I'm want to upgrade the hardware of my Open Solaris b95 server at home. It's currently running on 32 bit intel hardware. I'm going 64 bit with the new hardware. I don't need server grade hardware since this is a home server. This means I'm not buying the an Opteron or Xeon, or any quad core processor. These were too expensive for my budget. Desktop grade hardware will be fine. I want something that is energy efficient, not expensive, and with room for expansion. I want multiple PCIe (pci express) slots so that I can add an LSI MPT based SATA HBA (requires x4 or x8) and an Intel dual gigabit nic (requires x4) in the future. I've got my hardware selection down to a few choices and was hoping someone could comment on their experiences with any of this hardware. I've determined that in my situation, the biggest determining factor is how well the chipset is supported in Open Solaris.
If I choose to go Intel, I like the Intel X38 chipset because it is the only current Intel chipset that supports ECC memory. This list contains a number of threads encouraging the use of ECC memory, so I'd like to use ECC memory. All of the chipsets I list here support ECC memory. Also, I've read that Open Solaris has better support for CPU frequency scaling on Intel processors than AMD ( < family 16 ) processors. Anyways, here is the Intel configuration I came up with: CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core ($169.99) Motherboard - Intel DX38BT ($209.99) * Intel X38 chipset * 6x SATA, 2x eSATA * 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots * 1x PCIe 1.0a x16 (electrical x4) * 1x Intel 82566DC gigabit ethernet >From what I read, the X38 is not very different from the 925 chipset which is supported well in Open Solaris. Also, I chose the Intel chipset over the nVidia nForice chipsets because I guessed that Intel CPU + Intel chipset would be a safe bet. For the AMD configuration, I had trouble picking a chipset. nForce or AMD? I don't know. Picking the CPU was easy. Here is the AMD + nForce configuration: CPU - AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core ($77.00) Motherboard - XFX MDA72P7509 ($134.99) * nVidia nForce 750a SLI chipset * 6x SATA, 1x eSATA * 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 * nVidia GeForce 8 series integrated video * 1x Marvell gigabit ethernet Here is the AMD + AMD 790GX configuration: CPU - AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core ($77.00) Motherboard - ASUS M3A78-T ($149.99) * AMD 790GX / SB750 chipset * 5x, 1x eSATA (no optimal, since I need 6, but if this is the better chipset, i'll get my sata hba sooner) * 3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 * ATI Radeon HD 3300 GPU * 1x Marvell 88E8056 gigabit ethernet I picked the 790GX of the 790 series because it has integrated video. Also, I avoided the SB600 southbridge as I have read there are SATA DMA issues with it. The nForce and AMD chipsets are very new but aren't too different from their predecessors. I don't mind going AMD because the CPU is rated at 45W, so I won't completely miss the benefits of the CPU frequency scaling that the Intel supports. Right now, I'm leaning towards the AMD + nForce 750a configuration. But the Intel option isn't bad either. Sun sells the Intel X38 in the Ultra 24 workstation. The AMD 790 option is there because I'm not sure which chipset to choose from for AMD processors. So, have any of you used any of these chipsets with Open Solaris? Any success or failure stories? Are there any reasons I should steer far away from any of the above chipsets? Any solid reason I should pick one CPU over the other? Thanks in advance! _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
