nforce and linux.. for web serving ?

[MarkB]

A friend of mine is thinking of putting up an AMD based web server.. until now he's used only Intel..
I've heard that the nforce is a particularly stable platform, at least in windows... so I want to know how it does in Linux since i know theres drivers available for it.. since web serving is fairly mem intensive i figure that the dual channel ddr would provide some boost.

Anyone have experience with it?

ps.. the board i'm recommending is the asus one... so far.

 

[MarkB]

somebody's gotta know... bump

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

damn, what kind of web server is this gonna be? he's using an nforce board for it? :Q

the video and sound wont really matter, and the network interface will need nvidia's drivers....binary only. nforce + linux don't seem like a great combo right now.

and besides, alot of "instability" is due to windows and/or crap windows drivers. my a7v133 has had varying degrees of stability in win2k, depending on drivers and whatnot, at one point it was abysmal, lockups all the time. it has NEVER done that in linux.

 

[Windogg]

BBWF is corrent in saying NForce will be a complete waste because the video and audio features will be a non issue. I addition, the dual-channel DDR is also a non-issue. The Athlon can only use 2.1GB/sec of memory bandwidth (266Mhz FSB x 64bit) so the extra 2.1GB/sec will be unused. The dual channel would only have been helpful when the CPU and on-board video fight for bandwidth. Otherwise there is no benefit whatsoever.

A "beef" needed by a webserver is very subjective. If the server will only be serving static pages, a fairly low end system is good enough. I have a P233, 64MB EDO, 3.2GB 5400RPM HDD serving up about 2,000 - 5,000 hits per day and running FTP. All that is done without breaking a sweat. Juyst go with what is reliable and stable.

Windogg

 

[MarkB]

i was thinking nforce so in a 1U case the one expansion card could be something other than video..
He wants to setup up one AMD system to see how it compares to the Intel ones..
What platform would you sugest KT333?.. maybe sis745?

what has the best linux support?

 

[Windogg]

The biq question is what will your friend be serving? Static or dynamic content? How many anticipated hits?

Windogg

 

[n0cmonkey]

If you want to potentially waste a bunch of power, get an AMD 760 board. I have one (with only 1 processor ) running OpenBSD and its been *VERY* stable. You can also get onboard SCSI so you will not have to worry about an expansion card for that (you are going to go SCSI right? You are after all looking at fairly high end equipment for a webserver ), unless you want RAID. The higher end one also has onboard ethernet (2x 3com nics I believe) and video (ATI Rage 128 or something, but it doesnt matter since commands lines almost always look the same). You can add a second processor in there (under linux anyhow) and get plenty of speed out of it.

Now, if you are planning on using this on a DSL/cable/other consumer line, dont worry about it. Grab an older Athlon/Duron/P3/p2/ppro/k6/whatever and server content off of that. Your bandwidth will be the limiting factor.

There is a security site out there that was using IDE drives and a k6II for a while. It was the largest FTP site in .au I believe, and the hardware was fine. If you have extra money, send me a check

 

[Priit]

All VIA and AMD chipsets are fine, but there wasn't all neccesary drivers for SiS7xx chipsets avalible, so you may not want it (running HDD at PIO mode 0-4 isn't good idea)...

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< All VIA and AMD chipsets are fine, but there wasn't all neccesary drivers for SiS7xx chipsets avalible, so you may not want it (running HDD at PIO mode 0-4 isn't good idea)... >>



I disagree on the VIA chipset thing, but Im jaded

 

[Priit]

<< I disagree on the VIA chipset thing, but Im jade >>



Well, at least you have proper IDE and AGP support for VIA, which can't be said about newer Ali and SiS chipsets. Or you don't agree with that?

 

[n0cmonkey]

<<

<< I disagree on the VIA chipset thing, but Im jade >>



Well, at least you have proper IDE and AGP support for VIA, which can't be said about newer Ali and SiS chipsets. Or you don't agree with that? >>



I havent checked up on SiS or Ali so I cant agree or disagree with the second part. I have had more problems with my 1 VIA chipset board than I have with my 2 AMD chipset boards combined. Its quite possible its the board itself and not the chipset though, so like all opinions, mine should be taken with a grain of salt

 

[Priit]

<< I havent checked up on SiS or Ali so I cant agree or disagree with the second part. I have had more problems with my 1 VIA chipset board than I have with my 2 AMD chipset boards combined. Its quite possible its the board itself and not the chipset though, so like all opinions, mine should be taken with a grain of salt >>



OK, I have bunch of machines running on various VIA chipsets and so far only problems have been caused by user errors My own desktop with AMD/VIA chipset runs just as well...

 

[n0cmonkey]

<<

<< I havent checked up on SiS or Ali so I cant agree or disagree with the second part. I have had more problems with my 1 VIA chipset board than I have with my 2 AMD chipset boards combined. Its quite possible its the board itself and not the chipset though, so like all opinions, mine should be taken with a grain of salt >>



OK, I have bunch of machines running on various VIA chipsets and so far only problems have been caused by user errors My own desktop with AMD/VIA chipset runs just as well... >>



Under most situations I would say its user error, but not for this board

 

[Priit]

<< Under most situations I would say its user error, but not for this board >>



If you have mobo that doesn't work as it shoud, just junk/RMA it (no matter what chipset it has) BTW, what exactly is wrong with your VIA-based board? (since it's getting off-topic, maybe we should continue our discussion with personal messages?)