Re: Soliciting hardware recommendations
On 12/13/2013 05:31 PM, Stephen Powell wrote:
I have decided to buy a 64-bit system for myself for Christmas. ...
I want a 64-bit system (amd64) on which I plan to install Debian. I will use it
primarily for two things:
(1) As a host system for Hercules. Hercules is an open source program (packaged
for Debian in package "hercules") that can emulate a 64-bit IBM mainframe. And
of course, I plan on installing and running a 64-bit version of Debian (s390x)
under Hercules. The Hercules emulator adds a lot of overhead. The speed of
Hercules is nowhere near the speed of a real mainframe, so I want to get the
fastest and most powerful host system I can afford. But I don't want a system
with lots of cores on it. The kind of software I will run probably can't exploit
more than two cores effectively, so I'd rather have a two-core system with a
fast clocking rate than an eight-core system with a slow clocking rate.
(2) This system will also double as a desktop system. I'm not a high-end graphics
user. I use the graphical desktop mostly for web browsing (including the use
of a web-based e-mail client) and watching Youtube videos. I'm not a gamer.
I did something similar ~1.5 years ago. I wanted virtualization,
whole-drive encryption, on-board video, on-board sound, on-board
Gigabit, and reduced energy consumption/ noise.
I've had the best luck with Intel components over the past ~20 years.
So, I researched what Intel offers and picked components with the
technology features I needed -- Intel HD Graphics, VT-d, VT-x, and AES-NI:
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-030922.htm
http://ark.intel.com/
Only the higher price stuff had all the features I needed. So, my
choice boiled down to building around a high-end desktop board
(~US$1,000) or building around a uniprocessor workstation/ server board
(~US$1,500). I picked the Intel DQ67SW desktop motherboard, Intel Core2
i7-2600S processor, 8 GB dual-channel DDR 1333 RAM, Intel 520 Series 60
GB SSD, Seagate 7200.14 Generation 3 TB HDD, Antec Sonata 500 case and
power supply, Pioneer BluRay burner, and StarTech HDD caddy. It
currently has Wheezy amd64 and runs Samba, VirtualBox, two Squeeze i386
virtual servers (CVS and Approx), and a Wheezy i386 virtual desktop.
Everything runs briskly, with the exception that video in the desktop
sometimes skips.
I'd like it to have a usable CSM,so I can continue to run my favorite boot loader, LILO.
CSM = IBM Cluster Systems Management?
I use the default boot loader (GRUB) provided by the Debian installer.
I don't know if LILO is available OOTB; you might have to work for it.
And I plan to partition the disk using the traditional MS-DOS disk
partitioning system,so I don't want the hard disk to be larger than 2T.
I assume you mean an MS-DOS partition table, as opposed to a GUID
partition table (GPT). (I believe the Debian installer supports GPT on
the system disk, but I haven't tried it.)
You want an SSD system drive for performance and disaster recovery
(imaging) reasons, and other drive(s) for data. (My SSD has an MS-DOS
partition table and my HDD has a GUID partition table.)
I initially had my virtual machine drive images on the SSD, but moved
them to the HDD. I noticed boot and application start delays, but once
everything is up and running, everything is responsive enough.
I'd like a new monitor too. ... I think I'm ready for a digital flat screen.
I had a 2560x1440 LED display briefly -- it was awesome.
Choose your motherboard/ graphics card and monitor at the same time --
there are multiple choices for interfaces (VGA, DVI-D, DVI-I, DP,
Thunderbolt, etc.) and everything needs to match.
I don't plan on running Windows at all, so if it comes pre-installed with Windows,
the first thing I'm going to do is to delete the Windows partition. If I can
get a system without a Windows license, that will save me some money.
I have an EE/CS background, and prefer to build my computers from
scratch. That way, I get exactly what I want and nothing I don't need.
If you don't have the skills, there are vendors who will assemble and
test hardware and/or software that you purchase from them for a nominal fee.
Does anyone wish to contribute any opinions? Anything from general advice to
specific hardware recommendations is welcome. And feel free to ask follow-up
questions.
Contact the Hercules community and see what they recommend. Find out
how much RAM you need. Find out if dual-channel memory has enough
bandwidth, or if you want triple- or quad-channel. If you need lots of
RAM (16+ GB?), you should probably choose a motherboard that supports
ECC and buy ECC memory. Find out if Hercules makes use of the various
hardware virtualization technologies, and choose your components
accordingly. If your virtual mainframe will be doing a lot of disk I/O,
you might want to buy another SSD for just that.
HTH,
David
Reply to: