Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
On linux raid: Linux raid supports hot swapping well. It doesn't care about the hardware, which is being swapped, much. Obviously, in simple disk scenario, which is used fot sw raid, only scsi and SATA can be hot-swapped. Also, make sure that the motherboard supports hot-swap SATA, i've seen some that have stickers that they don't, i can only guess how many don't put the stickers when they should. Also, linux raid performance is very good. HW raid gains perfromance boost because of extra cache they have onboard, thus peak writes are easily swallowed by cache and written when possible. As an end note, don't try to boot your linux raid with one or more hard drives missing, it will fail. If you remove the disk, make sure you put something back AND make sure you have the same partitions there. SATA is fast enough. In fact, ATAPI is also fast enough in most scenarios. It is just that SCSI disks/arrays tend to be of better quality (but usually much more expensive). IIRC Linux's raid support will support hot-swapping disks, but I'm not sure which disks are are supported. An external array with its own CPU doesn't necessarily mean better performance than one using the host CPU, BTW. Though it will take some load off of Asterisk. And if this is just about redundnacy and not about performance, consider not buying an expensive array at all, and using two cheap systems. The cost will be roughly the same, I believe. (RAID= Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks). Any simple way to achive redundancy here? -- Konrads Smelkovs Applied IT sorcery. ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE : [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
Hello Men, And what about of industrie PC's with passive PCI slots buses ? You can upgrade it easily by changing its daughter card supporting the CPU and main chipsets instead of changing a complete motherboard? Power supplies are often bigger/stronger than standard tower PC. My 2 cents. Best Regards, Francois BERGERET, France. -Message d'origine- De : [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] De la part de Remco Barende Envoyé : vendredi 9 septembre 2005 23:40 À : Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Objet : Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations I'm looking for a good, reliable and upgradeable solution too. I don't care to spend a lot of money if the hardware is reusable. A Dell 2850 is useless after 3 years, no way to upgrade it. A quality Intel SC5300 for example is not cheap at all but will last you a lifetime. ...SNIP... ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
Hi I discovered that most onboard raid controllers are really software raid, and it uses the cpu to perform raid functions. I am not sure how much extra load this introduces, but anyway, its still not ideal when you need your cpu for transcoding voip stuff. my 2c. regards Clive On 8 Sep 2005 at 12:01, Soner Tari wrote: 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' asterisk-users@lists.digium.com 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: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com 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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 08:05:09AM +0200, Clive wrote: Hi I discovered that most onboard raid controllers are really software raid, and it uses the cpu to perform raid functions. Also: in such a settings you can get comperable performance by using Linux's built-in software raid. And for that you won't depend on non-standard drivers from the vendor for that. -- Tzafrir Cohen | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il | | a Mutt's [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | best ICQ# 16849755 | | friend ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
Hi, I sucked the TE410 in a Siemens dual Xeon machine... lot of irq problems, digium support said: try the card in another machine. A cheap amd64 + via K8T800 and TE405 works perfectly... On Fri, 2005-09-09 at 08:05 +0200, Clive wrote: Hi I discovered that most onboard raid controllers are really software raid, and it uses the cpu to perform raid functions. I am not sure how much extra load this introduces, but anyway, its still not ideal when you need your cpu for transcoding voip stuff. my 2c. regards Clive On 8 Sep 2005 at 12:01, Soner Tari wrote: 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' asterisk-users@lists.digium.com 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: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com 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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
