Thanks Tzafrir and canuck15 for your comments.
Yes I don't think the NIC will be saturated, and I'll search the quality of
the Onboard RAID. I guess I have to learn more about canuck15's comments
though, because I am actually questioning what happens to the board when
you're adding onboard peripherals and whether that would create problems
with, say, Digium cards. I remember I've read comments on the list saying
that some chipsets/motherboards cannot handle the interrupt frequency that
Digium cards demand, thus miss some interrupts. So, even though a regular
desktop user would not notice any problems, an Asterisk server would suffer
a lot. But I'm afraid there is no rule of thumb on such matters (except Xeon
motherboards?).
The load on the computer will never be too high, but my purpose in asking
about processor preference is that if there is any processor dependant dsp
routines (such as G729 codec), then I thought that I might have problems. As
another example, I don't know the details of the echocancelers on Asterisk
(all 5 of them), but perhaps their performance is more satisfactory on, say,
a P4 2.4 machine rather than, say, an AMD64, even though I'd expect AMD64 to
be a more powerful processor. So I am questioning code
compatibility/performance based on processor type rather than processor
load. If that's irrelevant, please disregard this question (I need to learn
more about dsp routines).
Thanks again for your answers,
Soner
----- Original Message -----
From: "canuck15" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 3:46 AM
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
Regarding Chipsets/Motherboards. I would stay FAR away from cheap ones.
Any chipset/motherboard that electrically and logically separates some PCI
slots (ie. interrupts) from onboard peripherals (network controller, VGA,
USB etc.) makes compatibility issues with Digium cards much less likely.
Many of the newer Intel chipsets do this.
The Xeon chipsets/motherboards are the best IMHO because they usually have
PCI-X slots connected directly to the memory controller hub, that you can
put your Digium card(s) in, which are completely separate from the
peripherals and PCI slots on the I/O controller hub.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tzafrir Cohen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 4:59 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
On Wed, Sep 07, 2005 at 11:02:58PM +0300, Soner Tari wrote:
Hi All,
For sometime now I've been searching the wiki and googling, but I
think I'm missing some of the very important answers. So I'll have to
ask this to the list.
I'm trying to decide on the right motherboard and processor. Here are
my
questions:
1. Would I have problems with all-onboard motherboards (Onboard VGA,
LAN/GLAN, Sound, SATA, RAID) ? I've read the comment about an Onboard
VGA on wiki.
Considering the exceptional quality of graphics you'll need with Asterisk,
and VGA-compatible adapter would suffice. The on-board one would be more
than enough. Ditto for the sound card, at least in most cases.
As for the network adapter: Are you going to get anything close to
saturating the card? I figure that the efficiency of the network adapter
and
its driver will not be your bottleneck. Most of the WAN-oriented systems
would have worked fine with an old 10Mbps card, probably without a
noticable
performance hit (right?).
So their quality is not much of an issue. If you have the extra space, you
can always add an extra one in an expansion slot. But it should not be
required.
An extra raid controller is something you may consider. But then-again, if
it is a cheap software-based raid, it is practically the same as using
linux
for that (but with more problematic drivers). But it is for you to decide
if
it is worth the extra cost.
2. Which chipset should I prefer: Intel, SiS or VIA? I've read the old
SiS chipset problem on wiki.
There is much voodoo about this. There are good and bad boards made with
each of those chipsets. In fact, for practically each model of board that
has been sold for over a month or so, you'll probably find someone in this
list who had bad experience with it.
3. Which processor has the least support problems: P4 (478 or LGA775,
or even EMT64) or AMD64 ? For example, in G729 config file Athlon
comment reads as "untested" (so far I don't have problems), and there
is no config option for AMD64 at all. There is no mention of EMT64
either. Is anything processor dependant in codecs/transcoding, echo
cancellation, busy detect and similar software, i.e. in dsp routines in
general ?
First of all, what do you intend to do? Much transcoding? How many lines?
Because if the load on the CPU will be light enough, than the CPU brand
won't really matter, you know.
I think this is a very complicated issue, and given so many variables
perhaps luck plays an important part.
I figure some people on this list will happily sell you pre-configured
systems. Or at least pre-built ones.
--
Tzafrir Cohen | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | VIM is
http://tzafrir.org.il | | a Mutt's
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | | best
ICQ# 16849755 | | friend
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