[gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[James Pattinson]

Hi All

If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use with gentoo-amd64, could 
you please let me know?

Things I'm looking for that are well supported on Linux

* SATA 150
* Ethernet (don't like the sound of the forcedeth driver)
* No need for high end GFX

I'm currently using an Optronix which seems to work well apart from some 
APIC issues, if these get sorted out by the manufacturer then I'd be 
happy to recomment this board.

Cheers!

James
-- 
gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[P.V.Anthony]

James Pattinson wrote:

> If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use with gentoo-amd64, could 
> you please let me know?

I am using the MSI Neo 4 Platinum. So far so good.

It has two ethernet ports. One is the forcedeth and the other is Marvell.

It has 8 sata ports. No built in graphics card.

P.V.Anthony
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gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Drew Kirkpatrick]

I've been very happy with both nforce 3 & nforce 4 MSI motherboards.
I've built some graphics clusters with them, and a number of
workstations, no problems as of yet. You will need some sort of video
card, but there are a number of cheap ones that would work fine. A
PCI-Express 6200 nvidia card can be had for well under $100 now.


On 10/17/05, P.V.Anthony <pvantony@singnet.com.sg> wrote:
> James Pattinson wrote:
>
> > If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use with gentoo-amd64, could
> > you please let me know?
>
> I am using the MSI Neo 4 Platinum. So far so good.
>
> It has two ethernet ports. One is the forcedeth and the other is Marvell.
>
> It has 8 sata ports. No built in graphics card.
>
> P.V.Anthony
> --
> gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Kirby Walborn]

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Hash: SHA1

Drew Kirkpatrick wrote:
> I've been very happy with both nforce 3 & nforce 4 MSI motherboards.
> I've built some graphics clusters with them, and a number of
> workstations, no problems as of yet. You will need some sort of video
> card, but there are a number of cheap ones that would work fine. A
> PCI-Express 6200 nvidia card can be had for well under $100 now.
> 
> 
> On 10/17/05, P.V.Anthony <pvantony@singnet.com.sg> wrote:
> 
>>James Pattinson wrote:
>>
>>
>>>If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use with gentoo-amd64, could
>>>you please let me know?
>>
>>I am using the MSI Neo 4 Platinum. So far so good.
>>
>>It has two ethernet ports. One is the forcedeth and the other is Marvell.
>>
>>It has 8 sata ports. No built in graphics card.
>>
>>P.V.Anthony

I would second these recommendations.  I have a MSI Neo 4 platinum and
it works great.  The Nvidia Ethernet uses the forcedeath driver but I
have absolutely no problems with it.  I'm using a cheap nvidia
pci-express card and I am more than pleased with it.


- --

Kirby Walborn
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Mark Knecht]

On 10/17/05, James Pattinson <jamesp@hisser.org> wrote:
> Hi All
>
> If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use with gentoo-amd64, could
> you please let me know?
>
> Things I'm looking for that are well supported on Linux
>
> * SATA 150
> * Ethernet (don't like the sound of the forcedeth driver)
> * No need for high end GFX
>
> I'm currently using an Optronix which seems to work well apart from some
> APIC issues, if these get sorted out by the manufacturer then I'd be
> happy to recomment this board.
>
> Cheers!
>
> James

Hi,
   I'm using the Asus A8N-E motherboard with an AMD64 3000+ processor.
The forcedeth driver does seem to be the only driver in the kernel
that supports this NIC but it's built into my kernel and working fine
so far.

   If I may ask, why do you not like the 'sound' of the forcedeth driver?

   I'm running this motherboard with 2.6.14-rc-rt7. It's working
quitre well so far for realtime audio stuff althoguh my workload has
been pretty light. I've got a nice 1394b 800Mb/S card, a couple of
external hard drives and a 250GB SATA drive internal. ATI PCI-Express
adapter for which I have no real driver right now. Not a problem for
me.

