designing new freebsd server for amd64 arch

[Ketrien I. Saihr-Kesenchedra]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2005 at 04:02:47PM -0400, Vivek Khera wrote:
> 
> On Apr 19, 2005, at 5:19 AM, David Komanek wrote:
> 
> >Now I prefer:
> >Tyan Thunder K8WE, S2895A2NRF
> >2x AMD Opteron 250 Box
> >Adaptec 2130SLP

I missed the start of this thread. Whoops!
First of all, don't use the K8WE. Use either the K8SPro or K8SR. The K8SR is 
very picky about risers, though, so I generally recommend the K8SPro. Honestly,
Tyan is not my first choice either. The Iwill DK8S/DK8S2 is better on paper,
but I've never been able to find one.

> No experience with these; the LSI 320-2X has been extremely reliable 
> for us.

The Adaptec 2130SLP is a big no-no. The driver is not 64-bit clean last I 
looked. Skip the onboard SCSI and spend the money on an LSI 320-2 or 320-2X.
 
> >4x Hitachi 3.5" 73.4 GB (SCSI Ultra 320),10 000 rpm
> If you can push yourself to 15kRPM drives, you'll be happier...

You'll also have heat concerns; case is going to be very important. Generico
4U is not going to cut it, nor will Chenbro. (Major SCSI backplane issues. 
Not even remotely within specs.) Plus, I believe Hitachi's discontinued the
10K174 line. Definitely go for the 15K's. 
 
> Run away!!! Run away!!! Run from the onboard bge ethernet!  Buy a nice 
> intel dual gigabit ethernet card use that.  turn off the bge via the 
> bios.  They will lock your system or cause other problems under heavy 
> disk+network load.

Because Tyan clogged the PCI-X bus, the bge can act up in certain situations.
I haven't had time+resources to test complaints about bge+320-2X's locking up,
but I would bet money that if you took PCIX A down to 100MHz by jumper, it'd
at least happen far less frequently. The other complaints, well, I can't find
any real merit in them. A K8SPro w/320-2 using the onboard bge has exhibited
zero problems under extreme loads. If you're going to be subjecting the box
to load with a 320-2X, you'll likely have to put the 320-2X on PCIX B at 66MHz
to get it stable. Or get an Iwill. This isn't the first time Tyan's had PCI
timing issues, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

-ksaihr