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Date:      Tue, 24 Dec 2002 08:52:30 -0600 (CST)
From:      Marc Wiz <marc@wiz.com>
To:        freebsd-smp@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Problems with Dell Precision 220 SMP
Message-ID:  <200212241452.gBOEqUN15567@freshaire.wiz.com>
In-Reply-To: <20021224061554.GA20557@tp.databus.com> from "Barney Wolff" at Dec 24, 2002 01:15:54 AM

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> 
> On Mon, Dec 23, 2002 at 10:24:18PM -0600, Marc Wiz wrote:
> > 
> > I have a Dell Precision 220 with 256 megs of RDRAM.  Non-ECC.  The
> > 220 is in a desktop case with a 230 watt power supply.  The system
> > has a LSI-Logic dual channel SCSI host adapter with an ultra-160
> > SCSI 10K RPM drive.   The graphics card is a Matrox dual head G450.
> > 
> > Two 866 Mhz PIII's (retail boxed processors) with the same stepping.
> 
> Does Dell really sell this with 2 cpus and only the 230 watt supply?

Yes they do.  Hard to believe isn't it? 

> I'd have thought something much beefier would be needed.  You can
> either try w2k or xp, or just get a 400 watt ps and see if the problem
> goes away.  Of course that will void the warranty, but your mention
> of "retail boxed" on the processors makes one suspect that you've done
> that already.

These machines did work just fine when they were running w2k.  (I
bought the system from work at a great price.  There is a tower
version of the system.  But Dell no longer makes these systems)

To digress I would not mind finding a bigger power supply but that
is the problem; I don't know if such an animal exists.  This system
can take two disk drives, two sticks of RDRAM in addition to the
two processors.

I am thinking of just chucking the Dell case and purchasing a real
case with a hefty power supply.  I have not really looked into
this.  For all I know this might not be possible.  I know from
looking at the system that the main cooling fan uses a non-standard
fan connector that plugs into the motherboard.  (Great way to
guarantee you buy the replacement from Dell) I will have to check
the motherboard power supply connectors as well as the mounting
holes to see if it is possible to use an off the shelf case.

I am thinking of installing another Unix system and running the same
test.

I also noticed that the FreeBSD SMP code is said to be non-production
code.  If this is the case it will present a problem since this is
the system that is going to be my primary server and also serve as
the server for my wife's business.

Does anyone know if the FreeBSD 5.0 SMP is an improvement over what
is in 4.7?    If so I would not mind downloading the latest snapshot
and trying it for a test.

Thanks and happy holidays,
Marc

-- 
Marc Wiz
marc@wiz.com
Yes, that really is my last name.

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