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gx240 tower
Does anyone know what other MB's that are usb 2.0 that would fit into
my gx240 tower. mc |
#2
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gx240 tower
On 8/6/2010 2:15 PM, mc wrote:
Does anyone know what other MB's that are usb 2.0 that would fit into my gx240 tower. mc Dimension 8300 and Precision 360 are the only USB 2.0 boards that would fit in a GX240 tower, unless you count the lamentable popping-capacitors GX270. There are also a couple of boards from the Dell XPS line that would fit. The only REAL difference between the XPS line and the Dimension 8000 series is that the case of an XPS is absolutely huge and colorful, compared to the Dimension/Precision basic black that goes with anything else you wear. If you retain the CPU from the GX240, you can use the same memory. But the 8300 and the 360 both can use better Socket 478 P4 CPUs with 800Mhz FSB, paired with faster memory. Also, these boards have four DDR memory slots, instead of two like the GX240. I am unsure if the Optiplex GX260 also supports USB 2.0. Why not an inexpensive USB 2.0 PCI card??? ... Ben Myers |
#3
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gx240 tower
On Aug 6, 2:57*pm, Ben Myers wrote:
On 8/6/2010 2:15 PM, mc wrote: Does anyone know what other MB's that are usb 2.0 that would fit into my gx240 tower. mc Dimension 8300 and Precision 360 are the only USB 2.0 boards that would fit in a GX240 tower, unless you count the lamentable popping-capacitors GX270. *There are also a couple of boards from the Dell XPS line that would fit. *The only REAL difference between the XPS line and the Dimension 8000 series is that the case of an XPS is absolutely huge and colorful, compared to the Dimension/Precision basic black that goes with anything else you wear. If you retain the CPU from the GX240, you can use the same memory. *But the 8300 and the 360 both can use better Socket 478 P4 CPUs with 800Mhz FSB, paired with faster memory. *Also, these boards have four DDR memory slots, instead of two like the GX240. I am unsure if the Optiplex GX260 also supports USB 2.0. Why not an inexpensive USB 2.0 PCI card??? *... Ben Myers Thanks Ben, I tried a couple usb 2.0 cards but but some things like the pinnacle usb TV has signal dropouts. I do not know the exact cause of this. Maybe its the limit of 1gig of ram. I purchased a 550 watt Athena power supply so the connectors should not be a problem. Which xps boards would be a good choice to try? mc |
#4
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gx240 tower
On 8/6/2010 3:07 PM, mc wrote:
On Aug 6, 2:57 pm, Ben wrote: On 8/6/2010 2:15 PM, mc wrote: Does anyone know what other MB's that are usb 2.0 that would fit into my gx240 tower. mc Dimension 8300 and Precision 360 are the only USB 2.0 boards that would fit in a GX240 tower, unless you count the lamentable popping-capacitors GX270. There are also a couple of boards from the Dell XPS line that would fit. The only REAL difference between the XPS line and the Dimension 8000 series is that the case of an XPS is absolutely huge and colorful, compared to the Dimension/Precision basic black that goes with anything else you wear. If you retain the CPU from the GX240, you can use the same memory. But the 8300 and the 360 both can use better Socket 478 P4 CPUs with 800Mhz FSB, paired with faster memory. Also, these boards have four DDR memory slots, instead of two like the GX240. I am unsure if the Optiplex GX260 also supports USB 2.0. Why not an inexpensive USB 2.0 PCI card??? ... Ben Myers Thanks Ben, I tried a couple usb 2.0 cards but but some things like the pinnacle usb TV has signal dropouts. I do not know the exact cause of this. Maybe its the limit of 1gig of ram. I purchased a 550 watt Athena power supply so the connectors should not be a problem. Which xps boards would be a good choice to try? mc According to my spreadsheet/cheat sheet about older Dell systems, the XPS Gen 2 uses a motherboard virtually identical to the Dimension 8300 board. Same Intel 875 chipset, same layout, different BIOS. For sure, the XPS Gen 5 board is not an option. It is LGA775, not Socket 478, and they require the unique power supply found inside the chassis. I do not have first-hand experience with the Gen 3 and Gen 4, but the specs on the Dell web site say "DDR2 memory", so these are also LGA775 unsuitable for a GX240 chassis... Ben |
#5
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gx240 tower
Hi!
