From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Apr 14 08:12:16 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id IAA00559 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 14 Apr 1996 08:12:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from brasil.moneng.mei.com (brasil.moneng.mei.com [151.186.109.160]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id IAA00551 for ; Sun, 14 Apr 1996 08:12:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from jgreco@localhost) by brasil.moneng.mei.com (8.7.Beta.1/8.7.Beta.1) id KAA19311; Sun, 14 Apr 1996 10:10:52 -0500 From: Joe Greco Message-Id: <199604141510.KAA19311@brasil.moneng.mei.com> Subject: Re: Hardware Recommendations Requested To: scrappy@ki.net (Marc G. Fournier) Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 10:10:51 -0500 (CDT) Cc: hackers@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: from "Marc G. Fournier" at Apr 14, 96 03:34:36 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > Hi... > > I'm just about to get at least one, if not several, new > machines put together to run -stable on, and figure before I get > quotes on the hardware, I'd get opinions on the hardware that I'm > currently planning on going with, as to whether I can expect > problems with it or not. > > All the machines will be essentially the same, some with a > little more hard drive space, but that's about it: > > > > Hard Drives: Quantum or Fujitsu? Will vary from 500meg to 2Gig > > Mainly, I've heard that the Fujitsu are good drives, and > price wise, are cheaper then the Quantum...but are they the sort > of drive that I can *confidently* rely on? And, any size range to > shy away from? I seem to recall that it used to be that if you > wanted a <1gig drive, conner was good, but >1gig, you stayed away > from conner. Does Fujitsu have anything like that? I'm not thrilled with either mfr, although I do have some Quantum drives in service, my preference is generally Seagate (ack!). > Video: Trident 512K ISA SVGA > > Monitor/Keyboard will be shared using a switch, as I currently > don't need any more systems...staff currently works from home instead > of coming to the office. Why 512K? Go for the 256K ones, they're $30 :-) > Motherboard: 486DX4-100, ASUS, PCI > > Now, ASUS motherboards I've always had good luck with, and > I've noticed that most on the lists seem to agree that they are good ASUS doesn't make the Motherboard Worth Having (the SP3G) any longer, and I believe that the implication by Rod and others is that there ARE no "good 486" boards anymore. That comment aside, it hasn't stopped me from shopping. I've had a board on the bench this morning that looks promising. 486/anything board (supports even the 4x 133 and 4x 160 AMD CPU's), UMC chipset, up to 256MB RAM, 4 PCI slots, on-board IDE/FDC/multi I/O, 4 ISA slots (one shared with PCI), NCR SCSI BIOS, etc. It seems quite happy so far with the NCR 810 and 21040 Ethernet that I put on it and have been beating on all weekend. I expect it might fall apart in a little bit when I swap it out with news.sol.net, where it will have to deal with a full headcount of PCI devices :-) Still, it looks like a decent board for lower end applications. > boards...but I also seem to recall someone mentioning something wrong > with the DX4-100's? Would I be better to pop up to a Pentium 100 > instead? I haven't checked motherboard prices recently, but last time > I checked, the DX4-100's were substantially cheaper, and performance > compared to the P100's was pretty good (for the price difference, at > least)... The DX4-100's are dirt cheap. The DX4-120's are just as cheap, and the DX4-133's are just a bit more and reportedly work well in boards like the SP3G. In ALL cases, cheaper than a Pentium. > Oh...I read the thread awhile back about the Triton-II chipset, > but haven't seen anything recently regarding whether it is out yet or > not...is it? Not that I know of. I've had no problems with true Triton boards, although they have minor quirks that you should realize. > Memory: 32Meg Parity 72pin SIMMS - Brand ?? > > Memory wise, I'm going with Parity memory, but really haven't > got a clue if I'm going to notice anything different using Parity vs > Non-Parity...I've always used Non-Parity, mainly since I was told > once, erroneously I've since heard, that PCs don't use parity *sigh* PC's generally use parity. The latest trend is not to. I buy parity because it works in non-parity boards, and I don't want to be screwed down the road when I buy a parity board. The Triton boards don't use parity, the Triton-II's supposedly do. > Comments? Any particular manufacturer to stay away from? Someone > mentioned Panasonic as being good... My experience is that once you buy memory and burn it in for a week, if you haven't seen any problems, you're not going to. I am used to seeing problems within 5 minutes of serious stuff happening on the box. Get into a friendly situation with a local vendor where you can arrange with him to burn in the memory on their terms, obviously don't buy it if it fails the burn in :-) > Ethernet: SMC 8013, 10baseT > > If I were to go with a PCI SMC Ethernet card (which SMC is > it that supports the DEC DC21x40 100/10Mbs chipset again?) but Um, EtherPower? Not sure. It doesn't ID the mfr. in the dmesg output :-( > only am using a standard 10baseT hub currently, would I see any > performance difference over the ISA model? Ie. would I get any > more data throughput using a PCI model over the ISA? Only at 100mbps. You should be able to saturate the ethernet with the ISA card, however you will be much closer to saturating your ISA bus than you would be with a PCI card on the PCI bus. Since the cost differential is minimal, and you seem to be doing the PCI thing (good move), go and buy a 21040 PCI card in place of the SMC. Or spend the extra cash and go for the 21140 models. The SMC 21140 card is somewhat pricey but people are using them everywhere with zero, zilch problems. > SCSI Controller: ASUS SC-200 (PCI) > > SCSI controller...should I stay away from the ASUS SC-200? if > so, which PCI controller is recommended? Right now, I'm only looking > at 1 or 2 drives on the bus, so if the ASUS model is felt to be stable > enough, and the drivers are solid, you can't beat the price...and if I > need more in the future, its easy to upgrade. I've had great success with the ASUS SC-200 (I use them in other boxes with NCR BIOS too, no problems). The performance is quite comparable to the AHA-2940, yet the price is a quarter of the AHA. :-) Of course the board has to support the NCR BIOS in order for you to use the card, the card has no onboard BIOS. I've used the AHA-3940 (dual channel 2940) with great success as well. I have one of each in news.sol.net and daily-planet.execpc.com, two really busy news servers. I have had some problems with error recovery on both these cards however. That's supposed to be getting better in -current. It's more a general SCSI thing. > I think that about covers it. I'm trying to build a machine > that I won't have to worry too much about hearing "its a hardware > problem" if I have any kernel panics, so want to be confident in what > I'm putting together. I'd much rather have a kernel panic that is > software related, and readily fixable, then a hardware related panic > that requires swapping hardware around to try and isolate it :( If you're interested, I will keep you posted on the results of this 486 board. Nice cheap solution. If cost isn't such an issue, go for a low end Pentium on an ASUS Triton board (cost is _always_ an issue around here, I pay for this stuff out of my pocket). ... Joe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Greco - Systems Administrator jgreco@ns.sol.net Solaria Public Access UNIX - Milwaukee, WI 414/546-7968