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From: jay on 14 Jan 2010 10:26
hi,

i'm considering putting together a fairly beefy machine.
like, 2 cpu sockets, quad core cpus,
64 or 128 GB mem
extended ATX form factor.

i've tried googling this, and i get a lot of false trails.
where should i go for suggestions? or is there a list
of things to look for, like a particular bios, or this chip,
or...?

don't knock yourself out on this. i've been sitting on the fence
for quite a while. i don't have any burning problem to solve.
it's basically a hobby -- like building a hot rod or something.
i thought about doing some quantum chemistry w/ it, but
that's another story.

thanks in advance.
j.
From: Regis on 14 Jan 2010 10:44
jay <gl(a)arlut.utexas.edu> writes:
> hi,
>
> i'm considering putting together a fairly beefy machine.
> like, 2 cpu sockets, quad core cpus,
> 64 or 128 GB mem
> extended ATX form factor.
>
> i've tried googling this, and i get a lot of false trails.
> where should i go for suggestions? or is there a list
> of things to look for, like a particular bios, or this chip,
> or...?
>
> don't knock yourself out on this. i've been sitting on the fence
> for quite a while. i don't have any burning problem to solve.
> it's basically a hobby -- like building a hot rod or something.
> i thought about doing some quantum chemistry w/ it, but
> that's another story.

I'll offer simply that I've never had a regrettable experience with an
Asus motherboard.






From: Richard B. Gilbert on 14 Jan 2010 11:14
jay wrote:
> hi,
>
> i'm considering putting together a fairly beefy machine.
> like, 2 cpu sockets, quad core cpus,
> 64 or 128 GB mem
> extended ATX form factor.
>
> i've tried googling this, and i get a lot of false trails.
> where should i go for suggestions? or is there a list
> of things to look for, like a particular bios, or this chip,
> or...?
>
> don't knock yourself out on this. i've been sitting on the fence
> for quite a while. i don't have any burning problem to solve.
> it's basically a hobby -- like building a hot rod or something.
> i thought about doing some quantum chemistry w/ it, but
> that's another story.
>
> thanks in advance.
> j.

Sun has something called the "Hardware Compatibility List" or "HCL".

If the hardware you want to use is on the list it will almost certainly
work.

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/

"Works" is NOT identically equal to "supported". But, if it works, what
do you care?
From: Canuck57 on 14 Jan 2010 22:00
On 14/01/2010 8:26 AM, jay wrote:
> hi,
>
> i'm considering putting together a fairly beefy machine.
> like, 2 cpu sockets, quad core cpus,
> 64 or 128 GB mem
> extended ATX form factor.
>
> i've tried googling this, and i get a lot of false trails.
> where should i go for suggestions? or is there a list
> of things to look for, like a particular bios, or this chip,
> or...?
>
> don't knock yourself out on this. i've been sitting on the fence
> for quite a while. i don't have any burning problem to solve.
> it's basically a hobby -- like building a hot rod or something.
> i thought about doing some quantum chemistry w/ it, but
> that's another story.
>
> thanks in advance.
> j.

http://www.tyan.com/product_board.aspx

But do they run Solaris? Don't know but suspect if you are not
precisely careful, you will have problems with drivers. HCL is OK, but
be exact right to the rev level. If you see a Asus mobo with a
supported ICH?R - be careful. A BIOS rev and you could be screwed.
From: solx on 15 Jan 2010 03:57
On 15/01/2010 03:00, Canuck57 wrote:
> On 14/01/2010 8:26 AM, jay wrote:
>> hi,
>>
>> i'm considering putting together a fairly beefy machine.
>> like, 2 cpu sockets, quad core cpus,
>> 64 or 128 GB mem
>> extended ATX form factor.
>>
>> i've tried googling this, and i get a lot of false trails.
>> where should i go for suggestions? or is there a list
>> of things to look for, like a particular bios, or this chip,
>> or...?
>>
>> don't knock yourself out on this. i've been sitting on the fence
>> for quite a while. i don't have any burning problem to solve.
>> it's basically a hobby -- like building a hot rod or something.
>> i thought about doing some quantum chemistry w/ it, but
>> that's another story.
>>
>> thanks in advance.
>> j.
>
> http://www.tyan.com/product_board.aspx
>
> But do they run Solaris? Don't know but suspect if you are not precisely
> careful, you will have problems with drivers. HCL is OK, but be exact
> right to the rev level. If you see a Asus mobo with a supported ICH?R -
> be careful. A BIOS rev and you could be screwed.

Hi,

While at the last firm I worked for I purchased around 12 Tyan servers
over a two year period, along with a single desktop motherboard.
Eleven server boards were fine, one had to be replaced after two years
with a Supermicro board. I needed to upgrade the Bios on one of
motherboards, the replacement Bios version screwed up the SCSI
controller (awkward with SCSI discs).
After contacting Tyan they sent me an updated Bios version which was
worse than the update (they had not tested it before shipping which is
why I stopped purchasing Tyan motherboards).
The desktop board was faulty on purchase, various I/O modules just did
not work this was not determined until later as they were not required.
While with Supermicro boards I have never had a Bios problem when I
have upgraded, however Supermicro boards which indicate ACPI 1.0, 2.0
and v3.0 support. However they do not fully support the ACPI 3.0
specification (which I found after using a Sun supplied utility to dump
the ACPI information, nor have they since contacting them over 6 months
ago). It is possible for Supermicro to fully support the ACPI 3.0 and
v4,0 as AMI (who provide the Bios source to Supermicro to build update
their Bios to fully support the standards). Using ACPI 3.0 Solaris
should be able to report on temperature (system, cpu and core), power
usage, etc without resorting to dedicated applications accessing the
hardware. The ACPI v4.0 offers even more instrumentation information
with Solaris, Linux and Windows supports if only the vendors provided it.
If you are looking at a new motherboard ask about full ACPI v4.0 support
to allow Solaris fully monitor and control the hardware. Unless we ask
for proper ACPI implementation we will get cut down support from the
motherboard manufacturers.

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