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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.sprintlink.net!gatech!swrinde!sgigate.sgi.com!news1.best.com!shell2.best.com!not-for-mail From: rcarter@best.com (Russell Carter) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Hacker's Choice for Hardware Date: 22 Aug 1995 22:13:21 -0700 Organization: Best Internet Communications, Inc. (info@best.com) Lines: 66 Message-ID: <41eddh$f80@shell2.best.com> References: <41anih$4m5@news1.best.com> <41bcfa$pau@reason.cdrom.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: shell2.best.com [sigh] In article <41bcfa$pau@reason.cdrom.com>, Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh@FreeBSD.org> wrote: >Here's my current list of "faves" where hardware for FreeBSD systems >is concerned: > >1. ASUS P54TP4 PCI/ISA motherboard with 64MB memory (128MB in the case of > ftp.cdrom.com). You really don't want to swap if you can possibly > avoid it and 64MB is the bare minimum for good performance (heck, I > have that much in my desktop box - memory isn't expensive enough to > make it worth skimping on). P55-TP4XE, and if performance means anything, get the burst sram. For why, see http://www.geli.com/data/fp.perf.html > >2. Adaptec 2940 or Buslogic Bt946c SCSI controller. If you're going to > hang lots of disks off the box, the Adaptec 3940 is also something we're > using here in our NFS servers with very good results - it has 2 SCSI > busses and represents a lot of bang-for-the-buck. No argument here, though the NCR53C810 is fine too, with the ASUS motherboards. > >3. Seagate Barracuda or Quantum Atlas drives. I've had a 50% infant mortality > rate with the Quantum Grand Prix drives and will no longer purchase them. Advice: go Atlas, but the Grand Prix are CHEAP! Buy two, run both, replace the faulty one, and after you make sure it works sell it to a fruend. But make sure they get the 5 year warranty. 8-) See http://www.geli.com/data/disk.perf.html > >4. SMC or Compex PCI ethernet controller based on DEC DC21040 chip. > Seriously, don't even bother with anything else if you're in the > networking business. The driver is rock solid and performance is > top notch. We run with both the 10Mb and 100Mb (100BT) controllers > here and are actually converting everything over to 100Mbit > networking internally so that we can do NFS access at raw disk > speeds. This requires a Grand Junction hub as well. Well, let's see, there's also mylex, and cogent, and they work fine in my 4 cpu cluster. I'm also looking at some newer cards based on this chip that are a bit cheaper. If anybody cares what Linux is doing, they (Donald Becker) are focusing on the most inexpensive cards, for very good reason. > >5. PCI VGA card of some sort (it's actually helpful to go PCI for as much > as you can, if only to avoid unintentional hardware conflicts). Personal advice: #9 Motion 771 with the newest server. A full $100 cheaper for a bit faster performance. I like that! Russell Carter Geli Engineering Pentium Workstation Clusters http:://www.geli.com > >-- > Jordan >