MSI KT4VL = great seti farm motherboard

[none1]

OK, just tried it all out.


1) I'm running LTSP with a bunch of diskless nodes, and using PXESTUFF package to config the ethernet cards.

2) The MSI KT4VL boots from the on board NIC, and WILL boot with no video card (KEY) and no mouse or keyboard.

SO, you ONLY need KT4VL, ram, proc, HSF, power supply, and you can run SEIT DISKLESS on the mobo.

This board also OCs well, is KT400, and can be had at newegg for $85. NOT the cheapest farm node, but OCs well, and very LTSP friendly.

 

[Digital Pimp]

hmm.. sounds good. how many nodes do u have right now?

wanna give me 1 or 3 ?

Digital

 

[none1]

hmm.. sounds good. how many nodes do u have right now?

12 processors so far, but some of them run windows. I have 5 boards running diskless, including a MSIk7d (dual), so 6 procs running off the LTSP.

wanna give me 1 or 3 ?
Digital

Wouldn't do any good, we're both on the same team (Team Jazz ), doesn't matter if the WU show up under your ID or mine, so I might as well keep them here.

Trying to decide between the ECS K7S5A at $53 but needs video, and these MSI boards don't.

Anyone know if the ECS K7S5A has an LTSP compatible boot rom? or do you need a floppy drive? and I think these need a video ....

So ECS = $53, + 10 floppy, +$7 for video = $70, looks like the MSI wins at $85, as it will OC and give more WU ......

Any other thoughts on suitable LTSP diskless boards?

 

[DeRose306]

Actually, you can O/C with the K7S5A with a bios flash.

I have 2 running right now and I love them.

Also, at startup there is an option to boot from the network.

Hope this helps

 

[lonewolf1983]

yep the ECS boards can overclock with the right bios, but you have no voltage or multiplier settings, and only a few fsb options.

From what i remember the onboard LAN on the board supports booting off a network, but didnt work for the other guys running this kinda crunching setup (TC has one in his cluster)

probably best sticking with the MSI board, the LAN chip is a nice broadcom 1gb chip.

 

[{PMS}fishy]

I ahve seen a farm built with ECS MBs (not sure which kind) and they were booting with no video cards. Its a chance you would have to take. There are also people out there that boot up with the video card and then yank it out. That sucks if farm goes down and you need to reboot them all though.

 

[Digital Pimp]

Actually, you can O/C with the K7S5A with a bios flash.
I have 2 running right now and I love them.

how high are your fsb's on those systems?

i have 2 as well and want to know if they can actually do 200/200 before i invest in a bunch of PC-3200

Thanks, Digital