Or shitcan the onboard raid and get a real hardware raid controller like a 3ware card (if you are stuck on IDE / SATA.) Reduces complexity. On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 09:23:44AM +0300, Tzafrir Cohen said: On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 08:05:09AM +0200, Clive wrote: Hi I discovered that most onboard raid controllers are really software raid, and it uses the cpu to perform raid functions. Also: in such a settings you can get comperable performance by using Linux's built-in software raid. And for that you won't depend on non-standard drivers from the vendor for that. -- Tzafrir Cohen | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il | | a Mutt's [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | best ICQ# 16849755 | | friend ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
I agree, use either SCSI with hardware raid with a battery backed cache or use sata/ide with linux software raid. Linux raid SCSI also works well, but if you go for the scsi drives might as well get the controller too. The firmware raid on the cheap sata/ide cards have left me stranded several times, I have had experiences were both an HP and Promise IDE raid controller have SCRAMBLED both drives during a rebuild of a failed drive. What is the point of RAID if you have to restore tapes anyways? Or shitcan the onboard raid and get a real hardware raid controller like a 3ware card (if you are stuck on IDE / SATA.) Reduces complexity. On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 09:23:44AM +0300, Tzafrir Cohen said: On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 08:05:09AM +0200, Clive wrote: Hi I discovered that most onboard raid controllers are really software raid, and it uses the cpu to perform raid functions. Also: in such a settings you can get comperable performance by using Linux's built-in software raid. And for that you won't depend on non-standard drivers from the vendor for that. -- Tzafrir Cohen | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il | | a Mutt's [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | best ICQ# 16849755 | | friend ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
I also agree. You want a raid controller that has it's own CPU. You want hot spare, hot swapping, status lights, etc. to be handled by that controller. If you have a hot spare you want automatic cutover to that spare drive. You are not limited to SCSI with these controllers. Some manufactures offer ide and sata versions. If you want hot swap capability be sure to do your homework. Some drive hardware advertised as hot-swap capable might not work properly with the controller you select. Damon Estep wrote: I agree, use either SCSI with hardware raid with a battery backed cache or use sata/ide with linux software raid. Linux raid SCSI also works well, but if you go for the scsi drives might as well get the controller too. The firmware raid on the cheap sata/ide cards have left me stranded several times, I have had experiences were both an HP and Promise IDE raid controller have SCRAMBLED both drives during a rebuild of a failed drive. What is the point of RAID if you have to restore tapes anyways? Or shitcan the onboard raid and get a real hardware raid controller like a 3ware card (if you are stuck on IDE / SATA.) Reduces complexity. On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 09:23:44AM +0300, Tzafrir Cohen said: On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 08:05:09AM +0200, Clive wrote: Hi I discovered that most onboard raid controllers are really software raid, and it uses the cpu to perform raid functions. Also: in such a settings you can get comperable performance by using Linux's built-in software raid. And for that you won't depend on non-standard drivers from the vendor for that. -- Tzafrir Cohen | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il | | a Mutt's [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | best ICQ# 16849755 | | friend ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 10:55:52AM -0400, Paul wrote: I also agree. You want a raid controller that has it's own CPU. You want hot spare, hot swapping, status lights, etc. to be handled by that controller. If you have a hot spare you want automatic cutover to that spare drive. You are not limited to SCSI with these controllers. Some manufactures offer ide and sata versions. If you want hot swap capability be sure to do your homework. Some drive hardware advertised as hot-swap capable might not work properly with the controller you select. SATA is fast enough. In fact, ATAPI is also fast enough in most scenarios. It is just that SCSI disks/arrays tend to be of better quality (but usually much more expensive). IIRC Linux's raid support will support hot-swapping disks, but I'm not sure which disks are are supported. An external array with its own CPU doesn't necessarily mean better performance than one using the host CPU, BTW. Though it will take some load off of Asterisk. And if this is just about redundnacy and not about performance, consider not buying an expensive array at all, and using two cheap systems. The cost will be roughly the same, I believe. (RAID= Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks). Any simple way to achive redundancy here? -- Tzafrir Cohen | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il | | a Mutt's [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | best ICQ# 16849755 | | friend ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
