Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 12:28:30 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Dillon <cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us> To: Randy Bush <randy@psg.com> Cc: David Burton <odyseus2000@earthlink.net>, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: asus recommendation Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0009251206530.78246-100000@mail.wolves.k12.mo.us> In-Reply-To: <E13dQMp-000Bm4-00@rip.psg.com>
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On Sun, 24 Sep 2000, Randy Bush wrote: > > why dont you surf on over to the www.asus.com website, poke around a > > little while, see what looks like it would meet your needs. > > did that. and they use all sorts of terms which folk who have not kept up > with mbs and chip sets don't understand, FSB, ServerWorks, AGPset, i820, > RDRAM, ... which it is not clear freebsd (4.1-stable) supports. > > e.g. the p3c-ls (or -s) look close to my needs if i don't want anything > faster than 733mhz, but does freebsd support the i820, the aic7892 (the > handbook says 789x, but i am cautious), ...? This should help you out with general narrowing-down of what you want: 1) Stay away from the RDRAM chipsets. This includes the Intel i820 and i840. RDRAM is not only very, very expensive memory, its actual performance advantage is questionable, and it is being backed by a very questionable company (as in the underhanded Microsoft-type questionable -- Rambus, Inc.). I don't envision RAMBUS DRAM lasting very long in the server/workstation/desktop market due to its many disadvantages, but instead in the embedded market where it actually has some good advantages over SDRAM. 2) If you want to use a PIII processor, this leaves you with several choices: The good old i440BX chipset, the i810, the i815, and the ServerWorks stuff. I don't recommend the i810, as it is pretty low-end. The i440BX is over a couple of years old, but it is a very mature chipset that has proven itself as reliable. All of the other chipsets available for Slot1/Socket370 processors (such as from VIA, SiS, ALI, etc.) are crap, IMHO. Since the i815 is also pretty low-end and not suitable for servers, I'd have to go with one of the ServerWorks solutions (ASUS, Tyan, and SuperMicro, among others, make boards with these chipsets). 3) If you want to use an AMD Athlon processor of some type, you should wait a bit. The motherboards based on AMD's new 760 chipset are just now in the beta phase (the chipset is done, now its up to the mobo manufacturers to do something with it). The only other options are the AMD 750 chipset which is now quite dated and would hinder the performance of any modern Athlon you stick on it, and then there are the VIA chipsets. Most of the boards based on the VIA stuff are not very reliable. A few manufacturers have managed to create reliable boards out of them, but you'll have to do extra research to find out which boards they are. -- Chris Dillon - cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us - cdillon@inter-linc.net FreeBSD: The fastest and most stable server OS on the planet. For Intel x86 and Alpha architectures. ( http://www.freebsd.org ) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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