   The only problem I'm having with the most recent realtime kernel is
that the logout of Gnome takes almost 2 minutes. This was not a
problem a coupl eof releases back so I assume they'll work that out
pretty soon.

   Off line I helped someone get the new kernel up and running on an
A8N-SLI motherboard. I cannot recommend an SLI solution, nor does it
sound like you need it, but it's there and does work.

Hope this helps,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Francisco Perez]

Hey James,
I am running all Gentoo AMD 64 in my business and am very happy with the 
price/performance.  I have had very good experiences with Tyan's AMD 
Opteron mother boards.  I have a GX-28 rack-mount server as well as 8 
boxes based on the Tyan S2895 mobo, all running SMP.  Here's what does 
it for me:

1)Dual BroadCom Gb.Eth. has built in kernel drivers so you get full Gb 
support
2)NVidia Nforce Professional, again excellent Linux support
3)Dual-Core Support plus 8 memory slots = plenty of upgradability as 
dual core chips go down in price
4)Twin Opterons + 16GB ram + CCACHE = very short compile times :)

Hope that helps, if there is anything else you are wondering about the 
Tyan mobo's don't hesitate to let me know.

Frank

James Pattinson wrote:
> Hi All
> 
> If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use with gentoo-amd64, could 
> you please let me know?
> 
> Things I'm looking for that are well supported on Linux
> 
> * SATA 150
> * Ethernet (don't like the sound of the forcedeth driver)
> * No need for high end GFX
> 
> I'm currently using an Optronix which seems to work well apart from some 
> APIC issues, if these get sorted out by the manufacturer then I'd be 
> happy to recomment this board.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> James
-- 
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Mike Melanson]

James Pattinson wrote:
> * Ethernet (don't like the sound of the forcedeth driver)

	I use the forcedeth driver without any trouble... well, until the 
ethernet hardware on the motherboard inexplicably stopped working. But I 
don't believe that was the driver's fault.

-- 
	-Mike Melanson
-- 
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[James Pattinson]

Hi

Thanks all for your recommendations! It's nice to know there are some 
good amd64 boards out there. perhaps I've just had bad luck with these 
APIC problems so far.

Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me 
know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached 
read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:

amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec

pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2296 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1147.03 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   44 MB in  3.02 seconds =  14.56 MB/sec

Cheers!

James
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Kirby Walborn]

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James Pattinson wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Thanks all for your recommendations! It's nice to know there are some
> good amd64 boards out there. perhaps I've just had bad luck with these
> APIC problems so far.
> 
> Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me
> know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached
> read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
> 
> amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
> 
> pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   2296 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1147.03 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   44 MB in  3.02 seconds =  14.56 MB/sec
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> James

/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   2640 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1318.22 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  154 MB in  3.00 seconds =  51.27 MB/sec


- --

Kirby Walborn
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Michael Kerscher]

James Pattinson wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Thanks all for your recommendations! It's nice to know there are some 
> good amd64 boards out there. perhaps I've just had bad luck with these 
> APIC problems so far.
> 
> Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me 
> know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached 
> read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
> 
> amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
> 
> pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   2296 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1147.03 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   44 MB in  3.02 seconds =  14.56 MB/sec
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> James

Hi James,

i'm getting this values.

hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
  Timing cached reads:   3172 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1585.45 MB/sec
  Timing buffered disk reads:  174 MB in  3.01 seconds =  57.74 MB/sec


Michael
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Chris Frederick]

James Pattinson wrote:
> <snip>
> Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me 
> know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached 
> read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
> 
> amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
> 
> pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   2296 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1147.03 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   44 MB in  3.02 seconds =  14.56 MB/sec

AMD64 3.0 GHz:
/dev/hda:
  Timing cached reads:   1300 MB in  2.00 seconds = 649.45 MB/sec
  Timing buffered disk reads:   84 MB in  3.02 seconds =  27.80 MB/sec

DUAL Zeon 2.6 GHz:
/dev/hda:
  Timing cached reads:   2196 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1096.52 MB/sec
  Timing buffered disk reads:  140 MB in  3.00 seconds =  46.61 MB/sec

Looks like my AMD64 setup is getting about half of my Zeon system 
performance.  Also curious why your P4 buffered disk reads are so low 
compared to mine.

