Pheasant Plucker® wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> Apologies for cross-posting...
>
> I am building a 2U Rack server and was hoping to use a spare Asus PC-DL
> Deluxe motherboard, a pair of 533MHz 3.06GHZ Xeons, 4GB RAM and XP Pro that
> I just happen to have lying around here...;^)
>
> That would have been too easy...the case I am using has 6 SATA II Hotswap
> drive caddies and the Asus has no way of connecting to these having only 4
> SATA slots. In addition most of the RAID cards that will support 6 drives
> are either PCI-X or PCI-E cards and the Asus only has PCI slots...
>
> The Asus motherboard is also getting a bit long in the tooth now and I would
> also like onboard graphics.
>
> The Asus fails on all counts so I am left looking for an alternative.
>
> I have no wish nor desire to overclock preferring stability & reliability to
> wringing its neck to squeeze the last ounce of speed from the thing...
>
> The successful candidate must have the following;
>
> 1. Onboard Gigabit LAN
> 2. Onboard graphics - nothing special needed here.
> 3. Minimum of 6 SATA II slots preferred
> 4. If not then a PCI-X / PCI-E slot for RAID card
> 5. At least one PCI slot for CCTV capture card
>
> I have taken a look at the websites of the manufacturers of the newsgroups I
> have posted to but there are so many boards listed than the more I look the
> more confused I get - it must be an age thing!
>
> I was wondering if any of you kind, knowledgeable souls out there could
> suggest a board (or boards) that might meet my requirements?
>
(Abit snipped, since Uabit isn't in the motherboard business anymore.)
If you were serious about building a server, you could easily confine your
search to the Tyan.com site. Perhaps you mean "home server" versus "corporate" ?
Corporate servers include features that make them easier to maintain,
like being able to reboot them remotely or the like.
"M3N WS"
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?mo...82&l3=708&l4=0
Now, why did I select that one, and that approach ?
I assumed first of all, you wanted ECC memory protection. AMD processors have
ECC or Chipkill support built-in. Which means I don't have to check chipset
specs to verify it is there. If you use unbuffered ECC modules, then if the
modules make errors, you have some detection capability. I might not use
Chipkill mode, since a UDIMM would use x8 chips, rather than the x4 chips
of an RDIMM. Chipkill works best if a x4 chip dies, as a pair of memory modules
has enough redundancy to work around the "missing" chip. If a x8 chip dies, the
server is (relatively) dead. So Chipkill mode is a big win, on designs with
registered RAM and x4 chips. On a desktop like the M3N WS, it might make less
sense. You can still use SECDED, for protection from "cosmic rays".
The WS means Workstation, and on Asus, that typically means a PCI-X bridge
chip and a single slot, might be available on the board. That allows the
usage of some older RAID cards you might have.
The board also has PCI Express. Since you're not using a video card,
another RAID could go there.
Built-in graphics (in the Northbridge), are Nvidia Geforce 8200. Good enough.
Included connectors are VGA (15 pin analog) and HDMI. Use an HDMI to DVI
passive adapter dongle, if using a DVI monitor.
Since the support of the PCI-X slot on some of these Asus boards isn't that
good, you may want to read vip.asus.com before you buy. In addition, low
volume boards (WS boards may sell fewer than overclocker enthusiast
boards), means fewer BIOS releases will be provided. Some customers
get quite upset about that.)
There are only 8 postings here since Oct.2008, so the board isn't that
popular.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx...Language=en-us
I wouldn't touch the onboard SATA ports for building a RAID, since
a real RAID card can have more features making it easier to maintain
an array.
On the Intel side, the problem with desktops, is the level of support
for ECC. X38 and X48 chipsets are possible candidates, but the
industry support for ECC on them is shabby, leaving the customer
guessing as to whether it is really there. With AMD, you get features
like "scrubbing", so you can scan and correct errors in the memory
in the background, better avoiding latent faults. With the X38 and X48,
it is unclear whether Intel is really serious about ECC.
See the Workstation section at the bottom of this page, for more WS boards.
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=-1
Anything with "server" in the name, will have paid more attention to
ECC or memory protection. And a site like the Tyan one would be
a good place to start looking in that case.
HTH,
Paul
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