Server motherboard WHICH one ?

How much traffic do you expect? Running ASP scripts does not require a ton of processing power. I've served sites that get 7,000-15,000 "hits" per month on a single 600MHz CPU with no problem. Unless you plan to run a database on the machine, or have tons of users, or write extremely inefficient scripts, you might instead focus on high thouroughput and drive redundancy... mirror 2 drives, and get some fast ethernet controllers... Dual CPUs might not even be necessary.

hi patty,

i just finished a small project putting together a dual cpu, dual monitor graphics machine. for whatever its worth, let me share my opinion and the results of my research lately in preparation for this build.
I feel that for a server or graphics machine the primary concern for the motherboard is a stable chipset. given this premise, focusing on a dual board under 200.00 american is hard. many of the dual boards that have been popular lately use the VIA chipset(s), which i cant honestly recommend. they perform well, but are high maintenance amd quite finicky (at best). in the budget arena that leaves the 440bx chipset, as the 815 doesnt technically support multiprocessing.

Anyway, i opted for the famous Tyan tiger 100 revision f, as it had developed a reputation as the most reliable dual PIII board ever. Its discontinued, but i can send you a link to a company that sells them, for under 100.00.

I am currently finishing my tests on the machine: dual PIII 550's with 512 mb sdram and the new Gainward geforce 2mx twinview (this card is SOOO cool. ill post a real short review later for anybody interested). I have to say that so far it is unbelievably stable with this configuration. I cant honestly say i've had a chance to run it through the hoops yet, but from my experience things look VERY good.

This board is capable of running dual PIII's up to 850mhz with pc100. not the fastest thing around, but at least its cheap, ultra reliable and easy to set up.



ignore everything i say