Rackmount MP AMD boxes?

[Ken Gunderson]

Jose M Rodriguez wrote:
> El Domingo, 15 de Mayo de 2005 07:25, gnn at freebsd.org escribió:
> 
>>At Sun, 15 May 2005 12:42:03 +0800,
>>
>>Erich Dollansky wrote:
>>
>>>gnn at freebsd.org wrote:
>>>
>>>>Anyone got one they like?
>>>>
>>>>I am looking for something to develop FreeBSD on, in particular
>>>>network code so it needs to be able to be serial debugged and
>>>>have room for multiple NICs.  1 or 2U.
>>>
>>>It depends on your budget.
>>>
>>>I use Tyan motherboards and do my own machines if it should be
>>>cheap.
>>
>>I'm thinking $2000 total, board, box, processors, memory and a disk.
>>I'd like to go lower of course but doubt it since I want two
>>processors ;-)
>>
> 
> 
> Tyan GX28 (B2882) will be a cantidate, but you be warned of:
> 
> - It's an 1U blade.
> - Doesn't have too much disk I/O power (SATA conected to PCI 32/33).
> 
> In the other hand:
> 
> + dual core CPU support official By tyan.
> + Free PCI-X 64/133 slot.
> + Broadcom BCM5704C dual channel to PCI-X bridge.
> + Intel 82551QM to PCI 32/33
> 
> I doesn't try run this with just a dual-core CPU.  ALso this will limit 
> RAM to 4 slot/ 8 GB.
> 
> So think in a base 244 (x2) system with DDR333 (x4).

This was what I had in mind when I mentioned 1u Transport...  But if you 
need more disk, then they also have a scsi based 1u that supports 4 bays.

If you didn't need a rackmount, you may consider building your own, but 
w/rackmount, you get the backplane, etc.  all nicely integrated for you 
in a package that, from Tyan at least, is also dual core certified.  The 
same mainboards seprarately are not, as the barebone units get a 
slightly different bios.  Although I suspect you could upgrade the bios...

The dual core support is nice plus.  From the pricing I've seen, 
however, a single dual core comes in substantially higher than 2 single 
core cpu's.  But then this is just w/my upstream distributor's pricing, 
not shopping the net at large....  Such a strategy offers a very 
attractive option;-)

Ciao-- kvg