[CentOS] Re: Opteron Mobo Suggestions -- nForce Pro 2200+2050 Single Opteron for $245?

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).


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                     b.j.smith at ieee.org 
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