Re: Motherboard comments?

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Fri, 1 Dec 2006 00:29:01 +0100
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 06:05:56PM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> > On Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:48:56 +0100
> > Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 05:14:16PM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin
> > > wrote:
> > > > I'm getting ready to build a new 1U server for myself; those two
> > > > MBs have been suggested.
> > > 
> > > I think you forgot to name the motherboards ...
> > > 
> > 
> > Oops!
> > 
> > http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3010/PDSME+.cfm
> > http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/P4/E7221/P8SCi.cfm
> 
> OK. I'm not sure the 82573 ethernet works fine with NetBSD, but I'm
> not sure about the broadcom either.

The 82573E and 82573L are listed in pcidevs, as is the Broadcom 5721,
so they *should* work.  The question is whether or not they do....

> VT support is definitively a plus for Xen, I can't live without it
> any more :)

What, precisely, does VT buy me?  I know that it lets me run non-Xen
guest OSs.  Does it help with performance when running a NetBSD DomU?
> 
> Both have an AHCI SATA controller, but the PDSME+ is 3.0Gb/s (ws
> 1.5Gb/s for the P8SCi). Also, the PDSME+ takes DDR2-667Mhz memory, vs
> 553 for the P8SCi.
> 
> I would go with the PDSME+ :)
> 
If it works (and I haven't yet checked the price difference...)


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb