[Pc_Support] Foxconn's $245 Single Opteron, nForce Pro 2200 + 2050 ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

This little mainboard caught my eye just today:  
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm?
pName=NFPIK8AA-8EKRS  

Now there are a few vendors coming out with nForce Pro 2200 Opteron
mainboards, and a few others coming out with nForce Pro 2200 + 2050 dual
Opteron mainboards.

But this was a single Opteron with the 2200 + 2050 combination -- 40
PCIe lanes, (2) GbE NICs (one in each chip) and (8) SATA ports (four in
each chip).  The GbE MACs and SATA ports are not on the standard,
legacy, shared PCI bus, but segmented either with PCIe x1 channels or
integrated directly on the HyperTransport interconnect.

Now if I had money to spend on a "server" or "workstation," I'd go for a
mainboard with an AMD813x and it's dual-PCI-X channels, as well as a
storage controller to match.

But if I didn't have money, the segmented NIC/SATA combination may very
well be great for the price to start -- $245 for an Opteron mainboard.
Especially since the SATA are supported in the _stock_ Linux kernel 2.6
(nv_sata), and nVidia now supports direct development of the 1000Mbps
NIC and it's getting quite good (GPL forcedeth -- although the closed
source nv_net is still an option if you run into any issues).

It also is somewhat "future proof" because there are all sorts of
options to upgrade to PCIe storage/NIC hardware as they become
available**.  Even for a workstation, where both PCIe x16 slots may be
in use for SLI, there is still a PCIe x4 slots for storage that is off,
away from the graphics cards (in addition to (2) PCIe x1 slots).

[ **NOTE:  Broadcom just introduced its first _true_ RAID hardware
intelligence in a single IC for SATA RAID channels, as well as both PCIe
and PCI-X interfaces (it can even bridge the two) for $60 in quantities
of $10K.  That means a board is probably going to be $250-300 end-user
(the design supports up to 768MB of SDRAM buffer) and you can expect
them later in the year. ]

Opteron 100 series are sub-$200 for a good, 2GHz/1MB L2 processor.  The
only other cost is Registered SDRAM, but Registered ECC DDR333 SDRAM is
very reliable, and not much more in cost.  This makes this mainboard an
excellent idea for an "entry level server" when cost is king, but you
don't want to skimp on reliability.

If you're planning to go SLI for a "high-end" workstation then you'll
need a PS with a triple +12V feed with (2) 6-pin WS connectors (one for
each PCIe x16 card) because the mainboard feed isn't going to cut it.
It only has the standard 24-pin ATX 2.0 (supposedly 20-pin ATX 1.0
"tolerant" but I wouldn't push it ;-) + 4-pin P4.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                     b.j.smith at ieee.org 
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 
It is mathematically impossible for someone who makes more than you
to be anything but richer than you.  Any tax rate that penalizes them
will also penalize you similarly (to those below you, and then below
them).  Linear algebra, let alone differential calculus or even ele-
mentary concepts of limits, is mutually exclusive with US journalism.
So forget even attempting to explain how tax cuts work.  ;->