[Asterisk-Users] Motherboard and processor recommendations

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Wed, Sep 07, 2005 at 11:02:58PM +0300, Soner Tari wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> For sometime now I've been searching the wiki and googling, but I think I'm 
> missing some of the very important answers. So I'll have to ask this to the 
> list.
> 
> I'm trying to decide on the right motherboard and processor. Here are my 
> questions:
> 
> 1. Would I have problems with all-onboard motherboards (Onboard VGA, 
> LAN/GLAN, Sound, SATA, RAID) ? I've read the comment about an Onboard VGA 
> on wiki.

Considering the exceptional quality of graphics you'll need with
Asterisk, and VGA-compatible adapter would suffice. The on-board one
would be more than enough. Ditto for the sound card, at least in most
cases.

As for the network adapter: Are you going to get anything close to
saturating the card? I figure that the efficiency of the network adapter
and its driver will not be your bottleneck. Most of the WAN-oriented
systems would have worked fine with an old 10Mbps card, probably without
a noticable performance hit (right?).

So their quality is not much of an issue. If you have the extra space,
you can always add an extra one in an expansion slot. But it should not
be required.

An extra raid controller is something you may consider. But then-again,
if it is a cheap software-based raid, it is practically the same as
using linux for that (but with more problematic drivers). But it is for
you to decide if it is worth the extra cost.

> 
> 2. Which chipset should I prefer: Intel, SiS or VIA? I've read the old SiS 
> chipset problem on wiki.

There is much voodoo about this. There are good and bad boards made with
each of those chipsets. In fact, for practically each model of board
that has been sold for over a month or so, you'll probably find someone
in this list who had bad experience with it.

> 
> 3. Which processor has the least support problems: P4 (478 or LGA775, or 
> even EMT64) or AMD64 ? For example, in G729 config file Athlon comment 
> reads as "untested" (so far I don't have problems), and there is no config 
> option for AMD64 at all. There is no mention of EMT64 either. Is anything 
> processor dependant in codecs/transcoding, echo cancellation, busy detect 
> and similar software, i.e. in dsp routines in general ?

First of all, what do you intend to do? Much transcoding? How many
lines?

Because if the load on the CPU will be light enough, than the CPU brand
won't really matter, you know.

> I think this is a very complicated issue, and given so many variables 
> perhaps luck plays an important part.

I figure some people on this list will happily sell you pre-configured
systems. Or at least pre-built ones.

-- 
Tzafrir Cohen         | tzafrir at jbr.cohens.org.il | VIM is
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