Chris Frederick

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Marcus D. Hanwell]

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On Monday 17 October 2005 20:36, Chris Frederick wrote:
> James Pattinson wrote:
> > <snip>
> > Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me
> > know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached
> > read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
> >
> > amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> >
> > /dev/sda:
> > Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> > Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
> >
> > pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> >
> > /dev/sda:
> > Timing cached reads:   2296 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1147.03 MB/sec
> > Timing buffered disk reads:   44 MB in  3.02 seconds =  14.56 MB/sec
>
> AMD64 3.0 GHz:
> /dev/hda:
>   Timing cached reads:   1300 MB in  2.00 seconds = 649.45 MB/sec
>   Timing buffered disk reads:   84 MB in  3.02 seconds =  27.80 MB/sec
>
> DUAL Zeon 2.6 GHz:
> /dev/hda:
>   Timing cached reads:   2196 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1096.52 MB/sec
>   Timing buffered disk reads:  140 MB in  3.00 seconds =  46.61 MB/sec
>
Dual core X2 3800+ NForce4 (MSI) with Raptor 74 GB drive
/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   3488 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1743.89 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  206 MB in  3.02 seconds =  68.21 MB/sec

Turion64 Acer Ferrari 4005 laptop
/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   1820 MB in  2.00 seconds = 909.94 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  108 MB in  3.01 seconds =  35.85 MB/sec

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Monday 17 October 2005 18:10, James Pattinson wrote:
> Hi All
>
> If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use with gentoo-amd64, could
> you please let me know?
>
> Things I'm looking for that are well supported on Linux
>
> * SATA 150
> * Ethernet (don't like the sound of the forcedeth driver)
> * No need for high end GFX
>
> I'm currently using an Optronix which seems to work well apart from some
> APIC issues, if these get sorted out by the manufacturer then I'd be
> happy to recomment this board.
>

I am using the Asrock DualSata2

It has 2 'normal' Sata ports (ULI chipset)
	1 Sata2 port (JMicron - nobody knows if it is supported)
	onboard 10/100mbit ethernet, which works with kernels >2.6.14-rc* - and for 
earlier versions is an opensource driver on the ULI homepage.
	onboard sound works
        1xPCIE16x, 1xPCIE1x, 1xAGP8x, 3xPCI.
	1 Sockel-upgrade-slot, o you do not need to buy a new board with the next 
socket 'upgrade'
	2xudma-Pata.
	1xfloppy
	Many usb2 port

Everything is supported by opensource drivers, and it is cheap as dirt. And 
not too slow either...
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Mark Knecht]

On 10/17/05, Marcus D. Hanwell <cryos@gentoo.org> wrote:
> On Monday 17 October 2005 20:36, Chris Frederick wrote:
> > James Pattinson wrote:
> > > <snip>
> > > Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me
> > > know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached
> > > read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
> > >
> > > amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> > >
> > > /dev/sda:
> > > Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> > > Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
> > >
> > > pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> > >
> > > /dev/sda:
> > > Timing cached reads:   2296 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1147.03 MB/sec
> > > Timing buffered disk reads:   44 MB in  3.02 seconds =  14.56 MB/sec
> >
> > AMD64 3.0 GHz:
> > /dev/hda:
> >   Timing cached reads:   1300 MB in  2.00 seconds = 649.45 MB/sec
> >   Timing buffered disk reads:   84 MB in  3.02 seconds =  27.80 MB/sec
> >
> > DUAL Zeon 2.6 GHz:
> > /dev/hda:
> >   Timing cached reads:   2196 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1096.52 MB/sec
> >   Timing buffered disk reads:  140 MB in  3.00 seconds =  46.61 MB/sec
> >
> Dual core X2 3800+ NForce4 (MSI) with Raptor 74 GB drive
> /dev/sda:
>  Timing cached reads:   3488 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1743.89 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  206 MB in  3.02 seconds =  68.21 MB/sec
>
> Turion64 Acer Ferrari 4005 laptop
> /dev/hda:
>  Timing cached reads:   1820 MB in  2.00 seconds = 909.94 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  108 MB in  3.01 seconds =  35.85 MB/sec
>
>
>
lightning ~ # hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   1732 MB in  2.00 seconds = 864.88 MB/sec
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate
ioctl for device
 Timing buffered disk reads:  196 MB in  3.00 seconds =  65.28 MB/sec
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate
ioctl for device
lightning ~ #