On Fri, 9 Sep 2005, Domjan Attila wrote: Hi, I sucked the TE410 in a Siemens dual Xeon machine... lot of irq problems, digium support said: try the card in another machine. A cheap amd64 + via K8T800 and TE405 works perfectly... I'm looking for a good, reliable and upgradeable solution too. I don't care to spend a lot of money if the hardware is reusable. A Dell 2850 is useless after 3 years, no way to upgrade it. A quality Intel SC5300 for example is not cheap at all but will last you a lifetime. But now the difficult task, to find the right mobo. I prefer to go with an AMD CPU because it is not as power hungry as Intel which only improves runtime on ups power. In the category professional mobo's I like the HDAMA from Rioworks which features an AMD 8111 [HyperTransport I/O Hub] and AMD 8131. [PCI-X Tunnel]. Has anyone ever tried Digium hardware on this chipset or even mobo? Alternatively I'm considering a regular mobo with an nForce3 or nForce4 chipset. Will these work with Digium hardware? (Looking at the repsonses most people seem to use Intel stuff?) Recommendations for quality barebones also welcome :) ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
There is a discussion on the sourceforge AAH forum about starting some sort of hardware certification project. It seems that these sorts of hardware questions come up a lot and I think there is a need for something more organized than This is what I am using and it seems to work ok sort of information. Anyone know how something like this can be done? Maybe a list of tests people can do and check off then post their results to a database that matches up hardware? Sorry for hijacking your post Domjan. My 2 cents would be to stay away from very old and very new hardware. Focus more on the chipset and onboard peripherals rather than who's name is on the motherboard. I would consider Nforce4 very new. I am not sure about the AMD server chipsets. As much as I love AMD on the desktop, there is no denying that Intel server chipsets are much more tested in Linux and Asterisk environments. The heat issues tend to be better handled in Xeon environments as well. -Original Message- From: Remco Barende [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 2:40 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations On Fri, 9 Sep 2005, Domjan Attila wrote: Hi, I sucked the TE410 in a Siemens dual Xeon machine... lot of irq problems, digium support said: try the card in another machine. A cheap amd64 + via K8T800 and TE405 works perfectly... I'm looking for a good, reliable and upgradeable solution too. I don't care to spend a lot of money if the hardware is reusable. A Dell 2850 is useless after 3 years, no way to upgrade it. A quality Intel SC5300 for example is not cheap at all but will last you a lifetime. But now the difficult task, to find the right mobo. I prefer to go with an AMD CPU because it is not as power hungry as Intel which only improves runtime on ups power. In the category professional mobo's I like the HDAMA from Rioworks which features an AMD 8111 [HyperTransport I/O Hub] and AMD 8131. [PCI-X Tunnel]. Has anyone ever tried Digium hardware on this chipset or even mobo? Alternatively I'm considering a regular mobo with an nForce3 or nForce4 chipset. Will these work with Digium hardware? (Looking at the repsonses most people seem to use Intel stuff?) Recommendations for quality barebones also welcome :) ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
On 9/10/05, Tzafrir Cohen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: IIRC Linux's raid support will support hot-swapping disks, but I'm not sure which disks are are supported. The software RAID is no problem (raidsetfaulty, raidhotremove, raidhotadd)... the only question is whether the BIOS and/or disks themselves will hot-swap. Andrew -- Linux supports the notion of a command line or a shell for the same reason that only children read books with only pictures in them. Language, be it English or something else, is the only tool flexible enough to accomplish a sufficiently broad range of tasks. -- Bill Garrett ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
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' asterisk-users@lists.digium.com 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: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com 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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
On Thu, 2005-09-08 at 12:01 +0300, Soner Tari wrote: 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. That's exactly what I'm getting right now. I've got an MSI KT6 Delta M/B with an AMD Barton 2.5 which has given no problems as my main desktop machine, with an SCSI card in it etc. It cannot handle 2 Digium cards a TDM400 and a X100P. -- Dave Cotton [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
