Excellent! I will check the MSI board out. Are you by any chance running lm_sensors? I was very pleased with Tyan's configuration support for lm_sensors.

Kirk Bocek

Peter Farrow wrote:

I had trouble with Tyan boards and BIOS revisions not getting Processor numbers and speeds correct. We also had early life failures with Asus boards, and since switched to MSI, we now use the MSI 9161

K8D Master 3 http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/server/svr/pro_svr_detail.php?UID=560

without any problems..

P.

Kirk Bocek wrote:

...

I've been planning to build a dual Opteron server for awhile. I'd like to get people's suggestions on a suitable motherboard.

I've looked at the Tyan K8SE (S2892) and K8SRE (S2891) but would like to find more Linux-specific experiences with these boards.

Some features I expect are at least 4 SATA (SATA-300?) ports, serial console support in the BIOS, USB 2.0 and IEEE-1394 ports, low-end on-board video.

Anyone care to share their experiences?

Kirk Bocek

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On Thu, 2005-06-23 at 19:21 -0700, Kirk Bocek wrote:

Peter, I've been able to find the K8D Master 3 in-stock but *not* the K8D Master 3 -133 that I also see on MSI's web site. Near as I can tell the only difference is the addition of a 64/133 slot. Which are you running?

Now this $245 mainboard really caught my eye: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm? pName=NFPIK8AA-8EKRS

It is the nForce Pro 2200+2050 -- 40 PCIe channels in a single Opteron.

I'm kinda curious how the HyperTransport works -- especially since they claim you can use Opteron 200 as well as Opteron 100. Does it use a HyperTransport channel for each chip with the Opteron 200 -- one to the 2200 and one to the 2050? There is no block diagram in the manual. But I assume not, in case someone uses an Opteron 100.

In any case, the (2) PCIe x16, (1) PCIe x4, (2) PCIe x1 is a nice consideration for the future when more PCIe storage cards become available. Right now there is little out there, but Broadcom's first _true_ hardware RAID intelligence ASIC for SATA that has both PCIe and PCI-X (and can even bridge between them) has been released to designers for $60/unit in quantities of 10K (so figure $250-300 end-unit design, depending on the amount of SDRAM they include).

Now that all aside, you said you _were_ looking for a "cheap" solution for _today_. Well, using the on-board peripherals, you might not have a too bad of a "starter kit" which you can upgrade when you need more storage.

It _does_ have (8) SATA2-300 ports, four to each chip on their own, dedicated PCIe x1 channel (or directly connected HyperTransport?). The nVidia SATA has not only done extremely well in benchmarks, but it works out-of-the-box with the kernel 2.6's nv_sata driver (I should know, I'm using it on this very system -- I have a Foxconn MicroATX with the nForce4 Standard).

And it _does_ have (2) GbE ports, one to each chip on their own, and that is definitely and directly connected to the HyperTransport interconnect. Nothing great as far as "server grade," and I'm not sure how much SRAM (seemingly remains unchanged from nForce3, possibly 32KB, or as little as 8KB?), but even some of Intel's own aren't the greatest. At least IEEE802.3x is supported for flow control (make sure you get a GbE switch with the same ;-).

All you need to do is add a sub-$200 Opteron 1xx (which will come with 1MB of L2, always nice), and some Registered, ECC SDRAM -- DDR333 or lower is fine, DDR400 will limit your expansion (JEDEC specs are only 1 DDR400 DIMM per channel), and isn't always faster (due to latency). On a server, I _always_ recommend Registered, ECC SDRAM. Up to 8GB is supported with 2GB DDR33 modules, although I assume you might start out with cost-effective 512MB Registered ECC DDR333 modules (either 1GB or 2GB).

This is a cheap solution, with good, on-board peripherals for now, and PCIe options as the storage/NIC cards become available. I can_not_ recommend it since I have _not_ personally deployed the solution, but I thought I'd mentioned it anyway because it does exist. I.e., I was pleasantly surprised to see a single Opteron 100/200 solution with the full nForce Pro 2200+2050 combination (and not just the 2200 only).

Foxconn is quickly gaining a reputation as a solid mainboard reseller using the former LeadTek WinFast line, but marketing more towards solid/reliable than overclock/enthusiast. Indeed, my current nForce4 Standard has been rock solid reliable for almost 3 months on just my desktop -- although server performance may differ (and is no where near comparable, I just thought I'd mention it).