I have recently upgraded my home server, which was running running on an old Via Epia motherboard. I decided to try one of the Intel motherboards - D945GSEJT. It seemed to me as a good solution. It contains Atom N270 processor, which is just powerful enough to run my small server, Gigabit LAN, 2 SATA connectors, 1 PCI for further expansion and one mini-PCIEx for Wlan adapter.
The mainboard contains notebook chipset, which is really power efficient, but be careful when ordering the memory module, because there is only notebook SODIMM DDR II slot. I bought a Kingston 667MHz module, which works just fine. Also note the power connector. There's no big ATX connector, so there's no need for an ATX power source. All you need is 12V power adapter.
The mainboard itself came in bulk with nothing much extra, but there's no need for anything. The first problem I had was, that I didn't mention the lack of 40-pin IDE when I was ordering this mainboard. There's only one 44-pin notebook IDE, which I have used to install 1024MB flash for the operating system, because I don't want to have the system on my RAID array.
So I installed everything into an EMCO mini-ITX case, but for the power I have used one DC/DC converter, because I wanted the server to be powered by 24V. I have already another ATX power source in the case, which I have used to power my two RAID hard-drives. I know, that it is really not necessary to have two power sources, but it feels a bit safer to me, because I don't want to loose any data.
Now here came the time to install the operating system. I have decided to put my favorite Debian Lenny, which is indeed a really great choice for a server. I have booted the netinstall from a flash, but I didn't get too far, because the Realtek Ethernet Controller wasn't properly recognised by the installer. I decided to install the system by installing another PCI Ethernet Controller, using which I have successfully installed the Debian.
After the installation I wanted to make my onboard controller work. I tried searched a bit and I have found out, that the solution would be to install r8168 kernel module. So I downloaded the sources and compiled the module. This way I got it to work, but I have noticed that after few hours of running the Ethernet disconnects. I wondered what to do and I have finally found out, that the issue is fixed in newer kernel and the controller works with r8169 module in recent kernel versions.
I downloaded the 2.6.31-4 kernel source and after successful compilation, which indeed took very long (10 hours) on this mainboard, I installed it. When I rebooted the system I got fully working network running at 1Gbit with no service interruptions like with r8168. So if you have a similar problem, then this is the way to go. Just upgrade to newest kernel and use r8169 module.
Overall I must say, that I quite happy with this piece of hardware. With two hard drives connected it takes about 20W and it's completely fan-less, which is nice. The only problem I had was during the installation, but that was nothing too problematic to solve. So if you're deciding which mainboard to buy for your next server, then I can really recommend you this one.
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