Re: [9fans] how about intel D510MO

Re: [9fans] how about intel D510MO

[erik quanstrom]

On Thu Apr  1 06:21:58 EDT 2010, zhaodu1@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi everyone, I've been playing plan9 in qemu for sometime now. the
> only computer I have is a PS3/ubuntu9.04, and I'm thinking about buy a
> low cost x86 board for plan9. Is intel D510MO a good choise?

i don't know, but the prior generation of atom motherboards
from intel were a very poor choice for plan 9 since they didn't
provide proper mp interrupt tables and.  this made it very
difficult to use both processors and we were also missing some
irq routing information that caused some bad interactions with
the southbridge.  there's a chance there's no similar irq routing
problem on the current motherboard, but i'd recommend something
else.

i am currently running a supermicro x7spa-h (d510 processor)
as my terminal and an x7sla-h as a test mule.

- erik

Re: [9fans] how about intel D510MO

[Pavel Klinkovsky]

> Is intelD510MOa good choise?
I am trying to make intel D510MO to be my home server now.

Here are several notes (to save your time):
- Configure SATA to IDE mode in BIOS.
- Install Erik's 9atom.iso.
- Set *sdC0dma=on in plan9.ini.
- Disable automatic blanking of the screen.

The Plan9 works on this MB, but running just one core (instead of 4) -
missing MP table.

That's all for now.

Pavel

Re: [9fans] how about intel D510MO

[erik quanstrom]

> However since the Atom doesn't support ECC RAM (for that matter
> neither does the mighty Core i7) I'm somewhat cautious about trusting
> it as an always on file server without additional checksums in
> software.  Pretty much all AMD chips support ECC RAM, although of
> course mobo/BIOS support is a different matter.

i think you're right.  ecc hardware is hard to live without.
i have not used ecc memory with amd hardware.  so i can't
comment on that.  but  if you want ecc with intel hardware,
you just need to get the xeon version of the processor:

socket 1156 core iX	xeon [elwx]3[45]xx
socket 1366 core i7	xeon [elwx][35][56]xx

you can get the xeon versions at a similar price
to the core iX versions, but usually the frequency
is a bit lower.

ecc motherboards can be competitive, too.  it
looks like newegg is selling the x8sil for $159.
it comes with two fairly nice i82574 nics.  i can
verify that this motherboard works correctly.

- erik

Re: [9fans] how about intel D510MO

[John Barham]

On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:13 AM, Alex <zhaodu1@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone, I've been playing plan9 in qemu for sometime now. the
> only computer I have is a PS3/ubuntu9.04, and I'm thinking about buy a
> low cost x86 board for plan9. Is intel D510MO a good choise?

I can't comment on how this motherboard runs Plan 9 but I'm using it
as a headless Linux server to run venti and do Go programming.  I put
it into a mini-box.com M350 enclosure w/ their 80W picoPSU-80 power
supply (selling in a kit for $69).  Add some RAM and a hard drive and
you have a very compact, reasonably powerful system.  Since the board
is passively cooled w/ a heat sink and the PSU plugs right into the
board, the only noise comes from the HD.  Most sites rate the idle
power draw at ~20 watts.  Overall I'm very pleased w/ it.  I should
note though that the case does get warm above the heat sink.

However since the Atom doesn't support ECC RAM (for that matter
neither does the mighty Core i7) I'm somewhat cautious about trusting
it as an always on file server without additional checksums in
software.  Pretty much all AMD chips support ECC RAM, although of
course mobo/BIOS support is a different matter.

  John

[9fans] how about intel D510MO

[Alex]

Hi everyone, I've been playing plan9 in qemu for sometime now. the
only computer I have is a PS3/ubuntu9.04, and I'm thinking about buy a
low cost x86 board for plan9. Is intel D510MO a good choise?