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Francisco Perez]

localhost ~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
  Timing cached reads:   2800 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1399.91 MB/sec
  Timing buffered disk reads:  162 MB in  3.02 seconds =  53.64 MB/sec

Frank

James Pattinson wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Thanks all for your recommendations! It's nice to know there are some 
> good amd64 boards out there. perhaps I've just had bad luck with these 
> APIC problems so far.
> 
> Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me 
> know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached 
> read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
> 
> amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
> 
> pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   2296 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1147.03 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   44 MB in  3.02 seconds =  14.56 MB/sec
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> James
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Nuitari]

>>  what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached read
>>  speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:

/dev/sda:
  Timing cached reads:   3900 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1950.00 MB/sec
  Timing buffered disk reads:  172 MB in  3.03 seconds =  56.77 MB/sec

/dev/hdb:
  Timing cached reads:   2260 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1129.61 MB/sec
  Timing buffered disk reads:  126 MB in  3.03 seconds =  41.58 MB/sec

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Jonathan Stimmel]

How fast is your memory? I'm using single-channel PC3200 (DDR400).
It's odd to note that of my three drives, sda seems to consistently
provide the worst performance of my three drives (all are the same
make/model). I haven't identified why this is yet, but it really
doesn't impact the system's performance noticably, so I haven't been
too concerned with it.

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2780 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1389.52 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  104 MB in  3.07 seconds =  33.88 MB/sec

/dev/sdb:
 Timing cached reads:   2772 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1384.13 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  166 MB in  3.02 seconds =  54.92 MB/sec

/dev/sdc:
 Timing cached reads:   2588 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1293.55 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  164 MB in  3.03 seconds =  54.15 MB/sec


On 10/17/05, James Pattinson <jamesp@hisser.org> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Thanks all for your recommendations! It's nice to know there are some
> good amd64 boards out there. perhaps I've just had bad luck with these
> APIC problems so far.
>
> Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me
> know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached
> read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
>
> amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
>
> /dev/sda:
>  Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
>
> pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
>
> /dev/sda:
>  Timing cached reads:   2296 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1147.03 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:   44 MB in  3.02 seconds =  14.56 MB/sec
>
> Cheers!
>
> James
> --
> gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

-- 
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[John S. Yates, Jr.]

Mach Speed Viper(64) 939AGP:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813187010

Less than $60 with rebate.  Come with a LIFETIME warranty.

/john



On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 17:10:43 +0100, you wrote:

>Hi All
>
>If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use with gentoo-amd64, could 
>you please let me know?
>
>Things I'm looking for that are well supported on Linux
>
>* SATA 150
>* Ethernet (don't like the sound of the forcedeth driver)
>* No need for high end GFX
>
>I'm currently using an Optronix which seems to work well apart from some 
>APIC issues, if these get sorted out by the manufacturer then I'd be 
>happy to recomment this board.
>
>Cheers!
>
>James