I tried a couple usb 2.0 cards but but some things like the pinnacle usb TV has signal dropouts. I do not know the exact cause of this. How about the USB host controller? Whose USB 2.0 controller is on this card? I've had the best results with the NEC-based cards. The VIA ones work "most of the time" but sometimes they act strangely. And, as the chipsets from VIA are the cheapest out there, you can find that the quality of the card you used is lacking. Never heard of Athena power supplies...not saying they aren't perfectly good, but you ought to be sure it's honestly specified! Dell's power supplies from this timeframe are of good if not excellent quality and will produce more power than the rating suggests. William |
#6
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gx240 tower
On 8/7/2010 9:22 PM, William R. Walsh wrote:
Hi! I tried a couple usb 2.0 cards but but some things like the pinnacle usb TV has signal dropouts. I do not know the exact cause of this. How about the USB host controller? Whose USB 2.0 controller is on this card? I've had the best results with the NEC-based cards. The VIA ones work "most of the time" but sometimes they act strangely. And, as the chipsets from VIA are the cheapest out there, you can find that the quality of the card you used is lacking. Never heard of Athena power supplies...not saying they aren't perfectly good, but you ought to be sure it's honestly specified! Dell's power supplies from this timeframe are of good if not excellent quality and will produce more power than the rating suggests. William I agree about USB 2.0 PCI cards with NEC chips. They have always treated me well. Most recently, my son was having trouble with his USB audio recording/editing hardware, for which the vendor, Avid, stated that the USB built-into the 915 chip on a Dimension 4700 was not compatible. They also said a USB card was not a solution. Ha! The NEC USB card fixed the problem. There are also USB 2.0 cards with VIA chips, but I have not tried... Ben Myers |
#7
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gx240 tower
Hi!
There are also USB 2.0 cards with VIA chips, but I have not tried... Ben Myers The few Acer USB chipsets I've seen were pretty bad, only meeting a very loose definition of working on most operating systems. They worked the best on Windows, but I never pushed 'em as hard as I did on the other systems. At USB 1.x rates they worked fine. At USB 2.0 rates they turned into garbage. The VT6202 was VIA's first USB 2.0 chipset, and it has some problems under *ix operating systems with maintaining connections at differing data rates across differing ports. Other than that, and the fact that it is somewhat slower than the Intel USB 2.0 implementation, I haven't had too many complaints. VT6212 is supposed to be an improvement on the 6202, focusing mainly on performance. As far as I know it did that in some ways and fell short in others. I remember the ones I used being more stable with mixed USB 1.x and 2.0 devices. The VT6214 is a 6212 that supposedly allows for the placement of another device (SATA, Ethernet, Firewire--all usually also from VIA) on the same board, for a multifunction card. I don't think it has any special PCI-PCI bridge or arbitration logic on it, as every card I've seen appears to have the PCI bus directly connected to both ICs. Some motherboards have serious problems with this idea. I know I've seen boards with a Silicon Image (!!) USB chipset onboard, but I have no idea about them. Never got a close look at one. If you want a combo board (USB+1394), Adaptec and Orange Micro both made some nice ones--HiNT PCI-PCI bridge, NEC USB 2.0 and a Texas Instruments 1394 IC...basically the best of everything in my opinion. These show up on eBay now. William |
#8
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gx240 tower
On Aug 8, 2:07*am, "William R. Walsh"
m wrote: Hi! There are also USB 2.0 cards with VIA chips, but I have not tried... Ben Myers The few Acer USB chipsets I've seen were pretty bad, only meeting a very loose definition of working on most operating systems. They worked the best on Windows, but I never pushed 'em as hard as I did on the other systems. At USB 1.x rates they worked fine. At USB 2.0 rates they turned into garbage.. The VT6202 was VIA's first USB 2.0 chipset, and it has some problems under *ix operating systems with maintaining connections at differing data rates across differing ports. Other than that, and the fact that it is somewhat slower than the Intel USB 2.0 implementation, I haven't had too many complaints. VT6212 is supposed to be an improvement on the 6202, focusing mainly on performance. As far as I know it did that in some ways and fell short in others. I remember the ones I used being more stable with mixed USB 1.x and 2.0 devices. The VT6214 is a 6212 that supposedly allows for the placement of another device (SATA, Ethernet, Firewire--all usually also from VIA) on the same board, for a multifunction card. I don't think it has any special PCI-PCI bridge or arbitration logic on it, as every card I've seen appears to have the PCI bus directly connected to both ICs. Some motherboards have serious problems with this idea. I know I've seen boards with a Silicon Image (!!) USB chipset onboard, but I have no idea about them. Never got a close look at one. If you want a combo board (USB+1394), Adaptec and Orange Micro both made some nice ones--HiNT PCI-PCI bridge, NEC USB 2.0 and a Texas Instruments 1394 IC...basically the best of everything in my opinion. These show up on eBay now. William Thanks Ben and William for the info. William the power supply from Athena was designed for the dell systems and seems to work well in both the dime 4550 and the gx 240. The cards I tried were Ultra and some cheapie from compusa that only says controller card on the box. So I will see if I can find a NEC and try it out. If you see one that you think might work perhaps you could post the site. Ben what is it about the gx240 chasiss that does not work with the 775? Is it some type of grounding issue with the power supply? mc |
