On Thu, 18 Jan 2007, . wrote:
> Looking around there still is not a good "these cards/motherboards" work
> list. the HCL is hardly ever updated, and its far more geared towards
> business use than hobbyist/home use. So bearing all of that in mind I
> will need the following things: <BR><BR
>
> 1. At least 2 gigE nics.
> <BR>
> 2. At least 6 SATAII ports (and at least 6 drive slots) <BR>
> 3. Reasonable price (probably going to build it myself.) <BR>
I can give you another working recipe - one that may not meet your needs
exactly, but one that will work nicely. This particular recipe was not a
design based on a clean-sheet-of-paper - but rather, my Sun Ultra 20
motherboard died and I wanted a replacement system that would provide a
classic *workstation* function while also providing (extra SATA disk drive
bays for) ZFS-based storage and allow re-use of the (heavily modified)
Ultra-20 parts. This is the resulting system which is *highly*
satisfactory/stable as a desktop driving two LCD panels[0], while
providing ZFS filespace and software development facilities and currently
running 6 zones under Solaris Update 3:
Motherboard: Asus A8N32-SLI Delux NB: AMD 939-pin socket
CPU: AMD x4200 X2 dual-core CPU with 1Mb L2 cache per core [1]
RAM: 2 * Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2PT 2Gb kit (4Gb total)
Case: Antec P180 mid-tower (comes with no PSU)
ZFS disks: 2 * Seagate 500GB SATA ST3500641AS (on sale @ Frys)
Boot disk: Western Digital 74Gb SATA WDC WD740GD-00FLA1 [1]
PSU: SS-500HT (500W) [1]
Graphics: 7800GT [1][3]
CDROM/DVD: Plextor 716A slot-loader [1] (the only one to work with the
Ultra-20 front panel)
Add ins:
- Gigabyte I-ram (GC-RAMDISK) with 4*Kingston KVR400X74C3A/1G DIMMs [1][2]
- extra Antec TriCool 120mm 3-speed fan (front panel)
The motherboard was setup using the Asus automatic overclock BIOS function
set to +10% and the x4200 appears as an x4400 [4]
Notes:
a) Upside: The Antec P180 provides a compartment (at the bottom of the
case) which includes 4-bay SATA disk drive bay in front of a 1" * 120mm
fan which holds 4 * SATA drives mounted on silicon vibration dampers and
the Power Supply Unit (PSU). This compartment has airflow which is
separated from the main motherboard area of the case. There is extra
space between the disk drives and cooling is excellent.
b) Downside: The PSU wiring harness, coming upwards from the PSU/disk
drive compartment, blocks off access to some of the neighbouring
motherboard expansion slots.
c) Upside: There are lots of disk drive bays - aside from the ones
mentioned in the bottom PSU compartment.
d) I found that 4 of the built-in (motherboard) SATA ports worked with no
effort. The other two SATA ports did not work on first try - but no
effort was expended trying to make them work. Currently the 4 working
SATA ports are assigned:
1) WD740 boot drive
2) Seagate 500Gb drive (ZFS mirror)
3) Seagate 500Gb drive (ZFS mirror)
4) Gigabyte I-ram
e) Downside: The build time for this box was longer that usual. Perhaps
because of the extra "head scratching" time required to figure out the
unusual case layout (power supply at the bottom and all wiring going
vertically upwards) and the time it took to route the wiring and cable-tie
everything neatly.
If you decide to try this recipe, snag a 939-pin Model 165 Opteron
dual-core processor (before the supply dries up completely). These are
known to overclock easily and reliably to 2.6GHz+. There are many (now
old) articles describing how to do this and the Asus A8N32-SLI Delux is
known as a motherboard that is easy/reliable to overclock. Checkout
newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com for the CPU. Hurry before they are gone!!
NB: I know that the 939-pin AMD family is already EOL - but these
components are rock solid and high performance. But buy the long term
config your want *now*, since it will be impossible to upgrade this system
later.
Email me offlist if you have any questions.
[0] Dell 3007WFP 30" panel running at 2560x1600 and iiyama AU5131DT
running at 1600x1200 running under Twinview using the Sun/Nvidia driver
version *9746 driver (twinview config provided by nvidia-config).
[1] moved from the (modified) Ultra-20
[2] used to provide test zones that can be deployed pretty quickly and can
provide fast swap space, if necessary.
[3] BFG GeForce 7800GT OC (The OC indicates that its over-clocked)
[4] # psrinfo -v
Status of virtual processor 0 as of: 01/18/2007 23:16:43
on-line since 01/01/2007 21:15:39.
The i386 processor operates at 2420 MHz,
and has an i387 compatible floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 1 as of: 01/18/2007 23:16:43
on-line since 01/01/2007 21:15:45.
The i386 processor operates at 2420 MHz,
and has an i387 compatible floating point processor.
Regards,
Al Hopper Logical Approach Inc, Plano, TX. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Voice: 972.379.2133 Fax: 972.379.2134 Timezone: US CDT
OpenSolaris.Org Community Advisory Board (CAB) Member - Apr 2005
OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Feb 2006
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