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Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 14:31:15 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <199710092131.OAA01771@george.arc.nasa.gov>
To: abial@korin.warman.org.pl, tom@uniserve.com
Subject: Re: Pentium II SMP system - looking for advice
Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG
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Tom <tom@uniserve.com> wrote:

(Various things about PII vs PPro performance, deleted):

I have read as much information as I can find about this.
AFAIK so far, the 200 MHz PPro is still the CPU to beat
for servers.  Some well-behaved (cache-wise) jobs see very
significant improvements on PII's, especially 300 MHz,
as will anything using MMX.  But for servers, a 440FX-based 
dual PPro 200 still looks best as far as I can tell.  Actually,
there are more expensive motherboards that can perform better,
(e.g. Corollary, HP, etc.) but, they are *much* more expensive.
For this market niche, I would thing Natoma-based ASUS, 
SuperMicro, etc. would be appropriate.

In any case, it would be nice if folks with FreeBSD -SMP
running could start posting results.  For a server, the
best test might be something like "make -j16 world".


|> On Thu, 9 Oct 1997, Andrzej Bialecki wrote:


|> > * ASUS m/b has on-board NCR SCSI. Should I use it, or go for 2940UW?

I'm not sure which NCR this is, but, my experience with ASUS 
NCR-based controllers has been good.  YMMV.  Adaptecs can be
expensive.

|> > * What processor/bus speed (I'll be very hungry for PCI bandwidth)?

I was hoping someone would answer this.  I have seen incredibly
diverse and conflicting information about the PCI performance 
on various chipsets/motherboards.

Does anyone know of some recommended web pages, etc. on PCI performance?

-Hugh LaMaster