[olug] request for motherboard recommendations

[Phil Brutsche]

Adam Haeder wrote:
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> Hello all
> I need to lean on the vast hardware knowledge of the group. I'm building a 
> new system for a friend, and he has a few requirements that I've never 
> dealt with before:
> - - must boot off a USB drive

HA!

If he wants to boot off an externally attached drive he needs to do one 
of these:

1) spend money on SCSI
2) spend money on FireWire and hope the controller he gets can do it
3) Get a Mac - units with integrated firewire can boot off a FireWire drive

It is RARE for computers of ANY kind to boot off a USB storage device.

Unless he's going to beef up the computer with USB 2.0 - computer BIOSes 
that are able to use USB 2.0 are only slightly less rare than those that 
boot off USB devices - it's faster and much more cost-effective to just 
use the integrated IDE.  USB 1.1 is NOT well suited to storage devices.

> - - Connector for front-side case audio/usb

Consider getting a Shuttle SS40G (Athlon-based) or SS51G (Pentium 
4-based) base system and fill it out from there.  Avoid the PIII 
versions as they have a habit of melting themselves from the heat.

All you'ld have to do is add CPU, memory and storage and you're done.

> - - Support suspend-to-ram

Not a problem.

> - - Support wake-on-keypress from a usb keyboard

Not a problem.

-- 

Phil Brutsche
phil at brutsche.us