Dual Opteron Server with -STABLE ...

[Tom]

On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Marc G. Fournier wrote:

> Is there a current opinion on this?  I heard that costs have come down to
> 'close to dual xeon' prices, but is it safe to run -STABLE on it?  Other
> then memory allocation above 4g, are we seeing any benefits right now with
> running this?  Or are we dealin with 'running 32 bit apps on a 64 bit
> arch' still?

  Remember that such a server can run two different branchs of FreeBSD:
FreeBSD/i386 and FreeBSD/amd64.  FreeBSD/i386 is 32 bit, and FreeBSD/amd64
is 64.  And FreeBSD/amd64 is only available for some current snapshots
right now, not 4.x-stable.

  The prices for Opterons should be considerable less than Xeon's
especially for single CPU systems.  Opteron 100s are the same thing as the
AMD 64 FX chip (same socket too).  And nVnidia NForce Pro boards are
fairly cheap.  Beware that the AMD 64 (non FX version) is not an Opteron
chip, and has a different socket.

  Nearly anyone can get an inexpensive high-perf 64bit system now.

Tom