Good cost effective server board?

[Kooldino]

Looking for a good, STABLE server board for a windows file server. Doesn't have to be CHEAP, but cost effective would be nice. Preferably an AMD based board. Could have intergrated video and sound, but it has to have at least 3 PCI slots and be some form of ATX. Any ideas?

[K6-III]

You can go for one of MSI's or Gigabyte's MPX boards...

[K6-III]

Wait...you said it didn't have to be cheap....

....Dual Opteron 244 baby!!!!

[Kooldino]

Hehe, ok, it has to be a SINGLE CPU board...COST MINDED, but not "cheap" persey...

[Gurm]

Why single CPU? Dual CPU would be MUCH more cost-effective, and there are EXCELLENT dual-athlon solutions with AMD 762 chipsets out there.

- Gurm

[Kooldino]

@ Gurm: You're kidding, right? This is a file server...

[Wombat]

Yeah, if it's just moving data, and not being a DB server, then single-CPU would probably be better. I'd probably go with a SiS based board, since stability and PCI bandwidth are probably going to be the most important elements of the system. SiS or Intel, I probably wouldn't consider boards based on other chipsets.

[UtwigMU]

For file server, I'd get old BX up and running.

Otherwise: I second SiS. You may also check original nForce but it has it's glitches.

Except for MPX there was IIRC only one AMD southbridge MoBo. The others (like Abit KG7), have VIA southbridge where all hell lays.

Consider ECS K7S5A and some SDRAM you have laying arround. In file server network and HDDs will play much bigger role than HDD Bandwidth.

Another would be Tyan TigerMP - It's two CPU, but cheap and a bit dated (it maxes at 1900+). In the range of brand new decent single CPU Motherboards. But it's a quality motherboard, although picky.

This may sound blasphemic, but I'd check 815 based PIII motherboard and Tualatin Celeron as well.

[az]

For a file server, an Intel board with gigabit lan connected through csa might be good...

AZ

[Chrono_Wanderer]

IIRC Tyans are the pros for pro mobos Their build quality should be unbeatable (Never used them though)

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Chrono_Wanderer
IIRC Tyans are the pros for pro mobos Their build quality should be unbeatable (Never used them though)

I have. They are excellent in my experience, but I haven't bought a new one for 3 years, so I don't know their current quality. Their BX/GX boards were a dream for stability freaks.

[agallag]

How about a pair of HP Proliant DL380 rackmount boxes with a Smart Array Cluster Storage chassis? Oh, sorry, that's intel based... no good

http://www.compaq.ca/english/productinfo/servers/proliant/dl380/DL380G2_cluster.asp

[Gurm]

Sorry, I was thinking that you had an actual budget...

- Gurm

[MultimediaMan]

Tyan makes wonderful Intel Boards (You will pry my Tyan Thunderbolt GX from my Cold Dead Hands)...their AMD boards can be a little weird - their 760MPX Solutions have had an incredible number of BIOS revisions.

There is no reason you have run Dual CPUs in a 768/762 AMD board. However, let me point out that you do need Registered ECC DDR (most will run 512MB of RAM non-ECC, but all bets are off after that). OTOH: MP1200s can be had for under $60.00 each, and that is more than enough grunt for a medium to large business.

Full Gigabit Ethernet support is assured on a Dual AMD because of those swanky 64Bit/66MHz slots.

On the downside, Linux and Dual AMDs are not always a happy couple: I imagine the next kernel release of Linux will have much better Dual AMD support.

[Guru]

http://www.sms-testing.fi/IntelServer.html