From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jan 1 01:38:54 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 515CC16A407 for ; Mon, 1 Jan 2007 01:38:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peterjeremy@optushome.com.au) Received: from turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org (c58-107-94-118.belrs4.nsw.optusnet.com.au [58.107.94.118]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B50AF13C428 for ; Mon, 1 Jan 2007 01:38:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peterjeremy@optushome.com.au) Received: from turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org (localhost.vk2pj.dyndns.org [127.0.0.1]) by turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l011cmV5066631; Mon, 1 Jan 2007 12:38:48 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from peter@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org) Received: (from peter@localhost) by turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id l011cjsk066630; Mon, 1 Jan 2007 12:38:45 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from peter) Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2007 12:38:45 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy To: jonathan michaels Message-ID: <20070101013845.GK45526@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org> References: <20061231105852.59380@caamora.com.au> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="3xoW37o/FfUZJwQG" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20061231105852.59380@caamora.com.au> X-PGP-Key: http://members.optusnet.com.au/peterjeremy/pubkey.asc User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: some advice please --- amd semperon v opteron for dns/mail/nfs freebsd server 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, 01 Jan 2007 01:38:54 -0000 --3xoW37o/FfUZJwQG Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Greetings and Happy New year to all. On Sun, 2006-Dec-31 10:58:52 +1100, jonathan michaels wrote: >anyway, i'm looking to replace both/one of teh dec alphas with a more >curently supported architecture thats likely to offer simialr >performance and clean architecture, sorry that my world view. CPU-performance-wise, almost anything you can buy today will run rings around an AS2000/500. Architecture-wide, I haven't seen anything that comes close to the Alpha. The AMD64 architecture is "clean" only in comparison with one of the worst computer architectures ever to see the light of day. >my only difficulty is that i do not understand what are the differences >between the two amd offerings, that is between teh opteron and teh >semperon .. Basically, the Sempron is the low-end "desktop" processor and the Opteron is the high-end "server" processor (similar to the Intel Celeron vs Xeon naming). Note that not all Sempron's support amd64 mode - according to the AMD website, all _current_ Sempron processors support amd64 but I know early ones didn't and I'm uncertain how to distinguish them without examining the "AMD Features" part of CPUID. >what sort of motherboards would work best with freebsd, Have a look at http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/amd64/motherboards.html You might also like to ask on freebsd-amd64 > what if any >gotchas are thier with the semperon and or teh opteron and which would >be the best to use in a medium workload, In terms of meeting your performance requirements, I'd say the CPU is fairly irrelevant . In terms of reliability, a good Opteron-based server with ECC RAM and SCSI (or good SATA) disks is going to be far more reliable than a whitebox cobbled together around a cheap Sempron motherboard. (Of course, it'll also have an extra digit in the price tag). --=20 Peter Jeremy --3xoW37o/FfUZJwQG Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFFmGYl/opHv/APuIcRAs21AKCrrXXCWhfSbK/tK8hB0ZNKDrjMmgCfU2xi 2U44lwX3+zqhtg3qcRjW1is= =YD31 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --3xoW37o/FfUZJwQG--