MU_Engineer
Splendid
- Feb 18, 2006
- 3,866
- 4
- 23,165
A few ones from me:
-Use all PCIe x16 physical slots for the PCIe expansion card slots regardless of their electrical width, but color-code them to say which ones have what electrical signals. For example, all black slots are x16 electrical, blue ones are x8, orange ones are x4, and white ones are x1.
- Support ECC memory. Almost all consumer boards support CPUs that support ECC (all AMD CPUs, Intel LGA1156 Xeon 3400s and LGA1366 Xeon 3500s and 3600s) and current memory sizes are large enough that anybody who wants to leave their computer on for very long to do real work may want ECC support.
- Move from BIOS to CoreBoot or UEFI or something that supports GPT partitioning and lets us use HDDs larger than 2 TB.
- The chipmakers should produce generic BIOS images that support all of the CPUs that are supported on certain socket, and the support would cover basic platform operation. For example, AMD might come out with BIOses that let people use Deneb Phenom IIs on Socket AM2 boards with the 690 chipset instead of leaving it up to boardmakers, most of whom chose to end support for this chipset with the original Agena Phenoms. You may not get all of the extra support for multiple BIOSes or super-duper overclocking tweaks that the original BIOS came with, but basic functionality provided by the chipset would work.
- Move to server-style bolt-through heatsinks for desktop CPUs. AMD's 754/939/AM2/AM3 clamp system is not bad, but Intel's push pins are HORRIBLE. Give me bolts any day.
- Front panel header connector blocks. I know, already being done, but it needs to be more widespread.
- Try to keep the area behind the PCIe slots free of tall components so that one can install a full-length card such as a high-end GPU in any PCIe slot without it hitting parts behind it.
- Put the ATX12V or EPS12V aux power connector right next to the main ATX 24-pin power connector. Most server boards do this and it greatly eases cable routing, yet most desktop boards have the aux power connector right next to the CPU socket where the cable gets in the way of everything.
-Use all PCIe x16 physical slots for the PCIe expansion card slots regardless of their electrical width, but color-code them to say which ones have what electrical signals. For example, all black slots are x16 electrical, blue ones are x8, orange ones are x4, and white ones are x1.
- Support ECC memory. Almost all consumer boards support CPUs that support ECC (all AMD CPUs, Intel LGA1156 Xeon 3400s and LGA1366 Xeon 3500s and 3600s) and current memory sizes are large enough that anybody who wants to leave their computer on for very long to do real work may want ECC support.
- Move from BIOS to CoreBoot or UEFI or something that supports GPT partitioning and lets us use HDDs larger than 2 TB.
- The chipmakers should produce generic BIOS images that support all of the CPUs that are supported on certain socket, and the support would cover basic platform operation. For example, AMD might come out with BIOses that let people use Deneb Phenom IIs on Socket AM2 boards with the 690 chipset instead of leaving it up to boardmakers, most of whom chose to end support for this chipset with the original Agena Phenoms. You may not get all of the extra support for multiple BIOSes or super-duper overclocking tweaks that the original BIOS came with, but basic functionality provided by the chipset would work.
- Move to server-style bolt-through heatsinks for desktop CPUs. AMD's 754/939/AM2/AM3 clamp system is not bad, but Intel's push pins are HORRIBLE. Give me bolts any day.
- Front panel header connector blocks. I know, already being done, but it needs to be more widespread.
- Try to keep the area behind the PCIe slots free of tall components so that one can install a full-length card such as a high-end GPU in any PCIe slot without it hitting parts behind it.
- Put the ATX12V or EPS12V aux power connector right next to the main ATX 24-pin power connector. Most server boards do this and it greatly eases cable routing, yet most desktop boards have the aux power connector right next to the CPU socket where the cable gets in the way of everything.
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