From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 5 10:20:26 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DEDF8106564A; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 10:20:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jeremie@le-hen.org) Received: from smtp1-g21.free.fr (smtp1-g21.free.fr [212.27.42.1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D7D0B8FC12; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 10:20:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp1-g21.free.fr (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp1-g21.free.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA6569400EB; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 12:20:16 +0200 (CEST) Received: from endor.tataz.chchile.org (tataz.chchile.org [82.233.239.98]) by smtp1-g21.free.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id BA22F940194; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 12:20:13 +0200 (CEST) Received: from felucia.tataz.chchile.org (felucia.tataz.chchile.org [192.168.1.9]) by endor.tataz.chchile.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1BE0D33E4E; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 10:20:13 +0000 (UTC) Received: by felucia.tataz.chchile.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id EE21CA1109; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 10:20:12 +0000 (UTC) Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 12:20:12 +0200 From: Jeremie Le Hen To: Peter Jeremy , Dan Naumov Message-ID: <20100405102012.GA40253@felucia.tataz.chchile.org> References: <20100404082033.GW40253@felucia.tataz.chchile.org> <20100404215455.GZ40253@felucia.tataz.chchile.org> <20100405004034.GB2915@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20100405004034.GB2915@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-Mailman-Approved-At: Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:55:21 +0000 Cc: Tim Judd , Jeremie Le Hen , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Intel D945GSE vs Zotac ION ITX (was: Support for Zotac MB with nVidia ION chipset) 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: Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:20:26 -0000 Hi Dan, Peter, Thank you for your enlightening replies. On Mon, Apr 05, 2010 at 10:40:35AM +1000, Peter Jeremy wrote: > On 2010-Apr-04 23:54:55 +0200, Jeremie Le Hen wrote: > >Yeah, you are right. I should have mentionned that I do not want > >necessarily a high-performance NAS, it's for home use so my premary > >concern is the low power consumption. This is why I want an Atom-based > >motherboard. > > Unfortunately, FreeBSD has some issues with low memory handling that > make FreeBSD/i386 a bad choice for ZFS. You would be far better off > running amd64 with as much RAM as you can fit onto the board. (And > this is one case where you want amd64 even if you don't have >4GB RAM). > Note that this doesn't mean you can't use an Atom - some Atoms include > EM64T - you just need to check. > > IMO, the biggest disadvantage of using an Atom in a ZFS NAS is the > lack of ECC support on the Atom. ZFS can detect bitflips in the > I/O sustem but you can still get screwed by a bitflip in RAM. > > >I'm still not sure about which motherboard to buy actually. After some > >additional reading, my leaning seems to go towards Intel's one as it is > >less expensive and consumes half the power of the Zotac's one (13W with > >a HDD [2] vs. 25W [3]). > > I'd recommend against buying anything with the Atom combined with a 945. > Whilst the Atom is low-power, the 945 isn't. That is also an older > motherboard using an older, superseded Atom. I suggest you look for > motherboards built around the new Pinetrail Atoms (which _do_ support > EM46T and hence can run amd64). > > Supermicro make a number of potentially suitable boards: > http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/ICH9/X7SPA.cfm > this is pricier but supports remote management - other options at: > http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/ > > If you want an Intel MB, search for BOXD510MO I think I will go for the Supermicro X7SPA-H. It seems a better hardware although it consumes more power. Nonetheless I'm a little worried by what you said about the lack of ECC. Computers has been used for years before ECC came out and obviously they worked :). Do you really think it might happen to be a problem? Would an Intel board would compensate for this? Dan, have you ever experienced weird problems that could be explained by bitflips? For the records, I've found an interesting and very recent post about someone running OpenSolaris on this Supermicro motherboard [1]. He uses a thumbdrive for the operating system and with four drives connected onto it, the whole system sucks 41 watts when idle (27 without any HDD, which is twice as the Intel D945GSE, but I guess this is the price for better performance). Now, it seems that OpenSolaris unfortunately has some problems with this hardware, but according to Dan, FreeBSD runs correctly on it. Thanks again for your help. Regards, [1] http://sorenragsdale.livejournal.com/19875.html -- Jeremie Le Hen Humans are born free and equal. But some are more equal than others. Coluche