Date: Fri, 10 May 2002 11:48:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug White <dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu> To: Josef Grosch <jgrosch@mooseriver.com> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: What hardware do you use ? Message-ID: <20020510112835.B45651-100000@resnet.uoregon.edu> In-Reply-To: <20020510153118.GA23467@mooseriver.com>
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Removing crosspost.
On Fri, 10 May 2002, Josef Grosch wrote:
> This question came up at last night BAFUG meeting. What hardware do people
> use and/or recommend? Specifically, if you were going to build a machine,
> using commonly available parts and just to run a generic kernel, what
> ethernet, video, motherboards, etc, would you use and/or recommend?
I was going to go to the meeting too, I have a long list of these. :) I'm
mainly lookigin at server-class stuff here.
In somewhat chronological order ...
1) At eGroups/Y!Groups we used Intel L440GX+ motherboards. These are now
(sadly) discontinued, but supported slotted P2 and P3 CPUs. Very solid if
you used approved memory. (we had a famous incident with a hardware vendor
using non-spec memory...) Hard disks where the IBM Deskstars before they
went to crap. The kernels had mbuf(cluster)s jacked up and ran 3.2-STABLE
of some generation. After the merger they converted over to the standard
Y! kernel-from-hell.
2) At my current employer we largely split into to machine types:
a) The replicatable servers (webs & mid level logic) are on tyan S2510
and S2518 in the rackable systems half-1U box. They use the
ServerWorks chipset with the busted ATA controller, so make sure you
use SCSI or get the ATA RAID version to avoid it.
b) HP Netservers of the last two generations, largely LPr, LP1000r and
LP2000r. The HPs are pretty well built, although their onboard
management card is half-useless with any decent terminal server. They
do support IPMI so you can (largely) avoid having to use that thing.
Most machines are dual proc 866 or 900MHz P3 with 1-2 GB RAM. They
usually run linnex but we have a few bsd boxes sprinkled about.
3) I demoed a new Intel SCB2 motherboard in their SR1200 chassis a month
or so ago. Very, very nice machine. Ran really fast with the onboard
fasttrack ATA RAID (also available in SCSI). Also supports the full range
of IPMI monitoring features and even has rj45 serial connections.
4) I have a dual AMD 1400 demo coming... eventually.
In summary:
. The Intel motherboards are quite good. You get what you pay for. They
usually have onboard everything, including dual fxp's nowadays. But they
have the ServerWorks curse.
. Tyan makes some interesting stuff, but as with all ServerWorks based
stuff, stay far, far away from the base ATA33 controller. Even the cheap
FastTrack ATA RAID they put on is ATA100 and is plenty fast (and
supported!)
. As soon as I get my hands on the AMD stuff I'll consider a
recommendation. :)
Doug White | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | www.FreeBSD.org
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