dual Xeon motherboard of choice?

[Simon]

Supermicro is a good choice, but I would get a mobo with Intel NICs.
2U is the way to go because you get better cooling, more space for
expansion and redundant power supplies, as you mentioned. You
may also want to get SCA backplane with SAF-TE chip for true
hot-swap capability. Not sure about Adaptec RAID, the drivers for
them haven't been so good from what I've read in the past, but if
that is no longer the case, the ability to add RAID via Adapatec zero
channel card is a very nice feature. Meanwhile, I use Mylex with
great results. Seagate SCSI drives are topnotch.

-Simon

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 12:37:16 -0700 (PDT), David Raistrick wrote:

>
>Hey folks.
>
>I'm shopping around for a new development server.
>
>Probably will run a pair of 533 2.4Ghz Xeons and 512 megs of ram.  An
>Adaptec 2200S will eventually make its way into the box when the RAID
>gets upgraded, with a 2100S running it to start.
>
>Only two disks will likely be housed in the system.  I'm currently looking
>at the Seagate Cheetah's, 36 gigs or so, 15k.
>
>
>I'm looking at 2u or so systems, since the RAID is and will be housed in
>its own case.  I'm not space crunched so I don't see any reason to cram a
>pair of Xeons into a 1u case! :)
>
>
>Currently I'm looking at the X5DLR-8G2 powered Supermicro 6023L-8R or
>6023P-8R. (the 6023P requires low profile cards only.)
>
>I'm also considering the SE7501WV2 powered Intel SR2300.
>
>I'll be taking advantage of the redundant power supplies in either of
>these chassis.
>
>
>Both of these chassis use SCA2 hotswap cages for the disks.
>
>Does anyone have any experience using either of these systems?  Anything
>to watch out for (SMP, the Broadcom NICs on the supermicro, etc)?  Any
>known issues?
>
>For the time being the system will run 4.8-RELEASE for some time.  No
>timeline is in place for migration to 5.x, though any current issues with
>5.x and these systems would be good to know. :)
>
>Alternative system/chassis/board suggestions are also welcome.
>
>Thanks.
>
>
>...david
>
>---
>david raistrick
>drais at atlasta.net		http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
>
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