#9
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gx240 tower
mc wrote:
On Aug 8, 2:07 am, "William R. Walsh" m wrote: Hi! There are also USB 2.0 cards with VIA chips, but I have not tried... Ben Myers The few Acer USB chipsets I've seen were pretty bad, only meeting a very loose definition of working on most operating systems. They worked the best on Windows, but I never pushed 'em as hard as I did on the other systems. At USB 1.x rates they worked fine. At USB 2.0 rates they turned into garbage. The VT6202 was VIA's first USB 2.0 chipset, and it has some problems under *ix operating systems with maintaining connections at differing data rates across differing ports. Other than that, and the fact that it is somewhat slower than the Intel USB 2.0 implementation, I haven't had too many complaints. VT6212 is supposed to be an improvement on the 6202, focusing mainly on performance. As far as I know it did that in some ways and fell short in others. I remember the ones I used being more stable with mixed USB 1.x and 2.0 devices. The VT6214 is a 6212 that supposedly allows for the placement of another device (SATA, Ethernet, Firewire--all usually also from VIA) on the same board, for a multifunction card. I don't think it has any special PCI-PCI bridge or arbitration logic on it, as every card I've seen appears to have the PCI bus directly connected to both ICs. Some motherboards have serious problems with this idea. I know I've seen boards with a Silicon Image (!!) USB chipset onboard, but I have no idea about them. Never got a close look at one. If you want a combo board (USB+1394), Adaptec and Orange Micro both made some nice ones--HiNT PCI-PCI bridge, NEC USB 2.0 and a Texas Instruments 1394 IC...basically the best of everything in my opinion. These show up on eBay now. William Thanks Ben and William for the info. William the power supply from Athena was designed for the dell systems and seems to work well in both the dime 4550 and the gx 240. The cards I tried were Ultra and some cheapie from compusa that only says controller card on the box. So I will see if I can find a NEC and try it out. If you see one that you think might work perhaps you could post the site. Ben what is it about the gx240 chasiss that does not work with the 775? Is it some type of grounding issue with the power supply? mc here is a quality card with nec chip set... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104216 if you click on the photo and zoom you can see it has the nec chip and the reviews confirm that it worked when others did not. |
#10
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gx240 tower
On Aug 9, 11:24*am, Christopher Muto wrote:
mc wrote: On Aug 8, 2:07 am, "William R. Walsh" m wrote: Hi! There are also USB 2.0 cards with VIA chips, but I have not tried... Ben Myers The few Acer USB chipsets I've seen were pretty bad, only meeting a very loose definition of working on most operating systems. They worked the best on Windows, but I never pushed 'em as hard as I did on the other systems. At USB 1.x rates they worked fine. At USB 2.0 rates they turned into garbage. The VT6202 was VIA's first USB 2.0 chipset, and it has some problems under *ix operating systems with maintaining connections at differing data rates across differing ports. Other than that, and the fact that it is somewhat slower than the Intel USB 2.0 implementation, I haven't had too many complaints. VT6212 is supposed to be an improvement on the 6202, focusing mainly on performance. As far as I know it did that in some ways and fell short in others. I remember the ones I used being more stable with mixed USB 1.x and 2.0 devices. The VT6214 is a 6212 that supposedly allows for the placement of another device (SATA, Ethernet, Firewire--all usually also from VIA) on the same board, for a multifunction card. I don't think it has any special PCI-PCI bridge or arbitration logic on it, as every card I've seen appears to have the PCI bus directly connected to both ICs. Some motherboards have serious problems with this idea. I know I've seen boards with a Silicon Image (!!) USB chipset onboard, but I have no idea about them. Never got a close look at one. If you want a combo board (USB+1394), Adaptec and Orange Micro both made some nice ones--HiNT PCI-PCI bridge, NEC USB 2.0 and a Texas Instruments 1394 IC...basically the best of everything in my opinion. These show up on eBay now. William Thanks Ben and William for the info. William the power supply from Athena was designed for the dell systems and seems to work well in both the dime 4550 and the gx 240. The cards I tried were Ultra and some cheapie from compusa that only says controller card on the box. So I will see if I can find a NEC and try it out. If you see one that you think might work perhaps you could post the site. *Ben what is it about the gx240 chasiss that does not work with the 775? Is it some type of grounding issue with the power supply? mc here is a quality card with nec chip set...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104216 if you click on the photo and zoom you can see it has the nec chip and the reviews confirm that it worked when others did not.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Thanks Christopher, if anyone is interested this is the power supply I'm using http://pcpowerzone.com/apmps3atx55e.html and it does list some compatibilty with the xps 400, 410, and 420. Which MB generation is this? |
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