Tyan Toledo i965R S5180

Performance:

In recent months we have run into a number of new motherboards having operational problems with some of the latest Linux distributions -- from both AMD and Intel. However, we have been working on extensively overhauling our motherboard testing process.

We are still working on revising these testing guidelines and they are still a way out from being finalized. We will still be featuring benchmarks of the motherboard at hand compared to other similar motherboards, but we will be focusing more upon Linux compatibility with a number of different distributions, steps required to get the motherboard up and running, are any binary blobs required, and much more. In fact we will be trying out each motherboard with multiple distributions. You can share your thoughts on what you would like to see in the Phoronix Forums.

Pending feedback from our readers and other stakeholders, we hope to issue a draft on our new testing guidelines within a matter of weeks. At that time we will be back with additional Linux performance / compatibility thoughts from the Tyan Toledo i965R.

So far we have tested the Toledo i965R with Fedora Core 6, Fedora 7, Ubuntu 6.10, and Ubuntu 7.04. However, the only distribution that had successfully worked was a 64-bit version of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (Herd release). Both versions of Fedora had run into problems on booting the device and the 32-bit versions of Ubuntu had failed to boot the LiveCD. We are still investigating these Linux issues and will be back with our Linux benchmarks upon finalizing our new testing strategies. Among the hardware we had used with this motherboard so far was an Intel Pentium D, 2GB of DDR2, Seagate Serial ATA 2.0 hard drive, and ATI Radeon X1800XL.

Conclusion:

For being such a compact motherboard, the Tyan Toledo i965R is packed with features. Fitting onto this FlexATX motherboard is an Intel Q965 + ICH8 Chipset for supporting Intel's Core 2 Duo processors, PCI Express x16, up to 4GB of DDR2, dual Gigabit network interfaces, and four Serial ATA 2.0 ports. This motherboard would not be the fit for your conventional server needs, but with the size of this motherboard, there are multiple applications for this Intel motherboard. Unfortunately we had run into some Linux compatibility issues with this Q965 motherboard, but we will be back shortly with further thoughts on this Tyan Toledo creation. From the hardware perspective, the Toledo i965R appears to be another quality creation from Tyan but we will wait on drawing any conclusions.