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Re: comments about hardware



Hi,

Dual core support is not distro specific.  It depends on the kernel used.
I believe that debian, with a recent (2.6.12.3+) kernel should be fine.

Ed Tomlinson

On Monday 18 July 2005 01:36, Faheem Mitha wrote:
> 
> Dear People,
> 
> My bioinformatics research group at Duke is buying a server, which will 
> mostly be used as a server, particularly for web based services. The idea 
> here is that a user will submit a request for some bioinformatics 
> calculation via a web interface (often using Python or R or similar), the 
> server does the calculation, and returns it as a web page.
> 
> None of us are experts about recent hardware, so would appreciate any 
> feedback about hardware specs.
> 
> The following quote is from Monarch Computers.
> 
> We plan to run Linux on this. It has not yet been decided yet what, but it 
> seems most likely that it will be either some Red Hat variant (Fedora 
> Core, CentOS), or Debian (possibly Ubuntu).
> 
> Ok, so here are some specific questions.
> 
> 1) Dual core Opterons first came on the market in April. The sales rep 
> said that AMD Dual Core Opterons did not work with Fedora Core. Since they 
> only install Fedora and SuSE, they had no info about Debian. Any idea what 
> the status is here? How well are they supported, and how stably do they 
> run under Linux?
> 
> Also, I was told that a dual core Opteron, which is somewhat more than 
> twice the cost two regular Opterons of similar speed, is not equivalent to 
> two regular Opterons in functionality. Can anyone point me to information 
> about this, or offer a comment?
> 
> 2) I'm wondering if the listed motherboard is the best choice. I see it 
> listed in 
> http://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30192/27/mainboards.html
> 
> We are looking for the motherboard that has the least known issues. 
> Preferably something that will work right out of the box.
> 
> Google found me http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64/2004/09/msg00443.html
> but would be interested in other reports.
> 
> The specs are here 
> http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8spro_spec.html
> 
> It looks like both the graphics card and the ethernet cards are onboard. 
> Looks like the graphics card is ATI RAGE XL PCI, which supposedly works 
> with the 'ati' driver. Is this under XFree 4.3?
> 
> The ethernet cards are an Intel Ethernet Pro 100, which supposedly works 
> with the e100 driver and a Gigabit Broadcom which works with the tg3 
> driver. There seem to be two cards here. Is that correct?
> 
> I'm kinda allergic to onboard cards. They are often trouble.
> 
> Has anyone had experience with Debian Sarge installation with this? Does 
> anyone have a board to suggest that they prefer to this?
> 
> 3) I'm also wondering if peple have thoughts about the RAID setup. The rep 
> said he would be using RAID 1, but I see RAID 10 is listed. I'll have to 
> check on this. Anyway, assuming this corresponds to 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#RAID_10 
> with each RAID 1 set as two drives, and 4 RAID 1 sets striped together, 
> does this seem reasonable?
> 
> Thanks.                                                        Faheem.
> 
> ***********************************************************************
> ITEM                             NUM  PRICE PER ITEM TOT
> 
> Monarch Empro Custom 2U Rack S   1.00    75.00   75.00
> 
> RMC2K2-9I-XPSS,2U,8 Bays,SATA,   1.00   725.00   725.00
> 
> AIC 2U Riser Card/Rear Window    1.00   112.00   112.00
> 
> Tyan S2882G3NR-D Dual Socket94   1.00   394.00   394.00
> 
> Amd OSA265FAA6CB Dual Core Opt   2.00   851.00 1,702.00
> 
> Thermal Grease, Shin-Etsu G675   2.00    14.00    28.00
> 
> THERMALTAKE A1838 AMD Opteron    2.00    25.00    50.00
> 
> WESTERN DIGITAL 250 GB 2500JD    1.00   115.00   115.00
> 
> 3WARE Escalade 9500S-8 - 8-por   1.00   485.00   485.00
> 
> RAID 10 Setup                    1.00    25.00    25.00
> 
> WESTERN DIGITAL 250 GB 2500JD    8.00    115.00  920.00
> 
> SONY DWD-56A 8X4X2.4 DVD RW+/-   1.00    129.00  129.00
> 
> SUSE Linux 9.3 Professional Ed   1.00     92.00   92.00
> 
> 24/7 TECH SUPPORT+ONSITE 3 YR.   1.00    199.00  199.00
> 
> Net Order:                                     5,051.00
> Freight:                                          75.00
>                                                 5,126.00
> 
> 



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