Subject: Re: Motherboard comments?
To: Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
From: Steven M. Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
List: port-xen
Date: 11/30/2006 22:37:14
On Fri, 1 Dec 2006 00:29:01 +0100
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org> 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> 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