On Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:28:30 -0000, Tony Travis <[email protected]> wrote:
> Steve wrote: >>> >> Depends what you mean by a server and what you intend it to do. Any old >> PC can be a server. > > Not quite - Any old PC can indeed run server software, but 'commodity' > motherboards are not designed to be run continuously and most of the > motherboards designed for 'desktop' PC use don't have ECC memory. > > I built a Beowulf cluster with 88 'commodity' desktop systems and it has > been a difficult task to get them to run reliably 24/7/365. We got there > in the end, but only by replacing about 25% of the 'cheap' RAM using > brand-name RAM and testing it a lot using "memtest86+" and "memtester": > > http://www.memtest.org/ > http://pyropus.ca/software/memtester/ > > You should at the very least stress test your RAM for server use, but > it's better to use ECC memory instead on a motherboard that supports it. > > This site has quite a lot of info about SFF systems: > > http://www.sfftech.com/ > > HTH, > > Tony. Couldn’t agree more about memory if you’re running 24/7/365 and this recent report from google backs that up http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9139161/Google_DRAM_error_rates_vastly_higher_than_previously_thought -- Steve -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
