i need a mobo for server

[blah]

i want to build a nice fast server for home network to have all the files and stuff on it, got myself an as2k3 (evaluation of coarse so need a good Px mobo for an 800 bas. did not build anything since last year, have no idea what is going on on the market right now. i have SCSI and stuff for it, but have no clue what chipset to build on.

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[ChipDeath]

Intel 865 or 875 Chipset... Nothing between them really, but 865 is cheaper.

I see a lot of recommendations for the Abit IS7 (865) and Asus P4P800 mobos around here, but don't personally have any experience with them...

Exactly how will this thing be used?
If this is just going to be a file server, it won't need that much power, so you could build very cheaply, maybe get a Athlon XP1800+ and stick it in a nice nforce2 mobo (e.g. Epox 8RDA, stick a nice big quiet cooler on it and yer laughing..

Obviously if it's going to host Multiplayer games and stuff, then you'll obviously want to consider a faster processor though.

[EDIT]
Oh yeah - what's your budget, and how much stuff do you need with it? (e.g. do you already have stuff like RAM, CDROMs, HDD, etc...)
[/EDIT]

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<font color=red>The preceding text is assembled from information stored in an unreliable organic storage medium. As such it may be innacurate, incomplete, or completely wrong</font color=red> <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by ChipDeath on 10/08/03 01:51 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

Would you want onboard U320 SCSI? Because Gigabyte has a high end i875 board with that feature, if you like.

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[blah]

Well, i have an XP1700 on RDA8 right now, kid's gaming machine, and some business stuff on it (dual boot), but i am going to have expansion in business, so will need a web server on cable, fax server, database on it, blah blah, whole nine yards.

So basically it has to be a bullet proof Intel machine, i do not want to troubleshoot the box with hardware issues.

As far as budget goes, i do not think it is an issue here, but i do not need top of the line spendings as well, something in the mid range P4-2.6 or so, 512 RAM, and the mobo. Chip and the RAM are the same, but chipsets are pain to choose from. That is why i am asking. I have the rest of hardware already laying around from different PCs.

PS: and yeah, we do play multiplayer sometimes, XP machine does it just fine

 

[blah]

No, i do not like anything on board, caz if board dead, everything goes with it, i have a couple of SCSI cards and few SCSI drives laying around, thanks for asking.

 

[ChipDeath]

bullet proof Intel machine

Well... AMD is just as reliable these days, since Nvidia blessed AMD with the nforce2 chipset.

That said though, I think a nice P4 2.4C or 2.6C rig will do what you want quite happily, although with all that stuff I'd suggest 1Gb of RAM. I'd definitely suggest a 865 Mobo, they're the best bang/buck P4 chipsets ATM. Based on what I've read (mostly on these boards) Either the Asus or Abit I mentioned above would fill your needs well. There are other mobos for that chipset around of course, but these are the two I see recommended most frequently.

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[blah]

<<AMD is just as reliable these days>>

LOL, you've made me laugh a little, hehehehehe, anyway, AMD is just as reliable for basic user, Server needs Intel in order to be "as reliable". Sorry, just an experience (mine and my brother's, who does corporate servers for 7+ years), I have no bias, caz I use Intel and AMD all the time, but for different things.

PS: just one simplestest example - I am on the road most of the time, and lets say the fan on the chip goes tits up and there is no one to fix it for a while (few days or so), my beautiful AMD Server dead as a headless frog, but Intel on the other hand is going to chuckle along, even slow. Kapish the flow?


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[sjonnie]

That board sucks. As I already posted somwhere else the Ultra SCSI320 is plugged into the 33/33 PCI bus so has no bandwidth advantage over IDE.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A>

 

[sjonnie]

How come you are asking questions if you know the answers already? If you are after a serious standalone server then it isn't based on a P4 865/875 chipset. Intel E7501 with Windows Server 2003 is more like it.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A>

 

[blah]

I just know that Intel is better than AMD for the server, but I have no clue (as I am off of the PC stuff for more than a year) what mobo to use for it. I do not need ACC memory and expansive mobo, I want to be able to give it to my kid in a year or so for games and school stuff, and upgrade to Prescott or whatever there will be. That is why I ask your opinion, which I hope and see is based on real hands on experience.

BTW: I have 2 legit copies of w2k Server with 10 CALs each which I bought at MS while working there, so I can use 20 CALs on that one server easily.

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[Crashman]

Hush, I already know that. I also know that the U320 drives are only transfering around 80MB/s, so the 133MB/s bus shouldn't be a big disadvantage will fewer than 3 15k RPM drives.

I throw the u320 number out because it's a big number people like. I've been trying to sell a 3-channel U80 RAID card for YEARS, and everyone says it's "too slow" and won't believe me when I tell them otherwise, so let them have their big, flashy, meaningless numbers!

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[blah]

why r u so evil?

