[CentOS] Re: Opteron Mobo Suggestions

Wed Jun 22 23:04:29 UTC 2005
Chris Mauritz <chrism at imntv.com>

Peter Arremann wrote:

>On Wednesday 22 June 2005 13:29, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>Tyan continues to disappoint me by putting _all_ I/O on 1 CPU.
>>The only option where they don't is the nForce Pro 2200+2050
>>combination on the S2895 where the 2050 goes on CPU #2.
>>Tyan should put the AMD8131 on CPU #2 on the 2891/2892
>>so it doesn't contend with the nForce 2200 on CPU #1 and
>>its slots/peripherals (and there is no 2050).
>>    
>>
>
>Bryan,
>
>there are sometimes more important things than max performance... 
>Upgradability i.e. ... If you buy a complete server its one thing, but if 
>you're offering parts and people build there own they often do consider 
>upgradability. If you buy a server that right now should run fine with 1 CPU 
>but you want to upgrade later to a second one, then the Tyan design is for 
>you. This way you can run all your I/O still and still not have to pay extra 
>for the second CPU up front. The Tyan website even mentions this somewhere as 
>the reason for the design decision.
>
>  
>

This discussion is getting far afield from CentOS (heh, I should have 
known when I saw who's post you were following up).  8-)

If you have a task that's I/O bound, then perhaps Bryan's concerns will 
impact your decision on a motherboard.  For my purposes, I'm mostly cpu 
bound, it really doesn't mean a hell of a lot to me that one cpu is 
"stuck" with mundane I/O tasks.  And as cpus get faster and faster, this 
becomes less of an issue (if it's really an issue at all for most 
tasks).  Also, as Bryan mentions, the S2895 splits the I/O up a bit 
better and the newer revs of that board support dual core Opterons too.  
So if you're in an I/O heavy environment you could choose that board 
rather than the S2882.

Best regards,

C