Not that it's very widely used, but I thought it worth mentioning, if you intend to use TDMoE with multiple Asterisk servers locally your ethernet will be fairly well saturated and you will want a second NIC connected to a separate isolated network for your TDMoE trunks. MATT---On 9/8/05, Dave Cotton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, 2005-09-08 at 12:01 +0300, Soner Tari wrote: 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.That's exactly what I'm getting right now.I've got an MSI KT6 Delta M/B with an AMD Barton 2.5 which has given noproblems as my main desktop machine, with an SCSI card in it etc. Itcannot handle 2 Digium cards a TDM400 and a X100P. --Dave Cotton [EMAIL PROTECTED]___--Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --Asterisk-Users mailing listAsterisk-Users@lists.digium.comhttp://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
Generally I have used Intel Chipsets on ASUS motherboards. I've always used Kingston RAM. I've used Intel P4 CPU on S478 and LGA775. The Asus boards almost always have NIC and sometimes on board VGA. I've not had any problems with the hardware. Regards, Chris - Original Message - From: Soner Tari [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 3:02 PM Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations 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. 2. Which chipset should I prefer: Intel, SiS or VIA? I've read the old SiS chipset problem on wiki. 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 ? 4. How important is the number of PCI slots? I mean, considering that I've read some comments on this list, which do not recommend more than 2 TDM cards on a single system (right?), 2-3 PCI slots should be enough, is this correct? (But beware this also means an all-onboard motherboard, in most cases.) I think this is a very complicated issue, and given so many variables perhaps luck plays an important part. I'd like to hear your experiences. Any links I wasn't able find are welcome too. Thanks, Soner ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
On Thursday 08 September 2005 08:33, Chris wrote: Generally I have used Intel Chipsets on ASUS motherboards. I've always used Kingston RAM. I've used Intel P4 CPU on S478 and LGA775. The Asus boards almost always have NIC and sometimes on board VGA. I've not had any problems with the hardware. Regards, Chris I agree. I stick with Asus. Try www.zipzoomfly.com They do free 2nd day on most items. This was a recent order I had with them (check the current prices yourselves). 80699-R AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor Socket 754 Retail *** Free 2nd Day *** $146.00 240415 Asus K8V-X Via K8T800 Athlon 64/Sempron Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** $79.99 80098-29Kingston KVR400X72C3A/1G 1GB DDR400 PC3200 ECC Memory Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** $112.00 101213-1Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JD 200GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer *** Free 2nd Day *** $105.00 174226 LG GSA-4163BI 16X Super-Multi Internal DVD Rewriter (Beige) Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** $60.00 NOTE: the excellent price on the 1GB Kingstone memory, with ECC (Error Correction), the K8V-X has settings for the ECC in bios ie. it really works. 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. What RAID ? There are several versions. RAID-1 mirror is on the K8V-X. If you want RAID-5, then the Asus K8N-E DELUXE perhaps. I don't know as I don't have one. 4. How important is the number of PCI slots? I mean, considering that I've read some comments on this list, which do not recommend more than 2 TDM cards on a single system (right?), 2-3 PCI slots should be enough, is this correct? (But beware this also means an all-onboard motherboard, in most cases.) That, unfortunately is a legacy intel bios (4-bit) issue. Only 16 (0-15) interrupts. pci has a fix aka bodge by sharing. One day, they will (hopefully) move to 8-bit (or more) and we can have 255 and easily one for each device. Regards...Martin ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
