From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Jun 11 10:09:11 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id KAA04845 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 11 Jun 1997 10:09:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: from xmission.xmission.com (softweyr@xmission.xmission.com [198.60.22.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA04837 for ; Wed, 11 Jun 1997 10:09:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from softweyr@localhost) by xmission.xmission.com (8.8.5/8.7.5) id LAA12866; Wed, 11 Jun 1997 11:08:40 -0600 (MDT) From: Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC Message-Id: <199706111708.LAA12866@xmission.xmission.com> Subject: Re: hardware compatibility To: hubert@joule.physics.uottawa.ca Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 11:08:39 -0600 (MDT) Cc: questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <339EB0B8.13D0@physics.uottawa.ca> from "Sylvain Hubert" at Jun 11, 97 10:05:44 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Sylvain Hubert asks: > I am presently a grad student at the university of Ottawa (Canada) in > physics. We are planning to setup an array of Pentium-pro for parallel > programming running FreeBSD. I have a simple question regarding hardware > compability. Here is the components that were suggested by the > retailler: > > -ASUS P6NP5 pentium/pro motherboard with intel PP 200Mhz, 256K cache > -64 MB EDO RAM > -2.1 GB Panasonic SCSI HD > -2 MB PCI S-3-3D Virge Graphic video card > -17 " Daytek digital video This sounds fine. 17" might be a little small for the monitor, and given how much you're spending, the extra 2M of video RAM is probably worthwhile as well. Try to get a Virge card with VRAM, they're much faster. > -mitsumi mouse Ugh! Why not spend a few dollars more and get a good mouse? > -12x SCSI toshiba cd-rom (ext) > -Adaptec ISA SCSI-II card ISA SCSI2? Get a PCI card for heaven's sake! Either a 2940, or one of the many NCR 8xx-based SCSI cards, like the ASUS SC-200. > -OvisLink PCI Combo lan coard If this is the NE2000 PnP clone, forget it. Get a card based on the DEC 21040 chips for 10baseT. If you are using 100baseTX, get a DEC 21140 based card or an Intel Pro 100B. I know the OvisLink cards are cheap, I have one myself, but you won't be impressed with the performance. Plus, in order to make it work with FreeBSD, you have to configure it in DOS for a fixed i/o address and irq, and disable PnP. > Can you tell me if this hardware would have any problem running under > FreeBSD or/and make any suggestion. Find a better retailer? ;^) -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com