experience with tyan boards?

[Smokey0066]

I'm interesting in purchasing a tyan motherboard.

specifically:
TYAN S3870G2NR3 or TYAN S3870G2NR-RS

I havne't been able to find much online about these motherboards and I haven't been able to find out the difference between them either.

Anyone have any ideas/input

just looking for a stable board that will support pci-x for my file server. I'll be running a pci-x card as my raid controller.

 

[Peter]

The order code differences are on the product website, under "specifications".

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tigerk8ssa.html

The -RS board appears to be RoHS compliant, else no different to the NR. The Broadcom "HT1000" single chip is a solid solution. The PCI-X slot is a full performance slot (not the sad excuse sometimes found on low end Intel boards that do PCI-X off the south bridge), and the integrated 4-channel SATA unit has hardware assisted RAID.

The onboard graphics chip is as minimal as it gets ... 2D-only, one head, just what you need in a file server.

 

[Smokey0066]

based on that link it shows all models as being RoHS complaint thus i was unsure what the differences were between the two boards aside from the $20 at newegg.

 

[chucky2]

I've owned/supported a few Tyan S1598C2 boards (think Super-7 and VIA MVP3 chipset). As far as basic workings go, they are fine and have been stable; even when using ACPI which is not implemented on them correctly (on these boards).

As far as support goes back in the day...it left lots to be desired.

If they've improved their support, then they'd be like awesome - maybe not overclocker friendly, but at least stable and compatible.

Unfortunately, after leaving me (and others) hanging, I won't take the chance on them again...but if you do go their route, I hope everything goes well for you!

Chuck

 

[NXIL]

Dear Smokey,

I am using a Tyan S2865, more basic than the dual Opteron board you are looking at, but, 100% rock solid stable; runs pretty much 24/7; support from Tyan, before purchase (question about power supplies) was fast and helpful--no need for support since it has been installed, zero problems.

Re: different versions of the board you are looking at: may be this:

http://www.tyan.com/support/html/faq_tso.html

ftp://ftp.tyan.com/software/tso/m3291/firmware/SMDC3870/s3870.jpg

25 x 2 SMDC header?

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/m3291.html

The -RS refers RoHS compliance, "5/6" versus "6/6"--it looks like the "6/6" boards get the -RS tag on their model number if they are compliant with all 6 RoHS standards.

ftp://ftp.tyan.com/RoHS/TYAN_RoHS_Statement.pdf

Also, on the Newegg product summary, one board has the Intel 82541*E*I lan controller, the other the Intel 82541*P*I.

Supermicro also very good, and one dual core socket 939 processor should be enough for a home file server (I think....) And the Asus P5WDG2 with a Core 2 Duo would be cool, quiet, fast, and upgradalbe to quad core later...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCo...List=N82E16813131039%2CN82E16813182077

Not sure if you were planning on having 2 separate CPUs, but, from what I have read, a dual core CPU compares very well to to separate CPUs...

HTH,

XIL

 

[Peter]

The difference in these Intel GbE controllers is that the PI is RoHS compliant while the EI is not. They're functionally identical AFAIR.

Two separate processors or one dual-core? The difference is in the RAM. Two Opterons means you can have twice as much RAM, and have twice the bandwidth available - to independent tasks. Jobs that are multithreaded but working on the same data are better served by one dual-core CPU. Know your task, then pick your tools.

Of course, you can always skip that step and put twin dualcores in

 

[Smokey0066]

right now i'm looking at picking up one version of this board with

dual core opteron 270 2ghz
2gb of ram
areca ARC-1120

when xmas rolls around and I get my bonus I will add a 2nd dual core opteron and another 2 gb of ram and a couple more hds.

right now I do not know what i'm going to use this server for. For sure as a file server but i may do some other things as well depending on time available.