[PLUG] Motherboard recommendations

[Bill Barry]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 5:33 PM, Rogan Creswick <creswick at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm putting together a linux compute/shell server for my office (of
> windows users -- one step at a time :).
>
> We've need a box like this for a while, and the key features are:
>
>   * Lots of ram  (we often load multi-gb data sets--4-8gb is minimum)
>   * 64-bit arch, so a jvm can actually address the ram (32-bit jvms
> are essentially unable to use more than 3gb)
>   * Large & fast disks (I'm looking at 2 2TB WD. 7.2k rpm sata drives.)
>   * more than one core / cpu.
>
> I think I have a pretty good idea of what we want (list is below) but
> I really don't have a clue re: motherboards (and, by extension,
> everything else I've selected may need to change.)
>
> The big questions are:
>
>   * Does the formfactor really matter? Space is not an issue, but it
> may be difficult to find a place for a rack mount (Our "rack" only has
> a front mounting bracket, and no rear supports -- it just holds
> switches and a kvm)
>
>   * Memory: quantity or speed? I know this is very hard to answer
> without knowing exactly how we'll be using the machine, but it's also
> very hard to know exactly how we'll be using the machine...  Roughly
> -- When we can fill 8gb of memory, we'll need more than 16 -- so we
> won't be able to write sloppy code just because we have loads of ram
> (which is really too bad .. that would be a huge time/money savings if
> we could).  The only difference is probably going to be the number of
> distinct disk reads.  When doing massive data processing on this
> machine, very little will be going on, so swapping out isn't going to
> be much of an issue (we can just ensure that the environment we're
> running in fits in memory, and manage the disk access on our own--the
> stuff we do makes that feasible, and often necessary.)  So, that seems
> to mean to me, that the only difference is how many times we need to
> read/write to/from disk, *not* the amount of data we actually
> transfer.  Given that the speed difference seems pretty substantial
> (ddr800 vs. ddr1066), faster ram seems the way to go, but, I may
> simply not know how to configure a system to use 16gb of ddr1066+ ram.
>  Any feedback would be great!
>
> Here's the system I'm considering:
>
> (+
> $ cost
> 144 ; ram: 8 gigs
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231195
> 80  ; mobo: (micro atx?!)
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128379
> 193 ; AMD Quad-core Phenome II & fan:
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.163672
> 600 ; drives (2 2TB WD SATA)
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344
> 20  ; dvd/cd
> ; case? (micro atx?) & powersupply
> )
> $1037 ;; well within our budget.  What else would you add / change?
>
> Thanks!
> Rogan
> _______________________________________________

For my uses quantity of ram is always more useful than speed. For most
purposes you are comparing hard disk speed to ram speed. You usually
need to go through the data set more than one time. The first time its
expensive in time to read off the disk, you don't want to have to pay
this price more than once by having to swap it. It's really great to
be able to get your whole dataset plus your applications all in ram.

I just finished building a system with that exact motherboard in it
and thought it was the best motherboard I have worked with in a couple
of years.  It is quite well build, and gave me no troubles.  The case
and power supply I used were.,

SeaSonic S12 II SS-330GB 330W ATX12V V2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC
Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151035

Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129018

The power supply may be to low power for your application, but the
case is really nice and quiet.

Bill