-- 
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Monday 17 October 2005 20:59, James Pattinson wrote:
> Hi
>
> Thanks all for your recommendations! It's nice to know there are some
> good amd64 boards out there. perhaps I've just had bad luck with these
> APIC problems so far.
>
> Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me
> know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached
> read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
>
> amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
>
> /dev/sda:
>  Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
>

you are sloooow.
ddr400 dualchannel:

hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   2884 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1441.91 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  134 MB in  3.01 seconds =  44.55 MB/sec

Yes, that is an IDE disk

;)
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[P.V.Anthony]

James Pattinson wrote:

> Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk and let me 
> know what you get? I get great performance off the disk but the cached 
> read speed is about half the speed of my P4 box:
> 
> amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
> Timing cached reads:   1532 MB in  2.00 seconds = 765.95 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:   98 MB in  3.01 seconds =  32.58 MB/sec
> 

The following is using the ide hard drive in software raid 1.

  videoserver ~ # hdparm -tT /dev/hda

  /dev/hda:
  Timing cached reads:   3068 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1534.23 MB/sec
  Timing buffered disk reads:  168 MB in  3.03 seconds =  55.53 MB/sec

This result below is using 4 drives in a raid 5 using Promise Raid Card EX8350

  videoserver ~ # hdparm -tT /dev/sda

  /dev/sda:
  Timing cached reads:   3032 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1515.47 MB/sec
  Timing buffered disk reads:  360 MB in  3.01 seconds = 119.66 MB/sec

P.V.Anthony
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[James Pattinson]

Hi All

Yes, I am slow :) It's strange as I have 3Gb of DDR400 (PC3200) in 
128bit mode.

Maybe it's another symptom of my dodgy BIOS. I will perhaps return it 
and get a different board. I expect rather high performance from my 
expensive 10k rpm raptors when striped!

Thanks
James

Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote

>you are sloooow.
>ddr400 dualchannel:
>
>hdparm -tT /dev/hda
>
>/dev/hda:
> Timing cached reads:   2884 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1441.91 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk reads:  134 MB in  3.01 seconds =  44.55 MB/sec
>
>Yes, that is an IDE disk
>
>;)
>  
>

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[James Pattinson]

Yeah!

I'm fast now!

crocodile ~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/mapper/sil_afbgccdfdfcd

/dev/mapper/sil_afbgccdfdfcd:
 Timing cached reads:   3416 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1707.89 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  342 MB in  3.01 seconds = 113.69 MB/sec

It was actually a display/computation error. I was hitting a weird bug 
detailed at http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3927 which meant 
my RTC was ticking twice as much as it should have been, or something - 
so hdparm thought that twice as much time had passed whilst running the 
test...

Hope this helps anyone who may be seeing the same issue.

Cheers
James

James Pattinson wrote:

> Hi All
>
> Yes, I am slow :) It's strange as I have 3Gb of DDR400 (PC3200) in 
> 128bit mode.
>
> Maybe it's another symptom of my dodgy BIOS. I will perhaps return it 
> and get a different board. I expect rather high performance from my 
> expensive 10k rpm raptors when striped!
>
> Thanks
> James
>
> Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote
>
>> you are sloooow.
>> ddr400 dualchannel:
>>
>> hdparm -tT /dev/hda
>>
>> /dev/hda:
>> Timing cached reads:   2884 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1441.91 MB/sec
>> Timing buffered disk reads:  134 MB in  3.01 seconds =  44.55 MB/sec
>>
>> Yes, that is an IDE disk
>>
>> ;)
>>  
>>
>

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Hamish Marson]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Chris Frederick wrote:

> James Pattinson wrote:
>
>> <snip> Could some of you perhaps run hdparm -Tt on your root disk
>> and let me know what you get? I get great performance off the
>> disk but the cached read speed is about half the speed of my P4
>> box:
>>
>> amd64~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
>>
>> /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 1532 MB in 2.00 seconds =
>> 765.95 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 98 MB in 3.01
>> seconds = 32.58 MB/sec
>>
>> pentium4~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
>>
>> /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 2296 MB in 2.00 seconds =
>> 1147.03 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 44 MB in 3.02
>> seconds = 14.56 MB/sec
>
>
> AMD64 3.0 GHz: /dev/hda: Timing cached reads: 1300 MB in 2.00
> seconds = 649.45 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 84 MB in
> 3.02 seconds = 27.80 MB/sec
>
> DUAL Zeon 2.6 GHz: /dev/hda: Timing cached reads: 2196 MB in
> 2.00 seconds = 1096.52 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 140 MB
> in 3.00 seconds = 46.61 MB/sec
>
> Looks like my AMD64 setup is getting about half of my Zeon system
> performance. Also curious why your P4 buffered disk reads are so
> low compared to mine.
>
> Chris Frederick
>

Hmmm... I've only for an AMD64 3200 (Ah.. 2.2GHz Winchester core
socket 939)... And this is what I get. Signifcantly faster than your
3000. (Do you mean amd64 3000? Or a real 3GHz amd64?)



damned ~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   3636 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1817.89 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  106 MB in  3.01 seconds =  35.24 MB/sec
damned ~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
 Timing cached reads:   3428 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1713.89 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  120 MB in  3.04 seconds =  39.52 MB/sec
damned ~ # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   3200 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1599.90 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  164 MB in  3.00 seconds =  54.59 MB/sec
damned ~ #
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFDV/Zy/3QXwQQkZYwRAscGAKDCA2zowTvLuoFC5N32pQTTnMIsTACdGlMx
w/jdviocVBi+AjFz7De07WA=
=qDzp
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Lee Thompson]

I'm attempting a dual core upgrade on a MSI Neo2
Platinum.  It requires a BIOS upgrade which just won't
boot linux as far as I can tell.  Anyone got a Socket
939 Mobo which will run 64 bit gentoo with a dual
core?

    http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=89036.0

I've been running a few copies of the Neo2 Platinum
and one thing to watch out for is flakey RAM.  Had two
batches of OCZ RAM go back for warranty replacement
followed by a few "emerge -e world" to fix the carnage
on the harddrive left behind.


BTW, 10K RPM SATA drives give some good numbers with
an odd error


# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   4016 MB in  2.00 seconds =
2007.87 MB/sec
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed:
Inappropriate ioctl for device
 Timing buffered disk reads:  206 MB in  3.02 seconds
=  68.21 MB/sec
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed:
Inappropriate ioctl for device


--- Drew Kirkpatrick <drew.kirkpatrick@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I've been very happy with both nforce 3 & nforce 4
> MSI motherboards.
> I've built some graphics clusters with them, and a
> number of
> workstations, no problems as of yet. You will need
> some sort of video
> card, but there are a number of cheap ones that
> would work fine. A
> PCI-Express 6200 nvidia card can be had for well
> under $100 now.
> 
> 
> On 10/17/05, P.V.Anthony <pvantony@singnet.com.sg>
> wrote:
> > James Pattinson wrote:
> >
> > > If you have a mobo that you'd recommend for use
> with gentoo-amd64, could
> > > you please let me know?
> >
> > I am using the MSI Neo 4 Platinum. So far so good.
> >
> > It has two ethernet ports. One is the forcedeth
> and the other is Marvell.
> >
> > It has 8 sata ports. No built in graphics card.
> >
> > P.V.Anthony
> > --
> > gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list
> >
> >
> 
> -- 
> gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list
> 
> 



		
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Mobo recommendations

[Marco Matthies]

Lee Thompson wrote:
> BTW, 10K RPM SATA drives give some good numbers with
> an odd error
> 
> 
> # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> 
> /dev/sda:
>  Timing cached reads:   4016 MB in  2.00 seconds =
> 2007.87 MB/sec
> HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed:
> Inappropriate ioctl for device
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  206 MB in  3.02 seconds
> =  68.21 MB/sec
> HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed:
> Inappropriate ioctl for device

see http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/10/17/248
in short it's nothing wrong there.

