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I do love the Supermicro 750/76x cases. I've built dozens of systems over the years with these cases and they just get better. I loved when they dumped the drive rails and added redundant fans in the power supply. You can move a hot running system over to these cases and it will run much cooler. Great air flow and cooling without needing all the fans available

While this looks nice in a sort of consumer way, I won't be buying one of these. 1 CPU, 4 memory slots and 3 PCI slots are about 1/2 of what I want for each of these key expansion busses.

Instead, give me something like THIS.

Slightly off-topic - the DHTML is b0rked in mozilla; a quick search at
bugzilla.mozilla.org shows no-one else has logged this so I've done so myself. (Hmmm, actually I was just searching against the URL to find the bug I just logged and it didn't turn up... oddness... ) (And now I get the error "Sorry, bugzilla links from Slashdot are not allowed." heh! :) http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/slashdot/index.html?id =134931 is the one, anyway... ) Yes folks, you can file mozilla bugs against the "tech evangelism" component to sic the mozilla wranglers onto the site's designers and get them to fix non-standard HTML for the non-IE world's benefit. (Remember when sites were designed only for Netscape, and we used to complain that they should test on mionirty products such as IE? Ah, happy days...) </ot>

Some x86 motherboards such as this Supermicro board can take up to 16GB of RAM. However, it's not the total amount of RAM that is the problem; rather, the address space of any single process is limited to 4GB because of 32-bit addressing. So in order to use more than 4GB in a single process, you need to use a 64bit architecture. (OK, maybe you don't *need* to, but it is a heck of a lot easier than custom hacks).

Go to SuperMicro and look at their Xeon boards.

I use Supermicro servers, and along with great linux support, they are able to be run headless. You can purchase motherboards only, or, a barebones server from them. I have seen some Intel based designs (Dells, Compaqs) that support serial console as well.

SuperServer 6010

But have you looked at the price of the aluminum chassis? I did not see a listing on pricewatch for the one reviewed, but the older version is starting for about $200 w/o a power supply. I like a nice chassis like the next guy and the last year or so have used the Antec SX830/840 (about $50 w/o ps sx800) for smaller boxes, the SX1030/1040 (about $60 w/o ps sx1000), or a SuperMicro 760A (about $140, but includes nice ps). For $200, you start moving into solid rack mounting chassis (with a ps).

If your boxen is running too hot, start with the basics. Clean the clutter - round your cables, bundle wire, and have airflow (not to be confused with tons of fans just making noise). If you are carving blow holes or doing other mods, the steel in these cases are a lot easier to work with than aluminum. Ducting can help with hot spots as well.

Course, nothing says I have money to blow out of my ass like a shiny aluminum chassis.... there is that. A good 3U setup will bring the proper googling, however...

Yeah, I know they're just OEMs, the SC-750 is actually made by some other company (which I can't recall now), but anyway if it was picked by Supermicro then it must be very high quality.

Also, Supermicro always bundles high-quality power supplies, an increasingly important point with the powerhogs that are Dual Athlons and Xeons. In my case, the Sparkle FSP300-60GT -- hasn't failed yet (and the load's high on it, believe me, plus it's 24/7), and should be enough power for most needs. Unless you're building the ultimate peltier/watercooling rig.

Get a server motherboard/system. Try SuperMicro - I have an old dual-PPro motherboard of theirs, which has 8 PCI slots plus 2 ISA slots. This is accomplished by using an i960 I/O processor, which has an integrated PCI bridge. Of course, this has to be in a server case, because the motherboard is about 6 inches wider than standard AT size. (call me - I'll make you a deal on it :) Their new motherboards also have a bunch of slots (most are 6 PCI+1AGP, but no ISA).

Get a motherboard like the Acer AK73-1394(A). It has 5 PCI slots, 1 AGP slot, and integrated FireWire. Get a Matrox Marvel G450 eTV or the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon, both of which have a TV tuner on the card. Use a USB to multiport serial adapter for the serial ports. Get a PCI DIO card from ComputerBoards or equivalent.

Basically, the two choices boil down to either spending large amounts of money on a server motherboard and case, or getting boards with combined functions that may not be the perfect thing, but are (hopefully) less expensive.

Have fun.

...look at all those slots :)

http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440 GX/P6DGH.htm

For those lazy ones who dont want to count, here it is:
Dual PII/PIII
9 PCI Slots
1 AGP
2 ISA
Onboard Dual-Channel Adaptec U2W SCSI.
Plus all the usual refinements...


...or you could go for the gusto and get one of these bad boys :) (WARNING: 1600*1200 JPG)
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nuclear presidential echelon assassination encryption virulent strain

...look at all those slots :)

http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440 GX/P6DGH.htm

For those lazy ones who dont want to count, here it is:
Dual PII/PIII
9 PCI Slots
1 AGP
2 ISA
Onboard Dual-Channel Adaptec U2W SCSI.
Plus all the usual refinements...


...or you could go for the gusto and get one of these bad boys :) (WARNING: 1600*1200 JPG)
---
nuclear presidential echelon assassination encryption virulent strain

http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/Manuals/MB/440BX /BX3.2i.pdf

section 5-1-5 on PnP setup details this on about page 85 or so. Actually, it is the _priority_ for IRQ and DMA that is set here, maybe that is different from what the original post talked about?

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One of my machines has a supermicro MB that does exactly this. (came in real handy when PnP for W2K professional turned up broken).

Is this a new concept?

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I use the Supermicro 750-A, here Mine has 11 fans in it. It sounds like a wind tunnel in my bedroom, but you practically have to chip the ice of the system!!!

