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Update my hardware section a bit.

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Jordan K. Hubbard 1998-08-30 15:49:33 +00:00
parent 4a8c722cc1
commit 64befc1ba5
Notes: svn2git 2020-12-08 03:00:23 +00:00 
svn path=/head/; revision=3440
1 changed files with 62 additions and 61 deletions

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handbook/hw.sgml
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<!-- $Id: hw.sgml,v 1.82 1998-04-30 10:31:04 obrien Exp $ -->
<!-- $Id: hw.sgml,v 1.83 1998-08-30 15:49:33 jkh Exp $ -->
<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
<!--
@ -66,11 +66,12 @@ Slippery when wet. Beware of dog.
<sect2><heading>Motherboards<label id="hw:mb"></heading>
<p>For Pentium Pro (P6) systems, I'm quite fond of the
<htmlurl url="http://www.tyan.com/html/products.html" name="Tyan">
S1668 dual-processor motherboard. It makes a dandy little single
or dual processor system (which is supported in FreeBSD 3.0) and
the price of the Pentium Pro 180/256K chip has fallen to truly
affordable levels. The Pentium Pro remains my favorite processor
solution server systems (Megahertz ratings aren't everything).</p>
S1668 dual-processor motherboard as well as the Intel PR440FX
motherboard with on-board SCSI WIDE and 100/10MB Intel
Etherexpress NIC. You can build a dandy little single or dual
processor system (which is supported in FreeBSD 3.0) for very little
cost now that the Pentium Pro 180/256K chips have fallen so greatly
in price, but no telling how much longer this will last.</p>
<p>For the Pentium II, I'm rather partial to the <htmlurl
url="http://www.asus.com.tw" name="ASUS"> <htmlurl
@ -80,12 +81,8 @@ Slippery when wet. Beware of dog.
<p>For Pentium machines, the ASUS <htmlurl
url="http://www.asus.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Pentium/P55tp4/index.html"
name="P55T2P4">
motherboard appears to be a good choice for mid-to-high range Pentium
server and workstation systems. You might also wish to investigate ASUS's
<htmlurl url="http://asustek.asus.com.tw/FTP/ASUS/Info/Spec/pvi-486sp3.txt"
name="486SP3G"> offering if it's a 486-class motherboard you're looking
for (Note: These have become increasingly hard to get as ASUS apparently
no longer manufactures them).
motherboard appears to be a good choice for a mid-to-high range Pentium
server or workstation system.
Those wishing to build more fault-tolerant systems should also be sure to
use Parity memory or, for truly 24/7 applications, ECC memory. Note
@ -109,7 +106,12 @@ Slippery when wet. Beware of dog.
<p>If you should find that you need more than one SCSI controller in a
PCI machine, you may wish to consider conserving your scarce PCI
bus resources by buying the Adaptec 3940 card, which puts two SCSI
controllers (and internal busses) in a single slot.
controllers (and internal busses) in a single slot. Note that there
are two types of 3940 on the market - the older model with AIC 7880
chips on it, and the newer one with AIC 7895 chips. The newer model
requires <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/cam" name="CAM">
support which is not yet a part of FreeBSD - you have to add it, or
install from one of the CAM binary snapshot releases (follow the URL).</p>
<sect2><heading>Disk drives<label id="hw:disks"></heading>
<p>In this particular game of Russian roulette, I'll make few specific
@ -118,40 +120,35 @@ Slippery when wet. Beware of dog.
allows you to easily migrate drives from server to desktop as falling drive
prices make it economical to do so. If you have more than one machine
to administer then think of it not simply as storage, think of it as a
food chain!
<p>I do not currently see SCSI WIDE drives as a necessary expense unless
you're putting together an NFS or NEWS server that will be doing a lot
of multiuser disk I/O.
food chain! For a serious server configuration, there's not even
any argument - use SCSI equipment and good cables. :) </p>
<sect2><heading>CDROM drives<label id="hw:jordans-picks:cdrom"></heading>
<p>My SCSI preferences extend to SCSI CDROM drives as well, and while
the <htmlurl url="http://www.toshiba.com" name="Toshiba"> XM-3501B (also
released in a caddy-less model called the XM-5401B) drive has always
performed well for me, I'm now a great fan of the <htmlurl
url="http://www.plextor.com" name="Plextor"> PX-12CS drive. It's
a 12 speed drive with excellent performance and reliability.
<p>Generally speaking, most SCSI CDROM drives I've seen have been of
pretty solid construction and you probably won't go wrong with an HP or
NEC SCSI CDROM drive either. SCSI CDROM prices also appear to have
dropped considerably in the last few months and are now quite competitive
with IDE CDROMs while remaining a technically superior solution. I now see
no reason whatsoever to settle for an IDE CDROM drive if given a choice
between the two.
