On Thu, 2005-06-23 at 19:18 -0700, Kirk Bocek wrote:
Okay, there's the challenge kiddies! Who can come up with an actual in-stock SKU that I can pay real $$$ for? I love Bryan's knowledge and information. Really, I do! But my choices *end* with the motherboards a retailer can put into my UPS driver's hands. Bryan, I wish I could force Tyan, Asus and all the rest to make your perfect design. But I can't. I'm sorry. ;)
First off, I _know_, that's why I _dropped_ it! Give me some credit. ;->
Secondly, I _then_ said find an _older_, $300 dual-Opteron mainboard with the AMD8131 dual PCI-X HyperTransport tunnel. I've yet to see a mainboard with an AMD8131 that didn't also have dual-DDR channels to _each_ CPU, so that's the best, single recommendation I can make.
For example, call up Monarch Computer (who sells both components or complete, tested systems from those components -- your choice) and see what they have. It looks like Monarch is selling some older boards re- branded with their own BIOS that supports dual-core for $300-400.
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv? Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=M&Category_Code=OMB
Tell them you want: A) Mainboard with dual-DDR (128-bit) to _each_ CPU B) An AMD8131 for _dual_ PCI-X
Many of the boards at the above link for $300-400 are _exactly_that_! And several are dual-core supporting. Again, it looks like Monarch is taking older/discontinued mainboards of the older AMD8xxx generation and putting a new, dual-core capable BIOS on them.
From a server standpoint, you're going to use PCI-X channels, and
whether you have an older AMD8xxx generation or a new, nForce Pro generation, you're _still_ going to get PCI-X via an AMD8131 -- same difference.
-- Bryan
P.S. If you think you're going to get a dual-Opteron mainboard for under $300, it's near impossible. The only ones that are under $300 typically lack an AMD8131 -- i.e., _no_ PCI-X channels. You'd be better off getting a $100 Athlon64 nForce mainboard with an Athlon64x2 4200+ and a PCIe x4 or PCIe x8 storage controller instead.