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If God Dropped Acid, Would he see People???

Supermicro makes some very solid 1U servers. I've used them for all types of purposes from VPN servers to Apache servers. Extremely reasonable price of $1100 for the base model. Additionaly, since most necessary components are already built into the motherboard (i.e. NIC, SCSI, Video) just throw in a harddrive, processor and memory and your rocking. Also, since they're dual processor capable and take up to 4GB of RAM, they can make very powerful application servers IMHO. Hope this helps.

Most of the supermicro boards do have Ethernet on board. In fact some of their models even have dual ethernet! They also have slanted DIMM Sockets.
dave

I think you are talking about the SuperMicro SC750-A case. That's what I have, and it's not very fancy but very very nice. It's got four drive bay cooler fans, two fan mounts in front, one fan mount directly over the CPU, one fan mount above the power supply, the traditional screw-in for a fan behind the CPU, and a crapload of drive bays.

The only thing is, most of the fans you have to buy seperately.

Sure an Alpha/Sparc/Mips/etc. would be a faster way to go but it doesn't always make sense. The price tag on the Alpha/Sparc/Mips/et. may make you want to look around if you are on any kind of budget. I'm looking at putting together a render farm for my brother-in-law's graphic design company. They use Maya 3 for 3d animation. Maya 3 comes with a Linux batch renderer which you can run on unlimited machines but it only runs on x86. It supposedly only runs on Redhat too but we will see. The other option is buy some SGI Mips workstations with a full copy of Maya on each($7500.00 for Maya). x86 might not be the fastest solution but for the money is the best available solution for this at the moment. We will probably be going with 1U, dual P3, 2-4Gig RAM, U160 HD's, etc. Might use Supermicro 6010H 1U server for this.

The Intel 440GX is way behind the curve. Intel has poured so much into the Rambus avenue they forgot about the high-end where 4GB RAM and 2 standard PCI busses don't cut it. And the MTH (memory translator hub) failed to produce the SDRAM alternative they needed with the i840.

Enter ServerWorks' (formerly Reliance Computer Corporation, RCC) ServerSet III chipsets. They product chipsets for the big-boys, now for mainboard OEMs like Tyan, Asus and SuperMicro. 2 to 3 PCI busses (1 or 2 are 64-bit x 66MHz -- NOT slots, but whole busses!), 2 to 4-way PC133 SDRAM (supports upto 16GB), DDR SDRAM on the way, just awesome. The massive PCI I/O blows anything Intel's got away, and meets or beats most RISC vendors. Cheap too as the 2 CPU, 2 PCI bus, 2-way PC133 bus ServerSet IIILE can be had for just over $250 in SuperMicro mainboards.

ServerWorks is so good, Intel has adopted their chipsets for their own branded mainboards. Again, check them out!

P.S. As far as AMD, stay _away_ from Gateway 2000 -- the cheapest/worst components. Stick with a vendor that builds quality AMD systems, with AMD-approved components. Try Micron PC as they just introduced systems based on the new DDR SDRAM AMD i760 chipset mainboards and PC266 CPUs.

-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

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If that's not you then there are two alternatives, the SuperMicro 760a with 400W option pack, it comes with 4 fans! (uuugh uuuuugh uuuugh oooogh) or the monster, make sure you get the wheels. Be careful if you get the monster, I wasn't wearing my weight lifting belt when the UPS man came and I hurt my back lifting the box trying to get it inside my house. It's solid steal and can push 500W, make sure you get the wheels too! While they haven't announced it yet, I understand that they are building a special pad you can place on top the monster so that it doubles as a weight bench because it's that strong. These two are for the "home office" where you need something a little bit more industrial.

Then if it is for the actual office, I think rackmount are the only way to go. The style and convience make it very compelling. I recomend all steal or all anodized aluminum racks and mounts. If you get the right kind of rack you can also mount an oscilliscope in there so it looks extra cool. Sure you could have some sort of apple macintosh styled case with one of the LCD thin monitors but that's only if you want to look like some kind of feminine-MBA-anti-programmer wuss. If you're a real engineer you have an office that doesn't have carpet on the floor cause it's raised, has bare concrete walls, and your computer live in a rack and have handles on the front so you can pull them out to work on them.

Oh man. I may have to buy a different case now thanks to this link. In addition, they even have some cases which put SuperMicro's to shame.

Some of the comments I've seen hit it on the head: The Brand + Model + Revision of Motherboard you buy is key for ANY system (esp. a server).

Myself I don't like buying anything I haven't researched to death; I also really want to hear what other people's experience has been with the stuff. (note: people I trust... not some script kiddie; though on /. you can usually tell which are which)

Checking Tom's Site and Ars Techina to see what they think doesn't hurt either.

As far the Power-Always-On feature you want well, 3 things:

1) I would not recommend any soldering at all as your warranty will most likely go out the window. This can be a very bad thing in a corporate environment.

2) Most high quality Motherboards come with either a CMOS or Jumper setting (or combo) which tells the PS what to do when power is applied.

3) A good case goes a long way... both in ensuring you have a quality PS, and that you won't slice your fingers when you need to work on it. (Can we have a poll on how many times we've done that? :) ) You'll want to make sure the PS is compliant with ATX 2.01 to be on the safe side too.


As far as personal choices, I'm a big fan of both Supermicro Motherboards and Cases - my personal fav is the SC-701a style case - it's a beauty! but unfortunately its soon to be discontinued... :(

Anyway, just my $0.02 (which is worth even less as its Canadian...)