[NTLUG:Discuss] Router or switch?

[Chris Cox]

Joel Sinor wrote:
...
> 
> <snip>
> Hmm, well given all these problems, I think I will probably pass on the
> board.  I had planned for some time to build a machine based on one of
> the series of Tyan multiproc athlon boards, and recently read Alan Cox
> uses/likes these (but dislikes the built in scsi, recommending instead a
> scsi add-on card for that), and Fry's has consistently had the non-scsi
> version cheaper than I have foudn it on the internet, so I guess we are
> back to this one being the next machine I build.

I'm writing this from my Tyan SN2468UGN box (dual Athlon with dual
U160 Adaptec onboard).  I also have a dual channel HW SCSI
raid as well.  Haven't seen any issues with the onboard SCSI, but
I hear the newer U320 wasn't supported until very recently (that's
what you'll find on the SN2469UGN).  I like the 2468 vs. the 2469
though because you get the full bus mastering Vortex 3com controllers
vs. the cheapo Intel ones on the 2469 (though one is gigabit if that
is important on the 2469).

I run dual MP2400+... acpi enabled for pci (uses the higher irqs),
apic enabled (interrupt handling across both proceesors).  There's
not too many boards, dual or otherwise that support the advanced
server features like this.  I do have to use acpi=oldboot in order
to boot from my hardware raid though... but that's not a big deal.

For what it's worth, subjectively, my box seems signifcantly faster than
equivalent Xeons (2.4Ghz) that I've tried.  Could be the m/b... could
be the HW raid (LSI Elite 1600 w/128M cache)... not sure.