 

Years ago I bought one copy eCS 1.0 with SMP support. Do you know
if that is transferable to eCS 1.2/2.0?

> 
>> hard drive (interface?)
> 
> 
> Use the onboard SATA2 controller with a reasonable size disk; Samsung 
> SATA2 drives seem reasonable in terms of price and performance - and 
> reliability to date.
> 

SATA2 with the DANI driver?

> 
>> video card (slot type?)
> 
> 
> PCI-e, ATI based
> 
> Look for something on eBay if SNAP is the driver you plan to use as SNAP 
> does not support anything later than an X800.

What about the ATI Radeon X1650PRO?

> 
> Also worth noting is that SNAP has issues with the SMP kernel which 
> could lead to screen corruption and system "freezing" when using
the 
> SNAP accelerated driver; the SNAP VBE "fallback" driver
selectable using 
> the gaoption.exe app works OK though.
> 

:(

> 
> Not sure what chipsets Panorama driver supports. Yet again you need 
> Software Subscription to get this driver.
> 

Will this be included in eCS 2.0?

> 
>> sound card
> 
> 
> I suspect that the onboard sound on the above mainboard is HD Audio and 
> may not be supported by Uniaud yet. If that turns out to be correct I 
> think I would look for a PCI soundcard with supported chipset on eBay. 
> There is a fairly recent list of supported PCI and onboard chipsets that 
> might be of use here
> http://www.os2usr.org/os2sound.html
> 

Thanks for the link! This one will take some more digging.

> 
>> LAN (GigE)
>>
> 
> 
> Use the onboard chipset - probably with the nveth driver available from 
> hobbes.
> 

Glad to hear the onboard interface works. Another plus for the mainboard.

> 
>> Any help will be greatly appreciated!
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Bennie Nelson
> 
> 
> 
> Hope the above is an OK starting point  :-)
> 
> 
> Regards
> 
> Pete

Great points! Thanks, again.

Mark Dodel wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:28:19 UTC, Bennie Nelson <blnelson@visi.net> 
> wrote:
> 
> -> Peter Brown wrote:
> 
> <Snip>-> 
> -> Years ago I bought one copy eCS 1.0 with SMP support. Do you know
> -> if that is transferable to eCS 1.2/2.0?
> -> 
> 
> Yes.  But 2.0 will come with dual core support so the SMP option isn't
> needed any more. The SMP files are included as required by ACPI to 
> provide the support. But SMP is still required for eCS 1.2.
> 
>  <Snip>
> 
> -> 
> -> > 
> -> > Not sure what chipsets Panorama driver supports. Yet again you
need 
> -> > Software Subscription to get this driver.
> -> > 
> -> 
> -> Will this be included in eCS 2.0?
> 
> The Panorama driver is an option in the 2.0 install.
> 
> 
> Mark
> 
> 

I am planning to upgrade to eCS 2.0, so that is good news, indeed.

Thanks,
Bennie Nelson

Peter Brown wrote:
> Hi Bennie
> 
> Bennie Nelson wrote:
>> Peter Brown wrote:
>>> Hi Bennie
>>>
>>> Bennie Nelson wrote:
>>>> The time has come to replace a computer and I need to
>>>> find out what are the fastest eCS compatible hardware
>>>> components in the following categories:
>>>>
>>>
>>>> hard drive (interface?)
>>>
>>>
>>> Use the onboard SATA2 controller with a reasonable size disk;
Samsung 
>>> SATA2 drives seem reasonable in terms of price and performance -
and 
>>> reliability to date.
>>>
>>
>> SATA2 with the DANI driver?
>>
> 
> 
> Well, it's been working fine on an Asus A8N-E here which is an earlier 
> mainboard than the M2N-E so I would not expect problems.
> 

Glad to hear that.

> 
>>>
>>>> video card (slot type?)
>>>
>>>
>>> PCI-e, ATI based
>>>
>>> Look for something on eBay if SNAP is the driver you plan to use as

>>> SNAP does not support anything later than an X800.
>>
>> What about the ATI Radeon X1650PRO?
>>
> 
> 
> May work with the Panorama driver - I do not have access so cannot check 
> - but is not mentioned in the SNAP supported chipset list.
> 
> However, if you enable dual core cpu support you may find that SNAP 
> needs to be used in (VESA) VBE "fall back" mode due to screen
corruption 
> (see previous post - just below) which should work with the x1650.
> 

The video is a bit problematic. Hopefully, the Panorama driver will
prove to be a worthy successor to SNAP.

Thanks,
Bennie Nelson