Marco
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[gentoo-amd64] Re: Mobo recommendations

[Duncan]

Lee Thompson posted
<20051026051805.13619.qmail@web30512.mail.mud.yahoo.com>, excerpted below,
 on Tue, 25 Oct 2005 22:18:05 -0700:

> I'm attempting a dual core upgrade on a MSI Neo2
> Platinum.  It requires a BIOS upgrade which just won't
> boot linux as far as I can tell.  Anyone got a Socket
> 939 Mobo which will run 64 bit gentoo with a dual
> core?
> 
>     http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=89036.0

MSI isn't all that Linux friendly.  When I was shopping for a dual Opteron
board, I checked out the MSI site and rejected them because all the BIOS
upgrades and etc were in MSWormOS executable format (probably self
extracting zip), as was all the documentation.  I mailed them asking if a
virus/worm had gotten to them and replaced all the downloadables with
malware executables or what? Where were the platform neutral standard PDF
docs and zipped BIOS upgrades?  This was in fact before anything but beta
64-bit MSWormOS was available, but Linux already supported AMD64 standard,
so I found it a very bad omen that everything including the documentation
was proprietaryware MSWormOS executable format.

It's therefore not surprising to me at all that certain MSI BIOS upgrades
would have issues with Linux.  They probably spend very little if any time
testing them on Linux.

Tyan, OTOH, has the expected platform neutral standard PDF documentation
and zip file BIOS images.  As well, they have decently active Linux
support including Linux FAQs for most of their boards, lm_sensors
configurations, (sometimes proprietary) Linux drivers for RAID and other
devices, etc.  Many of their boards are Red Hat and SuSE/Novell certified
and proudly carry the certification marks in the manuals.

While the BIOS ugrading instructions asked for a DOS disk, last I checked,
I mailed them with my satisfactory results using the Ripcord OEM version
of FreeDOS, and suggested that they could supply complete bootable FreeDOS
based BIOS upgrade floppy images, as some manufacturers already do. 
(ASUS if I recall correctly, but that's from unconfirmed memory.)

With the Linux certifications, Tyan DOES test their BIOS images with
Linux, and mentions in the update description any problems they've found. 
(The latest for my board, for instance, mentions that those using the
onboard SATA in BIOS-RAID configuration will need to reinstall after the
upgrade.  Apparently, the new RAID format is incompatible with the old
one.  It doesn't mention it but of course, those using Linux software
RAID, with the BIOS set to standard single-drive config SATA wouldn't have
issues, since it'd be the kernel handling the RAID.)

So... I'd suggest buying a brand other than MSI next time you upgrade,
unless they decide to get serious about Linux before then, but of course
that doesn't help with your current situation...

That said and after reading the forum thread you linked above, mentioning
that the PATA side seemed to load fine, have you tried booting to either 
a PATA hard drive or a LiveCD, compiled with the SATA drivers as modules,
and loading them after successful boot?  There's no mention of that in the
forum thread.

If that works, you could then setup using either a PATA based / partition,
loading SATA and mounting your SATA partitions from there, or at minimum,
a PATA based initrd/initramfs, using it to load the SATA drivers and
switch to your real root on the SATA drive.

If it doesn't work, there's a fairly good chance you could at least get
more troubleshooting information logged before the crash, and go from
there, posting results to LKML (or kernel bugzilla) and asking for help
there, if necessary.

Another suggestion would be to try different kernels.  Try the earliest rc
with dual-core support.  Try the latest kernel in both vanilla and
mainline.  Try the latest kernel.org vanilla rc.  If you haven't found one
that works by then, try early 2.6 pre-dual-core support kernels.  You
won't have dual-core, but you might find one that works with the SATA on
the new BIOS, and can then try isolating the version in which it stopped
working and file an appropriate bug.

Also, if the chipset is supported anyway, try the old non-libata IDE based
kernel drivers.

