On Thu, Jul 29, 2004 at 02:10:14PM +0200, Christian Hattemer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I intend to buy an Asus P4P800 SE board. I saw in the archives that
> there were some problems.
> 
> Are the problems with running NetBSD in general now resolved? I need
> the system to work stable because it will replace my workstation,
> which has died.

There weren't really problems.

> 
> Is it possible to run this board only with APM and without ACPI?

If you don't use HT, no problems I guess (I didn't try APM though,
but a GENERIC kernel runs fine).

> I feel a little uncomfortable to run with ACPI for reasons I can't
> fully describe. How about the thermal management support that was
> missing before?

I'm now running a ACPI kernel with MP support, without problems (thermal or
others).

> 
> What about the onboard Ethernet? There were also problems reported.
> However I have a fully supported PCI card which I could use until
> this is fixed if everything else is working stable.

The onboard still has problems.

> 
> Also, can I run 1.6.2 (not using the HT feature then) or does it
> have to be 2.0?

1.6.x should run fine. 

> 
> On a general consideration, do you think that dual channel RAM
> boards are appropriate for desktop usage where about the only
> CPU intensive task are builds? Or is the possible speed gain not
> really noticeable, so that a cheap single channel board would suffice?
> Although this sounds like driving with the handbrake on.

This I can't comment on. The benefits of HT are not clear, and probably need
to be evaluated on a per-application basis, but even without HT the
dual-channel may still help (if done right, a device should be able to DMA
without blocking CPU access - but I didn't check this).

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--