Bryan J. Smith wrote:
>On Thu, 2005-06-23 at 19:21 -0700, Kirk Bocek wrote:
>
>
>>Peter, I've been able to find the K8D Master 3 in-stock but *not* the K8D Master 3
>>-133 that I also see on MSI's web site. Near as I can tell the only difference is the
>>addition of a 64/133 slot. Which are you running?
>>
>>
>
>Now this $245 mainboard really caught my eye:
>http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm?
>pName=NFPIK8AA-8EKRS
>
>It is the nForce Pro 2200+2050 -- 40 PCIe channels in a single Opteron.
>
>I'm kinda curious how the HyperTransport works -- especially since they
>claim you can use Opteron 200 as well as Opteron 100. Does it use a
>HyperTransport channel for each chip with the Opteron 200 -- one to the
>2200 and one to the 2050? There is no block diagram in the manual. But
>I assume not, in case someone uses an Opteron 100.
>
>In any case, the (2) PCIe x16, (1) PCIe x4, (2) PCIe x1 is a nice
>consideration for the future when more PCIe storage cards become
>available. Right now there is little out there, but Broadcom's first
>_true_ hardware RAID intelligence ASIC for SATA that has both PCIe and
>PCI-X (and can even bridge between them) has been released to designers
>for $60/unit in quantities of 10K (so figure $250-300 end-unit design,
>depending on the amount of SDRAM they include).
>
>Now that all aside, you said you _were_ looking for a "cheap" solution
>for _today_. Well, using the on-board peripherals, you might not have a
>too bad of a "starter kit" which you can upgrade when you need more
>storage.
>
>It _does_ have (8) SATA2-300 ports, four to each chip on their own,
>dedicated PCIe x1 channel (or directly connected HyperTransport?). The
>nVidia SATA has not only done extremely well in benchmarks, but it works
>out-of-the-box with the kernel 2.6's nv_sata driver (I should know, I'm
>using it on this very system -- I have a Foxconn MicroATX with the
>nForce4 Standard).
>
>And it _does_ have (2) GbE ports, one to each chip on their own, and
>that is definitely and directly connected to the HyperTransport
>interconnect. Nothing great as far as "server grade," and I'm not sure
>how much SRAM (seemingly remains unchanged from nForce3, possibly 32KB,
>or as little as 8KB?), but even some of Intel's own aren't the greatest.
>At least IEEE802.3x is supported for flow control (make sure you get a
>GbE switch with the same ;-).
>
>All you need to do is add a sub-$200 Opteron 1xx (which will come with
>1MB of L2, always nice), and some Registered, ECC SDRAM -- DDR333 or
>lower is fine, DDR400 will limit your expansion (JEDEC specs are only 1
>DDR400 DIMM per channel), and isn't always faster (due to latency). On
>a server, I _always_ recommend Registered, ECC SDRAM. Up to 8GB is
>supported with 2GB DDR33 modules, although I assume you might start out
>with cost-effective 512MB Registered ECC DDR333 modules (either 1GB or
>2GB).
>
>This is a cheap solution, with good, on-board peripherals for now, and
>PCIe options as the storage/NIC cards become available. I can_not_
>recommend it since I have _not_ personally deployed the solution, but I
>thought I'd mentioned it anyway because it does exist. I.e., I was
>pleasantly surprised to see a single Opteron 100/200 solution with the
>full nForce Pro 2200+2050 combination (and not just the 2200 only).
>
>Foxconn is quickly gaining a reputation as a solid mainboard reseller
>using the former LeadTek WinFast line, but marketing more towards
>solid/reliable than overclock/enthusiast. Indeed, my current nForce4
>Standard has been rock solid reliable for almost 3 months on just my
>desktop -- although server performance may differ (and is no where near
>comparable, I just thought I'd mention it).
>
>
>
>
I 2nd the motion on Foxconn the company, I have one of their P4 boards,
2400 MHz P4, 800 MHz FSB, 2 GB DDR400 RAM, SuSE 9.2P, runs like a champ,
stable, bla bla bla. NOT a server, mind you. Got it from Newegg as a
replacement for a defective Biostar board. YMMV & all that ....
--
William A. Mahaffey III
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember, ignorance is bliss, but
willful ignorance is LIBERALISM !!!!
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