Hi Russell, At 12:22 PM 5/01/2013, Russell Coker wrote:
On Sat, 5 Jan 2013, Andrew Voumard <andrewv@melbpc.org.au> wrote:
Can anyone offer any suggestions regarding the following requirement for a new motherboard/system. It is only being used for business, and mainly for compiling/running multiple back end Java, C+++ etc applications:
1. Gaming/overclocking not a priority at all. A $20 graphic card or onboard graphics should do fine.
2. Stability & performance are most important.
You might want to check what Dell offers. The bigger PowerEdge workstations support 64G of RAM and probably get a lot more testing than any white-box motherboard that can support so much RAM.
Ok, will look at them.
6. Want Intel (not AMD) based, probably i7 & proably Ivy Bridge.
Why specifically Intel?
Previously had heat & driver issues with AMD (can't recall which chipset that was now), while I am sure many folks are happy with them, I am happy with all the Intel based boards I've used and haven't had similar issues with them.
7. Either a PS/2 mouse port or 9 Serial port is essential (for the special mouse I use) - either onboard or via a PCI/e expansion board are ok.
As has already been noted a PS/2 mouse port will be a really difficult requirement. Getting a system that has a PS/2 port and supports 64G of RAM will be really difficult. Maybe one option to consider would be NVRAM devices for swap to support the large tmpfs you need. Some of the better NVRAM devices are fast enough that you probably won't notice that it's not in main memory.
I am thinking NVRAM performance would be slower (to some degree) than main memory, and I expect the hardware is less mainstream & hence more expensive ?
Probably looking at running 64 bit Ubuntu 10.04.x (Gnome) or Kubuntu 12.04.x (KDE) as the host (to get LTS & a traditional desktop UI), with 32 bit Windows XP in a virtualbox for occasional use with basic business & legacy applications.
I haven't been following UEFI etc because for quite a while I've been getting my workstations from second-hand sales and recycling so it will be quite a while before I get hardware such secure boot support. But from what I recall Ubuntu will be using a shim boot loader to support secure boot, so this shouldn't be a problem for you.
Given some of your other requirements you might want to rely on Ubuntu supporting secure boot (or using Fedora/RHEL otherwise) and concentrate on other issues.
My only concern is if I want to write/load any custom drivers, that I don't want to be spending time sorting out any driver signing hassles, & it also gives me the freedom to run a non signed distro if I find the need - I like choice to be completely in my hands if I spent the money on the hardware :) I am expecting most mobo suppliers will provide such an option (for x86, they _have_ to, to comply with putting a Win8 sticker on their hardware), but it's awlays easier getting confirmation of that before, rather than after purchase :) Thanks Andrew