From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 18 07:01:38 2003 Return-Path: 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 AE84416A4CE for ; Thu, 18 Dec 2003 07:01:38 -0800 (PST) Received: from ns1.tcbug.org (12-218-40-24.client.mchsi.com [12.218.40.24]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9847243D36 for ; Thu, 18 Dec 2003 07:01:37 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from friar_josh@ns1.tcbug.org) Received: by ns1.tcbug.org (Postfix, from userid 1003) id 563DCBA00; Thu, 18 Dec 2003 09:01:05 +0000 (GMT) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 09:01:04 +0000 From: Josh Paetzel To: Mark Wolfskehl Message-ID: <20031218090103.GE7146@ns1.tcbug.org> References: <3FE105FB.3060603@verizon.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3FE105FB.3060603@verizon.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD newbie general and SMP questions for i386] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 15:01:38 -0000 On Wed, Dec 17, 2003 at 05:42:19PM -0800, Mark Wolfskehl wrote: > Hi, > > I'm a FreeBSD newbie. I'm considering installing either FreeBSD i386 or > Linux on a 2 AMD Athelon CPU machine. The motherboard is an ASUS > A7M266-D, and the machine has 2GB memory installed. I'm working on > trying to answer some key questions before making a final decision which > OS to install (right now the other alternative is SuSe Linux), but > perhaps if anyone has some quick answers that would be a help: > > 1. How stable is SMP support in 5.1, especially compared to the > stability of single CPU FreeBSD and Linux in general? I'm running FreeBSD 5.1 on a dual p-pro system, 4.9 on a dual AMD system, and until recently I was running Debian Linux on a dual p3...I can't say that any of them were unstable. > > 2. In general, how could I characterize the relative performance of > FreeBSD and Linux under an SMP kernel and/.or single processors? > > 3. I'm looking into whether my motherboard conforms to the FreeBSD > requirements. I don't know if the 'Intel MP' means you have to have > genuine Intel processors, in particular. If anyone can get a quick > answer to this, that would be critical, of course. ASUS's website is > www.asus.com, and you can just do a search for the motherboard model. > They have all the specs and the users manual in pdf online. Thanks in > advance. I'm running a dual socket A Gigabyte motherboard, and the only issue that I've had with it is that the system hangs if I try to use the nvidia drivers for X. I've heard from someone with a Tyan Tiger board using the same chipset (MPX) that they've had the same problem. Other than that I've had no issues at all. Josh Paetzel