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Date:      Sat, 14 Feb 2004 23:26:06 +0100 (MET)
From:      Adriaan de Groot <adridg@sci.kun.nl>
To:        Luca Massarenti <massarenti@massarenti.com>
Cc:        freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: which motherboard and which chipset?
Message-ID:  <Pine.GSO.4.44.0402142306560.8917-100000@wn4.sci.kun.nl>
In-Reply-To: <002c01c3f312$947a26a0$c901a8c0@ts>

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Ciao, Luca,

On Sat, 14 Feb 2004, Luca Massarenti wrote:
> I want to start installing freebsd on amd based server and in particular
> using opteron cpu.
>
> I  want to install an application server which run a java application for
> about 80 clients
>
> Which chipset is best and is best tested?

Before you ask that question you should probably ask: does Java run at all
under FreeBSD on amd64? Also remember that there is a native FreeBSD JSK
version 1.3 - no 1.4 or 1.5. Running Linux binaries is, as yet, not
possible. So first check if the platform can support what you need.

> Which mainboard is considered the best?
> What about dual processors?

Take a look at the archives of this list (via
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-amd64 ), there's lot of
hardware mentioned. I think a lot depends on how much memory you need to
support your users: Athlon64 boards (single CPU) tend to top out at 4G
theoretical and 3G practical (like my Asus k8v, with 3 slots so I could
stick 3G of DDR266 in it) ; Opteron boards for single CPU with 4 slots top
out at 8G theoretical (4x2G Registered), but I hear tales of an sk8n
supporting only 3.5G. Dual boards run up to 8 slots, for 16G of memory.

> I have the possibility to choose between via and nvidia and between asus and
> MSI.

That sounds very much like you're limiting yourself to single CPU systems
(although MSI makes the k8t master2, with 2 CPUs and 4 memory slots, and
the k8dm, which looks like the kind of 4+2 dimm solution that is said to
be dodgy).

You state you want to use an opteron processor, that's socket 940, and
limiting your choices to those two manufacturers and chipsets. Hm. That
throws out the MSI k8d, since that's an amd chipset. That leaves the k8t
master (not the neo, since it's socket 754) and asus sk8n (nvidia) or
sk8v (via).

Maybe you already knew all that. I don't recall any of those systems being
mentioned here on the list - but again, check the archives. I'll tell you
that my own asus k8v w/ 1G and using SATA drives works just fine - for one
user, at least.



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