MATX board with quick POST?

M

Masejoer

Gawd
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Mar 11, 2001
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Does anyone have any recommendations on a Core2 motherboard that has a quick POST? I'm looking for a micro ATX motherboard that can begin loading into Windows in less than 10 seconds, preferably less than 5. I know a few have existed that store BIOS settings in NAND or something, and not checking for new hardware every boot,allowing them to boot quicker. I need to find something with a reliable chipset though and preferably decent built-in graphics. This is for a carpc - I'm not too fond of my Zotac GF9300-D-E's 20 second POST (with everything in the BIOS disabled it doesn't speed up a single bit). I only need Core2 Duo support, a single PCI-E x1 slot, two memory banks, and two SATA ports. Built in audio and firewire is not necessary.

Any ideas?
 
Intel chipset with an SSD in IDE-mode (no AHCI, as Intel AHCI initialization takes a few seconds) may get you down to sub-30-second Power-to-desktop times, but don't quote me on that.
 
mavalpha said:
Intel chipset with an SSD in IDE-mode (no AHCI, as Intel AHCI initialization takes a few seconds) may get you down to sub-30-second Power-to-desktop times, but don't quote me on that.
Click to expand...

I get that now with the current post and a 7200 rpm drive to Windows 7's desktop (with a few things loaded). SSD isn't going to help me much although I have a 40 and 80 coming to compare and use one in this system. I'm looking for something with a quicker POST to get me closer to 15 second boot time, or less.
 
mavalpha said:
Intel chipset with an SSD in IDE-mode (no AHCI, as Intel AHCI initialization takes a few seconds) may get you down to sub-30-second Power-to-desktop times, but don't quote me on that.
Click to expand...

Don't say "don't quote me" - you're correct! I get ~30second boot with ACHI, JMicron IDE controller boot screen, XFX VGA BIOS boot screen, and an OCZ Agility SSD. 15second POST, 15second windows. POST would probably be even faster if I could disable the three above.

OP: Most boards these days post pretty fast. From my experience, ones that use PhoenixBIOS/AwardBIOS tend to be the faster than AMIBIOS, but YMMV based on board.
 
Not much will do as you ask. The SSD is as fast as it will go. If some remember the ata 133 (I had a soyo board with it) that was crazy fast, crazy as a board burner could be...

memory with multi threads, etc etc, it seems it does not matter. the goal is integrity, not speed at boot.
I would look forward to SSD, and disable longer checks like you are now, but you know that it has to or no go..
remember the slower bauds of old pc are still on new ones. skipping over slow layers for boot is just stupid, it needs something that will take all of it as fast as possible and stay real...it is a tough goal.
I still think my own outruns stuff, like a slingshot coming back later with a complex cue waiting...it doesnlt mean I booted completely in under 15 seconds...it is an illusion of booting that fast.
 
Why not just use hibernate? It gives the appearance of "instant on", allows you to skip all the BIOS and POST delays, and maintains system state without consuming power.
 
haadij404 said:
s3 sleep is the ticket
Click to expand...

This doesn't help in a car that may not be driven for weeks at a time. I do not want to run a second 50lb battery to feed this drain. This is only temporary and it WILL be driven more often in the future but with S3, a 55Ah battery would be dead within 2 weeks of S3 sleep. Currently I get about 6 months of power before the memory draws and alarm kill the battery.

A quick POST motherboard is still the best solution in a carpc environment that uses a single battery.
 
Well, I've seen some Youtube videos showing something like a 14-second cold boot to desktop, but that's with an SSD (I'm assuming that's a prerequisite, right?) and a BARE Windows XP install (and I mean BARE, like with NO extra drivers installed or software). That seems like about as low as you can expect using Windows (I don't know about Linux), which is rather low, actually. While you crank the engine and put your seat-belt on, Windows should have already booted.

You want a motherboard that can let you define how long it should wait until the disk is ready for boot, and that allows you to offload as much of the driver loading and resource assignment work to the OS itself (some BIOSes do some of this work in advance, and only then pass control to the OS, which in turn has to redo some of the work), as well as granular control over which peripherals are powered on.

In short, if you don't use it, disable it. Period. An extra IDE or SATA port enabled means the BIOS will have to probe and initialize another controller; same thing for COM, USB, IrDA, Firewire and LPT ports.

In Windows, try BlackViper's guides to trimming as much unneeded services as possible, and slim down the memory footprint, which usually results in a snappier PC and faster boot times.

As a last resort, try using the Hibernation approach, also known as S4 or Suspend-to-disk: the memory contents are written to the disk (to a hopefully continuous file, though that doesn't really matter with an SSD) and read to memory right after POST. With a fast SSD and little system memory (the hibernation file is as big as the installed memory size), you'll be hard-pressed to even see the "Restoring Windows" screen...

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
I can attest that BlackViper is a very good resource to look at. Even if it might not speed up your boot process, just the knowledge from reading whats being put together is well worth it.
 
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