Re: Dual CPU's and Debian Linux
Daniel Quinlan <quinlan@pathname.com> writes:
>
> Syrus Nemat-Nasser <syrus@ucsd.edu> writes:
>
> With 256M of RAM, more of your cost is probably going towards RAM than
> CPU. I'd consider going with a Pentium Pro.
Definitely. You can get PPro 150 chips for about $175 right now -
you're not going to get better cost/performance.
> Make sure you get 256K or 512K of pipeline-burst cache.
The cache is in the PPro chip. The 512K 200MHz parts are about $1000
apiece, so unless you have NO budget, most people aren't going to buy
these. I have heard there are 200MHz 1M cache chips available
somewhere - I've never seen them on the market though.
> I am currently evaluating two dual Pentium Pro motherboards. The Tyan
> S1668 Titan-Pro ATX and the Intel Providence 440FX. I'm leaning towards
> the Tyan, but there isn't much difference.
I'm writing this on a Tyan S1668 machine. It's VERY nice. Lots of
memory and PCI slots made it the choice for us. I've also heard a lot
of good stuff about the SuperMicro PPro motherboards. I was really
happy with their Pentium motherbaords, but when I was buying these
PPros, SuperMicro didn't have an ATX product yet... (Don't know if
that's still true.)
> SMP Linux can sometimes lock-up when running very intensive
> programs.
I/O intense. Not CPU intense (in my experience).
> The only kernel version which I believe to run pretty stable is
> 2.1.29.
I've had very few problems with 2.0.14 - that's what I found being
recommend at the Linux SMP web site. (Don't run setserial, though!)
I've had my machine up for >25 days, running a DES cracker on both
CPUs in all idle cycles, doing make -j4 compiles, and generally
abusing the machine. It's been quite stable - occasionally the
keyboard has locked up on me, and that has been it.
> SCSI: get the Buslogic 958.
Definititely. (I'm using a 948, and a 958, and kernel based
striping. The IO on this machine is KILLER.) I'm starting to become
very biased towards Seagate SCSI disks - it seems like there are a lot
of junky Quantum Tempest disks that have been relabeled as "Fireball
TM"s and thrown on the market. The one narrow disk I have on this
machine is a 4 gig barracuda - it's REALLY fast.
> 100 Mbps ethernet: some 100BaseTX ethernet cards can spam the network
> under intensive load. I suggest staying away from the DEC tulip-based
> cards. We have good luck with the Intel eepro, but the current driver
> takes a long time (5 to 10 minutes) to initialize.
I'm using a 3com 595 at 100mbs, which works nicely, but I hear the
3c905 (the new version of this card) is really crappy. The old Intel
etherexpress (non-pro) cards were supposed to have some horrible
programmed I/O intereface, and poor performance as a result. With
everything I have read recently, I would say get a tulip-based
ethernet card, as I have never heard ANYONE say they've had problems
with them.
> I'd also recommend getting an ATX motherboard.
Definitely agree on this one too. The cards acutally line up
correctly!
> Check out <URL:http://www.tdl.com/~netex/>. It has some good advice on
> RAM, motherboards, and CPU.
>
> Dan
As far as other pieces, I have yet to find a sound card I truly like.
The Matrox Millenium seems to be the best deal in video right now.
And I'm have become very biased towards Sony Monitors recently - the
200sx is a DEAL if you don't mind 60Hz vertical refresh. (At
1280x1024, that is.) I was living with 50Hz (at 1152x864) for a long
time - apparently I'm very tolerant, compared to many people :-)
Good luck!
--
+-------------------- finger for pgp public key ---------------------+
| Dale E. Martin | University of Cincinnati Savant Research Laboratory |
| dmartin@ececs.uc.edu | http://www.ececs.uc.edu/~dmartin |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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