From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 5 00:25:06 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F84C106564A for ; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 00:25:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vince@unsane.co.uk) Received: from unsane.co.uk (unsane-pt.tunnel.tserv5.lon1.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f08:110::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 436AC8FC12 for ; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 00:25:04 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vhoffman-macbook.local ([10.0.0.173]) (authenticated bits=0) by unsane.co.uk (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o350P2or025193 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 00:25:02 GMT (envelope-from vince@unsane.co.uk) Message-ID: <4BB92DDE.2080804@unsane.co.uk> Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2010 01:25:02 +0100 From: Vincent Hoffman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100317 Thunderbird/3.0.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org References: <20100404082033.GW40253@felucia.tataz.chchile.org> <20100404215455.GZ40253@felucia.tataz.chchile.org> In-Reply-To: <20100404215455.GZ40253@felucia.tataz.chchile.org> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.0.1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Intel D945GSE vs Zotac ION ITX X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:25:06 -0000 On 04/04/2010 22:54, Jeremie Le Hen wrote: > Hi, > > --->> Cc: me when replying, as I'm not subscribed. <<--- > > I cross-post this reply to freebsd-hardware@ since the result of my > little study around Atom-based motherboard may be of interest for > readers of this ML too. > > On Sun, Apr 04, 2010 at 03:00:09PM -0600, Tim Judd wrote: > >> On 4/4/10, Jeremie Le Hen wrote: >> >>> Hi, >>> >>> --->> Please Cc: me when replying, I'm not subscribed. <<--- >>> >>> I plan to purchase a Zotac motherboard with a embedded ATOM processor. >>> It uses an NVidia chipset. >>> >>> http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-ionitx-f-e-atom-n330-1-6ghz-dual-core-mini-itx-intel-motherboard.html >>> >>> My intent is to build a small NAS with ZFS and NFS/CIFS. I'd like to >>> know if anyone successfully ran FreeBSD on this motherboard and what >>> performance could be achieved, especially if ZFS is used. I checked the >>> archives without luck. >>> >> A NAS w/ ZFS, NFS and CIFS/SMB, doesn't need any feature of the ion >> chipset. Why are you electing for this board if you're not running >> any graphical environment? >> >> And ZFS is memory hungry, the Atom is a i386-like chip, so you'd have >> too much overhead with ZFS. >> Actually I run a zotac atom board, forget the model just of hand but can look it up tomorrow if you like, Its amd64 so zfs should be viable, I dont run it though. CPU: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz (1601.61-MHz K8-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x106c2 Stepping = 2 Features=0xbfe9fbff Features2=0x40e31d AMD Features=0x20100800 AMD Features2=0x1 TSC: P-state invariant real memory = 4294967296 (4096 MB) avail memory = 3356155904 (3200 MB) ACPI APIC Table: <050809 APIC1106> FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs FreeBSD/SMP: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s) x 2 HTT threads cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0 cpu1 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 1 cpu2 (AP): APIC ID: 2 cpu3 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 3 >> I think you've elected the wrong board for your purposes. Will >> FreeBSD run on it? yes. I have freebsd on another atom N-series ASUS >> box. >> > Yeah, you are right. I should have mentionned that I do not want > necessarily a high-performance NAS, it's for home use so my premary > concern is the low power consumption. This is why I want an Atom-based > motherboard. By the way, I found an post on OpenSolaris forums where > the author achieves something like 35MB/s on a ZFS filesystem through > CIFS using an Intel Atom-based motherboard [1]. This is enough for the > use I intend to have. > > Zotac mobo is better than Intel D954GSE because it provides a wireless > interface - although I couldn't figure out which chipset yet, so I don't > know if it's corretly supported on FreeBSD - and three S-ATA connectors. > > The zotac board I have is atheros ath0: mem 0xfebf0000-0xfebfffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci4 ath0: [ITHREAD] ath0: AR9280 mac 128.2 RF5133 phy 13.0 which is working fine for me (8.0-RELEASE) Hope that helps a little. Vince > I'm still not sure about which motherboard to buy actually. After some > additional reading, my leaning seems to go towards Intel's one as it is > less expensive and consumes half the power of the Zotac's one (13W with > a HDD [2] vs. 25W [3]). I can live with two S-ATA connectors and I can > plug a wireless interface on the available PCI connector if I ever need > it. > > Regards, > > [1] http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/opensolaris-discuss/2009-June/048214.html > [2] http://www.homeserverhacks.com/2009/06/hands-on-whs-build-with-intel-d945gsejt.html > [3] http://www.anandtech.com/show/2765/12 >