We have 14 Asterisk servers with Asus/Intel in production at our four locations. We very much recommend them and also go through zipzoomfly.com to buy the parts. MATT---On 9/8/05, Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thursday 08 September 2005 08:33, Chris wrote: Generally I have used Intel Chipsets on ASUS motherboards. I've always used Kingston RAM.I've used Intel P4 CPU on S478 and LGA775. The Asus boards almost always have NIC and sometimes on board VGA. I've not had any problems with the hardware. Regards, ChrisI agree.I stick with Asus.Try www.zipzoomfly.comThey do free 2nd day on most items.This was a recent order I had with them (check the currentprices yourselves). 80699-R AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor Socket 754 Retail *** Free 2nd Day***$146.00240415Asus K8V-X Via K8T800 Athlon 64/Sempron Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN Retail ***Free 2nd Day***$79.9980098-29Kingston KVR400X72C3A/1G 1GB DDR400 PC3200 ECC Memory Retail ***Free2nd Day***$112.00101213-1Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JD 200GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer *** Free 2nd Day *** $105.00174226LG GSA-4163BI 16X Super-Multi Internal DVD Rewriter (Beige) Retail***Free 2nd Day***$60.00NOTE: the excellent price on the 1GB Kingstone memory, with ECC (Error Correction), the K8V-X has settings for the ECC in bios ie. it really works. 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.What RAID ?There are several versions.RAID-1 mirror is on the K8V-X.If you want RAID-5, then the Asus K8N-E DELUXE perhaps.I don't know as Idon't have one. 4. How important is the number of PCI slots? I mean, considering that I've read some comments on this list, which do not recommend more than 2 TDM cards on a single system (right?), 2-3 PCI slots should be enough, is this correct? (But beware this also means an all-onboard motherboard, in most cases.)That, unfortunately is a legacy intel bios (4-bit) issue.Only 16 (0-15)interrupts.pci has a fix aka bodge by sharing.One day, they will(hopefully) move to 8-bit (or more) and we can have 255 and easily one for each device.Regards...Martin___--Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.comhttp://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-usersTo UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
I've had lots of luck with the Intel/Asus and I am the part supplier. Chris - Original Message - From: Matt Florell [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 9:58 AM Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations We have 14 Asterisk servers with Asus/Intel in production at our four locations. We very much recommend them and also go through zipzoomfly.comhttp://zipzoomfly.comto buy the parts. MATT--- On 9/8/05, Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thursday 08 September 2005 08:33, Chris wrote: Generally I have used Intel Chipsets on ASUS motherboards. I've always used Kingston RAM. I've used Intel P4 CPU on S478 and LGA775. The Asus boards almost always have NIC and sometimes on board VGA. I've not had any problems with the hardware. Regards, Chris I agree. I stick with Asus. Try www.zipzoomfly.comhttp://www.zipzoomfly.comThey do free 2nd day on most items. This was a recent order I had with them (check the current prices yourselves). 80699-R AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor Socket 754 Retail *** Free 2nd Day *** $146.00 240415 Asus K8V-X Via K8T800 Athlon 64/Sempron Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** $79.99 80098-29 Kingston KVR400X72C3A/1G 1GB DDR400 PC3200 ECC Memory Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** $112.00 101213-1 Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JD 200GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer *** Free 2nd Day *** $105.00 174226 LG GSA-4163BI 16X Super-Multi Internal DVD Rewriter (Beige) Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** $60.00 NOTE: the excellent price on the 1GB Kingstone memory, with ECC (Error Correction), the K8V-X has settings for the ECC in bios ie. it really works. 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. What RAID ? There are several versions. RAID-1 mirror is on the K8V-X. If you want RAID-5, then the Asus K8N-E DELUXE perhaps. I don't know as I don't have one. 4. How important is the number of PCI slots? I mean, considering that I've read some comments on this list, which do not recommend more than 2 TDM cards on a single system (right?), 2-3 PCI slots should be enough, is this correct? (But beware this also means an all-onboard motherboard, in most cases.) That, unfortunately is a legacy intel bios (4-bit) issue. Only 16 (0-15) interrupts. pci has a fix aka bodge by sharing. One day, they will (hopefully) move to 8-bit (or more) and we can have 255 and easily one for each device. Regards...Martin ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com http://Easynews.com-- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
