Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2002 22:40:36 -0800 From: Michael DeMan <michael@staff.openaccess.org> To: Peter Brezny <peter@skyrunner.net>, <freebsd-isp@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: new motherboard for router system Message-ID: <B9EF4AE4.29227%michael@staff.openaccess.org> In-Reply-To: <NEBBIGLHNDFEJMMIEGOOCEOOFDAA.peter@skyrunner.net>
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I've always been impressed with the quality from SuperMicro. However we select the Tyan 2518GNR as our new standard for all hardware about 8 months ago. The Tyan board fits our requirements well. It isn't the greatest/fastest board, but it has a lot of stuff we like. It has dual Intel (fxp) ethernet, which allows us to leverage the ethernet interface code for VLANs, supports dual CPU PIII processors and supports 4GB of RAM. It fits in a 1U chassis nicely too. We find these well equipped for our basic server tasks, as well as for routers. One other feature they have that we like is the on-board Promise IDE RAID-1 controller. We are fully aware of the limitations of IDE vs. SCSI, but for what we do, super-high disk access is not an issue, only reliability. We can buy IDE drives for a fraction of the cost we can SCSI, and can spare them on the shelf with a minimum of cost and hot-swap them as needed. The 80GB Seagate 38021 has proven very reliable for us but are still spec'd in IDE fashion as '3 year' with '11 hours per day' of use. Still, they seem to hold out very well so far, at least compared to the IBM junk we got involved with last year. If you are looking at multiple Adaptec Quartet cards, I would ask if you are aware of what can be done with VLAN technology. We used to think that we needed a card per interface, but now use 1Gig cards with multiple interfaces and VLANs to manage in excess of 100 LAN's per interface with good performance. Our deployments are to serve offices in building/office-park environments, rather than data-center, so we don't really see steady high volume traffic, so that might make a difference. Anyway, for us, the Tyan gave us the right 'bang for the buck'. My 2 cents, - mike On 11/6/02 7:53 AM, "Peter Brezny" <peter@skyrunner.net> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > I'm looking for a new motherboard to use with freebsd as a router system. > > It's going to have two adaptec quartet 64 4 port fast ethernet controllers > in it. > > I'd like something with multiple 64 bit pci buses. > > Anyone have something they find works well for them? > > Thanks. > > > Peter Brezny > Skyrunner.net > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message > Michael F. DeMan Director of Technology OpenAccess Internet Services 1305 11th St., 3rd Floor Bellingham, WA 98225 Tel 360-647-0785 x204 Fax 360-738-9785 michael@staff.openaccess.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message
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