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[Crashman]

I'm not evil. The board I suggested is a very good one. The i875 chipset doesn't support PCI-X, it's stuck with standard PCI bus for every device except the LAN chip (which gets it's own special bus). So using the best chipset procludes getting anything faster than 133MB/s from any PCI device. It can't be helped.

Most people don't NEED anything faster though. Even u320 15k RPM SCSI drives can't exceed 133MB/s. It would take 2 in RAID0 just to reach the limit of PCI. People are idiots and think they NEED U320 when U80 and U160 are fast enough. So give them the numbers they want to see, forget the performance deficits because they won't be seen using typical hardware.

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[blah]

LOL, I was just laughing at you, gg. I am in the same skin here, and using SCSI 80 still, because I do not have 320 users on the network requiring 1 MB of data at the same second and each second ;o>

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[jimbo99]

Doing repairs every day all day has led me to one conclustion. Intel is no more stable nor bulletproof then AMD. Components are the same, technologies are about the same, etc. I'd say I like the AMD performance a bit better. Selecting Intel over AMD seems to be just a matter of choice most times based on Intel's marketing muscle. I work with both all the time and frankly don't see a disadvantage in one over the other except AMD seems to perform better (when one considers pure mhz vs. equal mhz or better) and AMD seems cheaper. Thank goodness too, because I think we needed the AMD competition to get prices down and performance up.

If the mobo goes and it has all the onboard stuff then just replace it again with one with all the on board stuff.

For a small business server, you'll have more power with what you put together then we had for a 50 person corporate office 5 years ago. Frankly, for a small business you'll not notice diddly in terms of performance for with an intel box vs. an amd box. Just remember to back up your data nightly.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Jimbo99 on 10/13/03 11:33 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[blah]

LOL, poor you are, can't see nothing but repair and cheap(er) replacement parts, gg.

Anyway, thanks for an advice, will think about it ;>

PS: by the way, yer ""Intel is no more stable nor bulletproof then AMD."" song you can sing to yer kids (that's if you have any), they like fairy tails. I think I went through this already with "ChipDeath".

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[jihiggs]

your nuts if you think you need anything close to what your talking about if your just going to use it as a file server and host a website over a cable connection. you can do all that with an e machine from costco. and what is the deal with people jumping straight to thinking they have a use for advanced server? if your lucky you might catch a glimpse of a machine that is worthy of advanced server.

wpdclan.com cs game server - 69.12.5.119:27015

 

[blah]

i am not "nuts", i just like to play with stuff, and yeah, i do not need an advanced server at home, but i have it, why not use it? can you tell why not? even it is going to be one CPU machine, what's the heck? i am not building clasters or 8 way machine, i just want to use whatever is available, and in the mean time it would be nice to have that machine for the future use (i.e. read above)

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[ChipDeath]

leaving my beautiful AMD Server dead as a headless frog

Nah... Modern AMD rigs DO have thermal protection stuff. Granted it'll power down whereas Intel will (in theory) keep running, but it will leave the Hardware intact.. (although a great big lump of metal loose inside the case will probably cause more damage than the CPU costs.. - which is always my argument in "HSF falls off" scenario)

Intel would be better for server stuff though, cos of hyperthreading and suchlike.

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[blah]

<<Intel would be better for server stuff though>>

That is precisely why I asked opinion on Intel's mobo.

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[jimbo99]

With a great abundance of servers out there that have been in service for years, the greater majority of them do not have the HT technology. In this situation, I doubt he'll be running any sort of application that requires the use of it anyway and even if one or two tasks did it is unlikely that they'll put such a demand on his server that an Intel solution would provide a magnificient benefit.

Most AMD mobos have had the ability to protect the system due to thermal failure for years. Shutting down a system, to me, makes more sense then just lowering the clock speed. Either way, the problems and solutions are the same--replace the device that is failing. Do they fail equally? I'd say I see just as many intel based systems come in for repairs as I see AMD based system. This isn't to say this was the case several years ago. Now it is obvious.

Since I do support systems of all types and sizes, my personal preference is to not buy cheap. I will always buy better components.

With the same manufacturers making the intel and amd boards, with the same manufacturers making the chipsets, with the same manufacturers making the ram, HDD, etc., I can't justify a belief that Intel is better made.

 

[SJJM]

When did intel start making chipsets for amd? Had to say that, since you say that the same companies are make the chipsets for both amd and intel. We all know that the best chipset for p4 is intels chipset, while amd is the nvidia.

Not that it makes a difference. I think that both systems are great and I am not really worried about my heatsink falling off.

<font color=blue>"You know, that my backstab attack does double the damage. I can make an off button for him." </font color=blue> <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by sjjm on 10/14/03 12:44 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[jimbo99]

Hehe, Intel is only one chipset maker. There are others besides Intel. I wouldn't agree with the conclusion that the intel chipset is vastly, or even "just" superior to the other chipset manufacturers.