Core i7 and Linux

[GoNz0]

sony make an IDE floppy drive, well they used to anyway ?

not sure if its a proper ide though, as in hard drive cable. i think it was called a super drive

[Philipp]

Thank you Phil.

I am building up a component list now so if this board works that's a win. Also DFI are Linux-friendly so it's a double win! Thanks for testing it for me


I'm trying to decide on a case. I have 3 or 4 on my shortlist now.

ps. it's a breath of fresh air to experience Scan's attitude towards customers, even potential customers. Keep it up

Hi Starfry,

Sorry it’s taken longer than expected to get back to you again

Good news the DFI board seems to work fine, BIOS has detected both floppy drives, were just installing Windows now to be double sure

Thanks for the great feedback as well

If there is anything else you want to know just give me a shout...

Cheers

[starfry]

Thanks Phil, that's excellent.
I'll put my spec together and start another thread to keep "on topic"
I have another thread asking about cases, perhaps you can pop over there if you have a moment to help me select my case.

Let me know the floppy situation when you've installed windows.

I really appreciate this level of commitment

[leepen@scan]

Glad you got a result there Starfry. This is good info to know for future systems!

[Philipp]

Thanks Phil, that's excellent.
I'll put my spec together and start another thread to keep "on topic"
I have another thread asking about cases, perhaps you can pop over there if you have a moment to help me select my case.

Let me know the floppy situation when you've installed windows.

I really appreciate this level of commitment

Hi Starfry,

Not a problem, Ill head over there now not had a lot of time on hexus this week

Windows doesnt seem to like 2 floppys (Vista 64bit Prem) it just wouldnt work

We tryed with a IDE floppy and USB floppy and it worked fine we could copy floppy to floppy....

We still have the bench set up so if there is anything else that needs testing just give me a shout

Cheers

[starfry]

I think the fact they show up in the bios is good enough as I'll be using it from Linux anyway

One thing you could try is if you have a DOS boot disk lying around? Could you boot it from drive A and see if drive B is visible ? I'd say that's the most basic test you can do.

Anything else would be down to OS driver issues and I have no intention of ever running Vista. XP, yes but not Vista.

Whatever, you've been really helpful. I am going to get the DFI board. I just need to agree on the other bits. Working on that now...

[Philipp]

Hi Starfry,

Haven’t had chance to test the board in DOS today, Ill make sure it’s done tomorrow.

If you need anything else just give me a shout.

Thanks

[Philipp]

Hi Starfry,

Its not working under DOS either, won’t let us access the B: drive....

[starfry]

Oh well that's that then. Is the B drive definately enabled in the bios ?

[Philipp]

Yep,

When ever we try and access the B drive it just claims "Abort, Retry, Fail"

I will try contacting DFI to see if they have any answers

[b0redom]

Just out of interest, why are you going core i7? I will be probably shot down in flames for pointing this out, but Linux and bleeding edge are not usually good bedfellows. Why not go C2D? There's not THAT much of a performance hike is there, and the chances are you'd get better compatibility - especially with legacy hardware.

[starfry]

Just out of interest, why are you going core i7? I will be probably shot down in flames for pointing this out, but Linux and bleeding edge are not usually good bedfellows. Why not go C2D? There's not THAT much of a performance hike is there, and the chances are you'd get better compatibility - especially with legacy hardware.

I guess I just want the latest and greatest. I've been waiting for Nehalem for over a year and, tbh, getting it all working is half the fun I plan to build as big a box as I can and replace about 5 other machines with it. Plenty of people have Linux running 64 bit on core i7 so it should be ok. Sure there will be issues but that's half the challenge. I spend a fortune on a PC once every few years and expect it to last. My current one was state of the art when I built it in 2000 (yes it's a dual pIII and it is still going strong but can't really cope with all the new tech very well - virtulisation and all that).

[b0redom]

Ok, I understand geekiness, but why dual floppies? You know you can make USB thumb drives think they're 1.44MB floppies now right?

[starfry]

I have a little legacy archiving sideline where I can put peoples old floppies on cd. You can't get a 5.25" USB drive and, anyway, you can't get an internal USB 3.5" drive. I will have to keep old hardware lying around for this if the new machine won't support it, something I would rather avoid. There is a method in the madness

[Philipp]

DFI havent got back to me yet

[starfry]

Ok, I can wait a while to see if they do. I am just about ready with the spec for the rest of my build.