This looks like blatant advertising to me. The brand of motherboard is not nearly as important as the chipset used. All motherboards use the same basic reference design andgeneric BIOS firmware that is usually provided to them by the chipset manufacturer. The main differences now a days are the quality of components used. Some of the cheaper name brands cut corners on the quality of capacitors and what not. Thateven includes ASUS for some of their lower cost boards. YMMV! Intel is not a chipset it is a company thatmakes many many many chipsets. A newer chipset/BIOS that (properly) supports APIC is recommended by many including Digium. Any newer Xeon chipset is a fairly sure bet IMHO. Higher end newer desktop chipsets should work ok. The much less expensive 3rd party chipsets such as SIS seem to have a decent track record. It depends on your application. Cutting corners on your hardware is not a good idea if the business requires the phones to be highly reliable. It may work ok for awhile or it may not. Either way it's not a good idea IMHO. On the other hand, for my home office I have nohesitation in using an inexpensive destop PC with newer SIS based motherboard. I would NEVER consider using that same PC in an office with several incoming lines and a bunch of extensions. Whatever you do, use something that is guaranteed to work.Getting a newer more expensive PC or server is still no guarantee. Test and test and test some more. Once you are sure you have something that works well then stick with that EXACT same configuration. That includes BIOS revision. Don't assume any change will go smoothly. Test and test and test some more before releasing to a production environment. This conservative approach is what most well run IT departments follow and IP PBX applications should be treated the same way. My 2 cents. From: Matt Florell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 7:59 AMTo: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial DiscussionSubject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations We have 14 Asterisk servers with Asus/Intel in production at our four locations. We very much recommend them and also go through zipzoomfly.com to buy the parts.MATT--- On 9/8/05, Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thursday 08 September 2005 08:33, Chris wrote: Generally I have used Intel Chipsets on ASUS motherboards. I've always used Kingston RAM.I've used Intel P4 CPU on S478 and LGA775. The Asus boards almost always have NIC and sometimes on board VGA. I've not had any problems with the hardware. Regards, ChrisI agree.I stick with Asus.Try www.zipzoomfly.comThey do free 2nd day on most items.This was a recent order I had with them (check the currentprices yourselves).80699-R AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor Socket 754 Retail *** Free 2nd Day***$146.00240415Asus K8V-X Via K8T800 Athlon 64/Sempron Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN Retail ***Free 2nd Day***$79.9980098-29Kingston KVR400X72C3A/1G 1GB DDR400 PC3200 ECC Memory Retail ***Free2nd Day***$112.00101213-1Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JD 200GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer *** Free 2nd Day *** $105.00174226LG GSA-4163BI 16X Super-Multi Internal DVD Rewriter (Beige) Retail***Free 2nd Day***$60.00NOTE: the excellent price on the 1GB Kingstone memory, with ECC (Error Correction), the K8V-X has settings for the ECC in bios ie. it really works. 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.What RAID ?There are several versions.RAID-1 mirror is on the K8V-X.If you want RAID-5, then the Asus K8N-E DELUXE perhaps.I don't know as Idon't have one. 4. How important is the number of PCI slots? I mean, considering that I've read some comments on this list, which do not recommend more than 2 TDM cards on a single system (right?), 2-3 PCI slots should be enough, is this correct? (But beware this also means an all-onboard motherboard, in most cases.)That, unfortunately is a legacy intel bios (4-bit) issue.Only 16 (0-15)interrupts.pci has a fix aka bodge by sharing.One day, they will(hopefully) move to 8-bit (or more) and we can have 255 and easily one for each device.Regards...Martin___--Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --Asterisk-Users mailing listAsterisk-Users@lists.digium.comhttp://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-usersTo UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update
[Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations
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. 2. Which chipset should I prefer: Intel, SiS or VIA? I've read the old SiS chipset problem on wiki. 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 ? 4. How important is the number of PCI slots? I mean, considering that I've read some comments on this list, which do not recommend more than 2 TDM cards on a single system (right?), 2-3 PCI slots should be enough, is this correct? (But beware this also means an all-onboard motherboard, in most cases.) I think this is a very complicated issue, and given so many variables perhaps luck plays an important part. I'd like to hear your experiences. Any links I wasn't able find are welcome too. Thanks, Soner ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
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 ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
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: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com 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 ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
