Re: [gentoo-amd64] Planning a new box - AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon?

[Beso]

>
> Well, I've been looking at the new Barcelona Opteron 2300 series,
> which have 4 cores each & can be used in dual socket motherboards, for
> a total of 8 cores in the system.  The 2 or 4 cores in an Athlon X2
> system really would be sufficient for my needs, but then my current box
> is still pretty much sufficient for my needs.  This new box I'm
> planning is more about my wants, and I look at 8 cores & think "I want!"
>
> About registered vs. unbuffered memory, my understanding is that for
> systems w/ lots of memory (more than 4 GiB), the registers are a Good
> Thing(tm). I don't really understand the electrical engineering behind
> how memory & memory controllers work, so I don't claim to really grok
> why registered memory is so important in systems w/ lots of RAM, but
> since I'm planning on loading it with 8 or 16 GiB, I was planning on
> going with registered anyway.


in this case opterons are better...

>
> Interesting, most of what I've heard about Tyan has been really good.
> Is there something specific about Tyan that's been a problem for you?
> I've also heard good things about Gigabyte, but Tyan really seemed to
> stand out as excellent.  The two dual-socket F Gigabyte boards on
> NewEgg are cheaper than the Tyans I've been considering, but
> unfortunately they don't support the new Barcelona Opterons, and I'd
> have to wait for new versions to be released.  But then the Tyan
> motherboard I liked best is in the same situation, w/ a new
> Barcelona-compatible version expected later this month.  I'll keep the
> Gigabytes in mind.


i've had some problems with a tyan mobo  which has died in less than 1 week.
i've changed it and the second died in 3 days and after the second has died
i had returned the mobo and requested the money back and then went with a
gigabyte. thus, this wasn't in a high-level system, but on a middle one. so
i don't have any experience with high level systems.


> I am thinking I'll probably go w/ an ATI video card, since I'm fairly
> excited about the driver talk that's been going around.  Although one
> thing I happened to find during my research for this box, nVidia is
> significantly more energy efficient.
> <http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000662.html>


not true, for what i know. the new nvidias consume more power than radeons.
also, if you buy a gigabyte one which is totally passive its energy
consumption is very low. then ati has the powerplay wihch also works with
the fglrx, for what i know. if you need more info on the powerplay see how
it works on the amd's site.

RAM I mentioned above.  Hard disk space was actually the main thing
> that's prompting this new box, as I'm filling up all my current disks.
> I eventually plan on filling the case w/ as many hard disks as it can
> fit, probably at least 10+.  This box is going to be my home fileserver
> for a long time to come.  But for starters I'm thinking I'll get 3x
> 1TiB in RAID5, and then grow the RAID as it fills up & drive prices
> drop.  This will be my first time setting up RAID, I'm planning on
> following the HOWTO_Setup_fully_crypted_Gentoo_on_EVMS in the
> gentoo-wiki.
>
> It is going to be quite expensive, but I'm sure my family & friends
> won't mind me getting myself a Christmas present instead of them (j/k -
> I've been saving for a while, and I can afford it along w/ holiday
> gifts).


lucky you.... a similar system should go on around 4000-5000€....

ps. what would be its use?!?!

-- 
dott. ing. beso