Hi Al,
Thanks for the tips, I've maxed the memory on the board now (Up to 8GB from
4GB) and you are dead right about it being cheap to do so. I'd upgraded the
power supply as I thought that was an issue since the original couldn't provide
enough start-up current but that didn't make much difference to the hard hangs.
However after moaning to ASUS I was given a beta BIOS ( Version 1802 if anyone
else needs to chase it up ) and that has made a big difference to the system.
It's now stable!
I'm going to keep an eye on things and see how well it performs, hopefully
it'll be worth the upgrade cost and hassle.
Cheers,
Alan
> >
> > So, before I go and shout at the motherboard
> manufacturer are
> > there any components in b78 that might not be
> expecting a quad core
> > AMD cpu? Possibly in the marvell88sx driver? Or
> is there anything
> > more I can do to track this issue down.
>
> Please read the tomshardware.com article[1] where he
> found that Phenom
> upgrade compatibility is not what AMD would have
> expected/predicted/published. It's also possible
> that your CPU VRM
> (voltage regulators) can't supply the necessary
> current when the
> Phenom gets really busy.
>
> The only way to diagnose this issue is to apply
> "swap-tronics" to the
> motherboard and power supply. Welcome to the
> bleeding edge! :(
>
> IMHO Phenom is far from ready for prime time. And
> this is coming from
> an AMD fanboy who has built, bought and recommended
> AMD based systems
> exclusively for the last 2 1/2 years+.
>
> Squawking at the motherboard maker is unlikely to get
> you any
> satisfaction IMHO. Cut your losses and go back to
> the 5200+ or build
> a system based on a Penyrn chip when the less
> expensive Penyrn family
> members become available - proba-bobly[2] within 60
> days.
>
> As an aside, with ZFS, you gain more by maxing out
> your memory than by
> spending the equivalent dollars on a CPU upgrade.
> And memory has
> never* been this inexpensive. Recommendation: max
> out your memory
> and tune your 5200+ based system for max memory
> throughput[3].
>
> PS: IMHO Phenom won't be a real contender until they
> triple the L3
> memory. The architecture is sound, but currently
> cache-starved IMHO.
>
> PPS: On an Sun x2200 system (bottom-of-the-line
> config [2*2.2GHz dual
> core CPUs] purchased during Suns anniverserary sale)
> we "pushed in" a
> SAS controller, two 140Gb SAS disks and 24Gb of 3rd
> party RAM[4].
> Yes - configured for ZFS boot and ZFS based
> filesystems exclusively
> and currently running snv_68 (due to be upgraded when
> build 80 ships).
> You cannot believe how responsive this system is -
> mainly due to the
> RAM. For a highly performant ZFS system, there are 3
> things that you
> should maximize/optimize:
>
> 1) RAM capacity
> 2) RAM capacity
> 3) RAM capacity
>
> PPPS: Sorry to beat this horse into submission - but!
> If you have a
> hoice (at a given budget) of 800MHz memory parts at N
> gigabytes
> (capacity), or, 667MHz (or 553MHz) memory parts at N
> * 2 gigabytes -
> *always*[5] go with the config that gives you the
> maximum memory
> capacity. You really won't notice the difference
> between 800MHz
> memory parts and 667MHz memory parts, but you *will*
> notice the
> difference between the system with 8Gb of RAM and
> (the same system
> with) 16Gbs of RAM when it comes to ZFS (and overall)
> performance.
>
> [1]
> http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/26/phenom_motherbo
> ards/
> [2] deliberate new word - represents techno
> uncertainty
> [3] memtestx86 v3 is your friend. Available on the
> UBCD (Ultimage
> Bood CD ROM)
> [4] odd mixture of 1Gb and 2Gb parts
> [5] there are some very rare exceptions to this rule
> - for really
> unusual workload scenarios (like scientific
> computing).
>
> HTH.
>
> Regards,
>
> Al Hopper Logical Approach Inc, Plano, TX.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Voice: 972.379.2133 Fax: 972.379.2134
> Timezone: US CDT
> enSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Apr 2005 to
> Mar 2007
> http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/ogb/ogb_2005-2
> 007/
> Graduate from "sugar-coating school"? Sorry - I
> never attended! :)
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> ss
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