[Pc_Support] Re: Fastest Hard Drive Access for Large (Video) Files -- 2200/2050 and HT-1000 mainboards

[Bryan J. Smith]

David Simmons <dsimmons at powersmiths.com> wrote:
> Maybe on newer motherboards...but again, this is not one
> of them...just PCI bus with SATA built-on....It's a
> Gigabyte...hmmm...GA-7N400VPro I think.

"Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> nForce2.  Yeah, it's probably on the PCI bus.

For entry-level workstations and servers, I have been
recommending the following mainboard for systems:  
 
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm?pName=NFPIK8AA-8EKRS
   

Which runs about $240, and add in $140-200 for an Opteron
140-146), and some for the registered memory (typically ECC,
which is good in a production workstation/server).

It is a nForce Pro 2200+2050, with (2) PCIe x16 slots, (1)
PCIe x4 slot and (2) PCIe x1 slots.  It has dual-1000Mbps
NICs (HyperTransport peripheral), one on each of the 2200 and
2050, and eight (8) SATA channels, four (4) on each of the
2200 and 2050 (PCIe x1 channel peripheral).

This gives you some "raw" SATA bandwidth now (although no NCQ
or antyhing), and room to grow as intelligent PCIe SATA RAID
cards come about very soon (probably with Broadcom's briding
PCIe x8/PCI-X SATA/SAS chip).  For now, only the LSI Logic
320-2E (PCIe x8 dual-channel U320 SCSI) is about the only
major RAID controller I've seen.

NOTE:  I have _not_ personally deployed this board.

Broadcom's ServerWorks does have an "entry-level" PCI-X
chipset for A64/Opteron in the HT-2000 and HT-1000.  The
HT-1000 on its own would be a cost-effective, entry-level
server with a single PCI-X channel (1 slot at 133MHz, 2 slots
at 100MHz, 3-5 slots at 66MHz), especially for Opteron 1xx. 
But so far, I've only seen the HT-2000+HT-1000, which is
costly.

-- Bryan

P.S.  There is a $300 dual-Opteron 2xx mainboard out there
that does _not_ offer PCIe or PCI-X at all (AMD8151+8111). 
_Avoid_ it, it has serious I/O bandwidth issues.  I've seen
people recommend it for workstations/servers and I want to
scream.  @-OOO


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