[Pc_Support] Home Server, is PCIe it?

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Sat, 2006-07-01 at 23:53 -0400, Jason Boxman wrote:
> For a commodity x86 file server with a couple users at most, is PCIe where 
> it's at?

PCIe for what?

For a NIC, a "dumb" PCIe x1 is sub-$50,
 "entry-server" PCIe x4 is sub-$200,
 "enterprise-class" PCIe x4/x8 is $500+.

For a storage controller, a "dumb" PCIe x1 is sub-$50,
 "entry-server" PCIe x4 is sub-$300,
 "enterprise-class" is PCIe x4/x8 is $500+

At some point, the "added cost" of the card makes PCIe v. PCI-X less
relevant.  Furthermore, even most "entry-server" PCIe cards are PCIe x4,
and they do _not_ work in PCIe x1.

CASE-IN-POINT:  Before PCIe, it was _difficult_ to get "segmented" and
"higher-DTR" I/O out of "consumer" mainboards.  Now that PCIe is here,
you _can_ get a few PCIe mainboards with x1 slots, maybe x2 or x4.  But
the "server-class" PCIe slot is a x8.

In other words, "server-class" mainboards have PCI-X and/or PCIe x8
slots.

> I know in the past, I'd buy an entry level server mainboard with 
> independent PCI channels.  (I haven't made it up to PCI-X systems yet.) 

PCI-X is just the evolution of 3.3V PCI 64-bit, more clock (and a few
other things).  No big difference.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith           Professional, technical annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org     http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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