Wot a pain! looking for new mobo
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my eyes are stinging here…...
as much as i try, I can't find a small itx fanless (preferably) motherboard with dual intel nics in the uk.
i can find the Supermicro X7SPA-H but that says it has intel with realtek nic's. can't find the MSI anywhere in the uk.there are conflicting reports about the jetway's with the daughterboards etc and i'm not sure about the realteks. are they really that bad (gigabit versions)?
all, i, m after is a board that's a bit higher spec than the alix's, small, quiet with dual gb nic's that fits in a small case. too much to ask? still going though all these posts and getting nowhere.
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http://www.linitx.com are a UK supplier. They list fanless ITX motherboards. Some of the Jetway boards accept a daughter card. There is a daughter card with three Intel GigE NICs.
I have used a Jetway motherboard for nearly two years and had quite acceptable experience from it, including the 10/100 Realtek NIC on the daughter card. Other pfSense users have reported less pleasing experiences with their Jetway boards.
I presume you meant the MSI board referenced in http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,13098.15.html Some of the replies reference a UK supplier which seemed to have changed its name and dropped the MSI board.
Have you tried asking the MSI office in the UK? (Click on the Contact Us link on http://uk.msi.com/)
The Where to buy link on that page is useless under my browser. (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt by hinting it might be a browser problem rather than a web page problem.) -
i'd go for the jetway as it's ideal. it would be the gigabit daughterboard that i would use but like you say, there are conflicting reports with it.
could that be because it was earlier versions of pfsense that didn't see the daughterboard etc?aha… just had a look and right at the bottom are 3 x intel gigabit nic. i take it the daughterboard still allows the whole lot to fit in a slimline case?
any case recommendations? -
Can you get the MSI IM-945GSE ?
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i'd go for the jetway as it's ideal. it would be the gigabit daughterboard that i would use but like you say, there are conflicting reports with it.
could that be because it was earlier versions of pfsense that didn't see the daughterboard etc?If I recall correctly, some people have had problems with Jetway motherboards. (I haven't but my sample size is small.) And the Realtek NICs on most of the daughterboards and motherboards don't have a good reputation either. Again, I have not had any problems I could attribute to the Realtek NIC on the daughterboard but my sample size is small.
i take it the daughterboard still allows the whole lot to fit in a slimline case?
On my motherboard the daughterboard fits over the motherboard and is below the height of the CPU fan. As for the case, depends on what else you want to go in the case: power supply or external brick?, hard drive?, PCI card? And depends on what you call slimline. The M200 works well for me. I have a PCI card in it and no disk drives.
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my eyes are stinging here…...
as much as i try, I can't find a small itx fanless (preferably) motherboard with dual intel nics in the uk.
i can find the Supermicro X7SPA-H but that says it has intel with realtek nic's. can't find the MSI anywhere in the uk.there are conflicting reports about the jetway's with the daughterboards etc and i'm not sure about the realteks. are they really that bad (gigabit versions)?
all, i, m after is a board that's a bit higher spec than the alix's, small, quiet with dual gb nic's that fits in a small case. too much to ask? still going though all these posts and getting nowhere.
Wot a shame! I have the IM-945GSE-A and its a bloody good board.
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Are you sure the Supermicro X7SPA-H has Realtek nics? According to Supermicro's website it says it has intel nics.
Link: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/ICH9/X7SPA.cfm?typ=H