Jennifer123 said:
1. Intel D945GCLF2 don't have any PCI-E port (You have no choice other than Intel's flagship Media Accelerator)
2. It has an S-Video port, but it wont support Fullscreen overlay on that. (I don't know why the hell this board has a 7-pin S-Video port without extended desktop - may be to use a TV instead of a monitor???)
3. it support maximum 2GB of memory, that also only single channel. (This is not a bad thing at all!)
4. It wont support DDR2 800 Mhz (Yes, i know you have a spare, but no - it wont work with this board). And if you bought a 667Mhz Ram, you are a fool - because the system will force a 667MHz to run at 533MHz.
5. No DVI, still the old VGA port. (So what, we have VGA to DVI converter. - Yes, but do you know the price of that?)
6. The CPU fan is not low profile (My god, you have to search for a low profile heatsink all over Richie street, if you bought a chotu)
7. This board has lot of problems with USB Devices (Yes, I know it was not designed by an Indian after seeing the useless 7-pin (?) S-Video port - And the good joke is, it will not work with any 7-pin S-Video cable - you need to buy a 4-pin male "made in china" for this 7-pin female!!! Also remember a 4-pin male "made in India" will not work.)
Agreed mostly... BUT...
Like I said earlier, the best usage for Atom setup is 24x7 download rig/home/nas server.
so...
1) & 2)
PCI vs. PCI-E slot : Matters only if you're looking at HTPC setup in which case dedicated graphic definitely makes more sense. Home/NAS server, you're probably looking at headless or small monitor setup.
3)
DDR2 single channel + 2GB limit : Again, Unless you're looking for gaming or application performance, 2GB is more than sufficient for daily task. In those same daily tasks, Single Channel vs. Dual Channel hardly makes any difference.
4)
While it's true it doesn't run DDR2-800MHz ram, it DOES support DDR2-667. I think you're talking about older Atom board D945GCLF which had limit of DDR2-533MHz. This thread is about
D945GCLF2.
5)
Quite similar to my first point. If you're looking for running 20+ inch monitor on on-board video for main usage as HD video viewing then Atom is not exactly for you. Like you suggested, G31 + cheap C2D makes more sense.
6)
Not exactly wrong... just want to correct you that it's not the CPU fan, CPU heatsink is fanless, that fan is for 945 chipset.
7)
what USB problems? care to share the source?
Or are you talking about s-video pin? what exactly are we talking about USB or s-video or ports designed by Indian engineers?
Apart from that, I would still agree with you that people looking for low-end system with decent power are better stick with G31+C2D setup. But unless you're getting used C2D, basic cost of this set (mobo+cpu) still runs you minimum 7k+ (2.3k for mobo + 5k for E7300 approx)... or 5.5k+ (2.3k for mobo + 3.5k for DC E5200 approx).
Off-course the main problem is Atom D945GCLF2 is costing 5500, which is absolutely rip-off. Because at 4k newegg price, this processor + mobo at low-power consumption make one hell of Home/NAS server for 24x7 usage. make it headless and you save power over Monitor+KB+mouse. Add in WD carviar green 1TB drive. You suggested 2.5" drive, but they run out at 500GB and that's not exactly good point for Home/Media/NAS server where you're looking for more storage space.
The basic problem with your comparison/argument is that you're confusing Atom for different usage scenario than it's actually fit for... that's it.
as far as performance goes