-- 
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Mobo recommendations

[Marco Matthies]

Duncan wrote:
> MSI isn't all that Linux friendly.  When I was shopping for a dual Opteron
> board, I checked out the MSI site and rejected them because all the BIOS
> upgrades and etc were in MSWormOS executable format (probably self
> extracting zip), as was all the documentation.

FWIW, the newer files do seem to use .zip and .pdf (i only checked for 
my mobo though K8T Neo2)-- so maybe your mail had a positive effect on 
them? ;) Though I agree a freedos image to do the bios update would be 
really nice...
BTW, unzip supports self-extracting (.exe) zip archives.

But I don't want this to turn into an MSI advertisement, I just wanted 
to point out that they seem to have gotten better to when you checked 
them out.

Marco
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[gentoo-amd64] Re: Re: Mobo recommendations

[Duncan]

Marco Matthies posted <435FF37D.2000100@gmx.net>, excerpted below,  on
Wed, 26 Oct 2005 23:22:05 +0200:

> FWIW, the newer files do seem to use .zip and .pdf (i only checked for 
> my mobo though K8T Neo2)-- so maybe your mail had a positive effect on 
> them? ;) Though I agree a freedos image to do the bios update would be 
> really nice...
> BTW, unzip supports self-extracting (.exe) zip archives.

I believed it did, but wasn't sure those files were sfx-zip in the first
place, only that they were exe format, and wasn't going to bother checking.

> But I don't want this to turn into an MSI advertisement, I just wanted 
> to point out that they seem to have gotten better to when you checked 
> them out.

Very good! =8^)  I'll have to check them out again, next time I upgrade
(altho that could be some time yet, it's been two years and I had hoped
that with memory upgrades and now dual core, I could extend my upgrade
cycle to five years... something that seems quite reasonable, with the
upgrade pressure lessening, post 1GHz and given I've already a dual CPU
and can go dual-core so support 2x2=quad cores and upto 16G memory, on
this board).

-- 
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Re: Mobo recommendations

[Marco Matthies]

Duncan wrote:
> Very good! =8^)  I'll have to check them out again, next time I upgrade
> (altho that could be some time yet, it's been two years and I had hoped
> that with memory upgrades and now dual core, I could extend my upgrade
> cycle to five years... something that seems quite reasonable, with the
> upgrade pressure lessening, post 1GHz and given I've already a dual CPU
> and can go dual-core so support 2x2=quad cores and upto 16G memory, on
> this board).

That's going to be a nice system you have there once it's finished :)
BTW, thanks for the tip about the Radeon cards and open-source drivers, 
i am using a fanless radeon 9250 at the moment and am very pleased with it!

Marco
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[gentoo-amd64] Re: Re: Re: Mobo recommendations

[Duncan]

Marco Matthies posted <435FFE4F.90103@gmx.net>, excerpted below,  on Thu,
27 Oct 2005 00:08:15 +0200:

> BTW, thanks for the tip about the Radeon cards and open-source drivers, 
> i am using a fanless radeon 9250 at the moment and am very pleased with it!

=8^)

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and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Mobo recommendations

[Lee Thompson]

Lots of great pointers Duncan thank you.  I'll poke
around a bit and report back.   I think your sig file
says it all.  I figure the XenSource BIOS abstration
layer wull end up making it into motherboards as a
full BIOS over time.  That would spell the end of the
closed BIOS mess we all enjoy at the moment.

Spending time trolling msg boards hunting for fixes, I
think there is definitely enough serious grey matter
in the overclocker world to support an active open
source bios effort.  Tyan would probably be the first
to make the jump in the consumer market.

--- Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net> wrote:

...
> That said and after reading the forum thread you
> linked above, mentioning
> that the PATA side seemed to load fine, have you
> tried booting to either 
> a PATA hard drive or a LiveCD, compiled with the
> SATA drivers as modules,
> and loading them after successful boot?  There's no
> mention of that in the
> forum thread.
...


		
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