[ale] *Serious* motherboards?

[James P. Kinney III]

On Thu, 2007-09-13 at 07:53 -0400, Dan Lambert wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-09-12 at 23:37 -0600, JK wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> > 
> > In my day-to-day work, I need to have a bunch of different systems
> > up and running in my software build+test environment.  Two build
> > machines (one XP, one Linux), at least two and sometimes three XP
> > servers, an XP workstation, and at least two and probably soon
> > three Linux servers.  One of the Linux boxes runs a real-time simulation,
> > which is pretty CPU- and RAM-intensive.  Another Linux box interacts
> > with the simulation on a once/second basis.  One of the XP machines
> > also interacts with the simulation once/sec, although not as intensely.
> > The other boxes have more interactive or I/O-bound loads.
> > 
> > I'm toying with the idea of having all this stuff sitting in a single 
> > box, though
> > still realized as separate virtual servers.  I think I'd need a motherboard
> > supporting at least 16GB of RAM, and probably a pair of dual-core CPUs.
> > Plus appropriate case, PS, cooling, ...
> > 
> > Every system I've built in the past has been made from bargain-basement
> > parts. :-)  I am not sure where to begin researching such high-end hardware.
> > Any suggestions for specific hardware I should look at,  or sites with
> > reviews of such things?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > -- JK
> 
> I have always had the best luck using Tyan server motherboards. I know
> there are other very good quality high end mother boards available that
> will do what you want, but the Tyan boards always seemed to have the
> best balance of price, quality and feature set for the servers I've
> built.
> 
> It's been a couple of years since I built one, so things may have
> changed.

They have only changed for the better. As Aaron noted earlier, LNS has
been working with Tyan systems for the past year or so and we have a
small squadron of these machines out in the field. The top box can
support 64GB RAM (unless you really need 128GB RAM and 4 quad-core
Opteron 8000's Coming Soon: x8 quad core 8000's and 256GB RAM in a 5U)
and x2 Opteron 2000 quad-core chips with x8 SATA or SAS hot swap drives
and dual Gbit Ethernet and all fits nicely into a 2U case. We also have
a 1U twin Opteron 2000 dual-core with 64GB RAM and 4 SAS or SATA hot
swap drive bays. We can do a 1U x4 quad-core Opteron 8000 but it only
supports 64GB RAM. The 128GB version puts the power supply in the front
and the heat output of the power supply is part of the airflow over the
CPU/RAM area. 
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 
-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC        
770-493-8244                    
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part