From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 1 14:15:51 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@FreeBSD.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9352D16A81B for ; Thu, 1 Jun 2006 14:15:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rebehn@ant.uni-bremen.de) Received: from antsrv1.ant.uni-bremen.de (antsrv1.ant.uni-bremen.de [134.102.176.16]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2A8A643D48 for ; Thu, 1 Jun 2006 14:15:50 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rebehn@ant.uni-bremen.de) Received: from bremerhaven.ant.uni-bremen.de ([134.102.176.10]) by antsrv1.ant.uni-bremen.de with esmtp (Exim 4.62 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1Flnxl-0000Yr-PR; Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:15:49 +0200 Message-ID: <447EF695.6090506@ant.uni-bremen.de> Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:15:49 +0200 From: Heinrich Rebehn User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060405 SeaMonkey/1.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: danial_thom@yahoo.com References: <20060601133823.1743.qmail@web33311.mail.mud.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20060601133823.1743.qmail@web33311.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Recommendation for 1000BASE-SX card? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 14:15:52 -0000 Danial Thom wrote: > > --- Heinrich Rebehn > wrote: > >> Danial Thom wrote: >>> The intel cards that use the EM driver are >> the >>> best performing cards in FreeBSD that we've >>> tested. We've test cards made by the same >> company >>> that use the broadcom controllers and the >> intel >>> cards are substantially better (ie use less >> CPU >>> passing the same amount of traffic). >>> >>> Be careful using on-board controllers. >> Usually >>> vendors, for some reason, don't wire them to >> the >>> pci-x bus. Most supermicro boards wire the em >>> controllers to the 32bit/33mhz bus and the >> tyan >>> and supermicro opteron boards we've tested >> wire >>> the broadcoms to a shared 1x PCI-E, both of >> which >>> will not only give you poor performance, but >> are >>> not capable of running full gigabit rates. >>> >>> DT >>> >> The Intel card would be an INTEL Pro1000MF, >> right? This would be quite >> expensive (~ EUR 430), but good performance and >> stability would warrant >> that. >> ATM, we are using the onboard controller >> (Broadcom BCM5704C wired to the >> pci-x bus). I did not have opportunity to do >> performance measurements, >> but we do have problems with our Linkpro >> 1000SX/1000TX converters, the >> 3rd of which has already died. >> That's why i want to give a PCI-X card with >> fiber interface a try. > > No, that would be the 1000MT, the MF is a fiber > card I believe. They are about US$120. in the US. Our building has fiber cabling, that's why i am looking for a fiber card. The 1000SX/1000TX converters that we use are just to unreliable. > > How do you know its wired to the PCI-X bus, since > I don't believe that the controller has a way of > reporting the way that the intel controller does? > What MB do you have? It is a Tyan Thunder K8SD Pro S2882-D http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8sdpro_spec.html The spec says that the BCM5704C is connected to PCI-X Bridge A (64Bit,100MHz). > > Also keep in mind that the bge driver is a piece > of crap; driver quality is a much more telling > factor in these free OS's than the card in many > cases. The EM and FXP are the only drivers worth > anything (mainly because neither were written by > mass-driver mill man Bill Paul). That really sounds bad. I wonder if others can confirm that. --Heinrich