Glenn Eychaner wrote:
So, having returned from a month's vacation, I'm back to work on attempting to build a set of small form factor CentOS compatible
computers. I've
really tried to do my homework, but this doesn't appear (at first glance) to be at all easy. It's not made easier by the fact that I have to get it right the first time (and I haven't built a PC in a decade); the time and money cost of shipping anything to and from my remote location in Chile means I can't afford to waste time buying and returning things.
First question: does anyone have any experience with the Jetway NF9E-Q77 or ZOTAC Z77ITX-A-E motherboards? Having struck out on Intel Q77 or
Z77-based
SFF motherboards (the DQ77** series is completely out of stock everywhere, and the DZ77** series is ATX only), I have found a couple of Mini-ITX systems based on these two motherboards.
Second question: Where can I get information about which Intel chipsets (Z77 vs Z87 vs Q77 vs C602 vs ...geez, there are a LOT of chipsets, as evidenced by http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/os.cfm) are supported by CentOS 6 / RHEL 6? I have not been able to find this information on either the Intel, RedHat, or CentOS web sites.
<snip> VERY STRONG RECOMMENDATION: DON'T buy Supermicro. They have a *lot* of trouble with this new, fuzzy concept called "quality control".
For example, we have a cluster with 21 Penguin servers, about half with 48 cores, and the rest with 64 cores. You'd think this kind of hot, high end server would call for a lot of attention.
No. We've sent back to Penguin at *least* 5 or 6, and a couple of those went back *twice*, and almost all had m/b's replaced, and one a CPU, I think. That's an absurdly high percentage....
Now, about what you're looking to build - you say that you want 1U, and mention rackspace: in my experience, rackmounts are a *lot* larger than a pizza box, so I'm a little confused at the requirements you're building for.
mark