the <htmlurl url="http://www.toshiba.com" name="Toshiba"> drives have
always been favorites of mine (in whatever speed is hot that week),
I'm still fond of my good old <htmlurl url="http://www.plextor.com"
name="Plextor"> PX-12CS drive. It's only a 12 speed, but it's offered
excellent performance and reliability.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, most SCSI CDROM drives I've seen have been
of pretty solid construction and you probably won't go wrong with
an HP or NEC SCSI CDROM drive either. SCSI CDROM prices also
appear to have dropped considerably in the last few months and are
now quite competitive with IDE CDROMs while remaining a
technically superior solution. I now see no reason whatsoever to
settle for an IDE CDROM drive if given a choice between the two.</p>
<sect2><heading>CD Recordable (WORM) drives<label id="hw:worm"></heading>
<p>At the time of this writing, FreeBSD supports 3 types of CDR drives
(though I believe they all ultimately come from Phillips anyway):
The Phillips CDD 522 (Acts like a Plasmon), the PLASMON RF4100 and
the HP 6020i. I myself use the HP 6020i for burning CDROMs (with
2.2-current - it does not work with 2.1.5 or earlier releases of the
SCSI code) and it works very well. See <htmlurl
<p>At the time of this writing, FreeBSD supports 3 types of CDR
drives (though I believe they all ultimately come from Phillips
anyway): The Phillips CDD 522 (Acts like a Plasmon), the PLASMON
RF4100 and the HP 6020i. I myself use the HP 6020i for burning
CDROMs (in 2.2 and later releases - it does not work with earlier
releases of the SCSI code) and it works very well. See <htmlurl
url="file:/usr/share/examples/worm" name="/usr/share/examples/worm">
on your 2.2 system for example scripts used to created ISO9660
filesystem images (with RockRidge extensions) and burn them onto an
HP6020i CDR.
on your system for example scripts used to created ISO9660 filesystem
images (with RockRidge extensions) and burn them onto an HP6020i CDR.</p>
<sect2><heading>Tape drives<label id="hw:tape"></heading>
<p>I've had pretty good luck with both
@ -171,40 +168,44 @@ Slippery when wet. Beware of dog.
name="Xi Graphics, Inc. (formerly X Inside, Inc)"> then I can heartily
recommend the <htmlurl url="http://www.matrox.com/" name="Matrox">
<htmlurl url="http://www.matrox.com/mgaweb/brochure.htm"
name="Millenium"> card. Note that support for this card is also
excellent with the <htmlurl url="http://www.xfree86.org/"
name="XFree86"> server, which is now at version 3.3.2.
name="Millenium II"> cards. Note that support for this card is also
very good with the <htmlurl url="http://www.xfree86.org/"
name="XFree86"> server, which is now at version 3.3.2.</p>
You also certainly can't go wrong with one of
<htmlurl url="http://www.nine.com/" name="Number 9's"> cards -
their S3 Vision 868 and 968 based cards (the 9FX series) also being
quite fast and very well supported by XFree86's S3 server.
<p>You also certainly can't go wrong with one of <htmlurl
url="http://www.nine.com/" name="Number 9's"> cards - their S3
Vision 868 and 968 based cards (the 9FX series) also being quite
fast and very well supported by XFree86's S3 server in addition to
being extremely cheap, nowadays. You can also pick up their
Revolution 3D cards very cheaply these days, especially if you
require a lot of video memory.</p>
<sect2><heading>Monitors<label id="hw:monitors"></heading>
<p>I have had very good luck with the <htmlurl url="http://cons3.sel.sony.com/SEL/ccpg/display/ms17se2.html"
name="Sony Multiscan 17seII monitors">, as have I with
the Viewsonic offering in the same (Trinitron) tube. For larger than
17", all I can recommend at the time of this writing is to not spend
any less than U.S. &dollar;2,500 for a 21" monitor or
any less than U.S. &dollar;2,000 for a 21" monitor or
&dollar;1,700 for a 20" monitor if that's what you really
need. There are good monitors available in the >=20" range and there
are also cheap monitors in the >=20" range. Unfortunately, very few are
both cheap and good!
both cheap and good!</p>
<sect2><heading>Networking<label id="hw:networking"></heading>
<p>I can recommend the <htmlurl url="http://www.smc.com/" name="SMC">
Ultra 16 controller for any ISA application and the SMC EtherPower
or Compex ENET32 cards for any serious PCI based networking. Both of
the PCI cards are based around DEC's DC21041 Ethernet controller
chip and other cards using it, such as the Zynx ZX342 or DEC DE435,
will generally work as well. For 100Mbit networking, either the
SMC SMC9332DST 10/100MB or Intel EtherExpress Pro/100B cards will do
a fine job, the Intel EtherExpress generally getting my vote.
If what you're looking for is, on the other hand, the cheapest possible
solution which will still work reasonably well, then almost any NE2000
clone is a good choice.
<p>I can recommend the Intel EtherExpress Pro/100B card first and
foremost, followed by the <htmlurl url="http://www.smc.com/"
name="SMC"> Ultra 16 controller for ISA applications and the
SMC SMC9332DST, SMC EtherPower or Compex ENET32 cards for slightly
cheaper PCI based networking. In general, any PCI NIC based around
DEC's DC2104x Ethernet controller chip, such as the Zynx ZX342 or
DEC DE435, will generally work quite well and can frequently be
found in 2-port and 4-port versions (useful for firewalls and
routers), though the Pro/100B card has the edge when it comes
to providing the best performance with the lowest overhead.</p>
<p>If what you're looking for is the cheapest possible solution,
on the other hand, then almost any NE2000 clone will do a fine job
for very little cost.</p>
<sect2><heading>Serial<label id="hw:serial"></heading>
<p>If you're looking for high-speed serial networking solutions, then