A friend of mine wants to build a dual quad-core Xeon system based on an Intel S5000PSLSATA server board and two 5335 Quad-Core Xeons (2.0Ghz, 1.33Ghz FSB), plus a full 16GB of FB-DIMM.

Question is, from Intel's website, I was led to believe that only paid OS's were supported by this motherboard. Is there any way to install, say, SuSE 10.2 non-Enterprise version on this at all?

Or will we have to pay US$300 a year or US$700 every three years for a SuSE Linux Enterprise 10 64-bit license?...

I recommend AMD but the Quad Core Xeons will work under any recent version of Linux or BSD.

If you must use Intel CPUs I would recommend a Supermicro or Tyan motherboard. Intel motherboards tend to be overpriced and usually underperform.

You do not need the paid version and I would advise against using SuSE.

Ubuntu 6.10 or Fedora Core 6 should work just fine.

CentOS should also work.

GL :-D

[code:1:5982fe6e7c] ~ $ dmesg|grep -i "initializing cpu"
Initializing CPU#0
Initializing CPU#1
Initializing CPU#2
Initializing CPU#3
[/code:1:5982fe6e7c]

Many distros come with SMP-capable kernels and can support them as such. As linux_0 suggested, CentOS is a popular choice among high-performance setups.

Edit: Also, you should install a 64-bit system especially with that kinda memory.

As bmouring already mentioned you should definitely install an x86_64 distribution with that amount of memory!


I would suggest you wait for the AMD Quad Cores if possible and the accompanying price drop and then purchase the CPUs that perform best for what you plan to use the server for.

Again I would strongly recommend Ubuntu 6.10-server-amd64, Fedora Core 6 x86_64 or CentOS x86_64 ( wait for CentOS 5 if you can ).

:-D


[code:1:59065f756c]

cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 65
model name : Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2212
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm cr8_legacy
bogomips : 2001.26
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc

processor : 1
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 65
model name : Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2212
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm cr8_legacy
bogomips : 2001.26
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc

processor : 2
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 65
model name : Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2212
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 1
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm cr8_legacy
bogomips : 2001.26
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc

processor : 3
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 65
model name : Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2212
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 1
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm cr8_legacy
bogomips : 2001.26
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc
[/code:1:59065f756c]

Great guys, thanks for all that input. I really needed to know that info!

I think I'll recommend using Fedora.

Just one question though, could you tell me the reasons not to use SUSE for such a machine? Just out of curiosity.

SUSE will work just fine for you and OpenSUSE 10.2 is a pretty good OS. People don't recommend SUSE much anymore as the Linux community is SERIOUSLY PO'd at Novell for signing a deal with Microsoft that allows for a technology sharing and payment of ~$300M to Novell. Novell is licensing certain technologies from Microsoft in return for Novell to become a MS distributor and to help MS "integrate their products better into Linux setups." This could have the effect of letting MS drive a wedge in the Linux community by making Novell's proprietary SUSE Linux be free of any potential MS lawsuit against Linux users as well as breaking compatibility between SUSE and other Linuxes for programs, etc. This is widely seen as MS trying to disrupt the Linux community by infiltration and Novell is seen as selling out when they could have easily told MS where to stick it. The latter would have made SUSE *the* distro of choice instead of a pariah, and yet the code is the same in either case.

Novell owns the commercial SUSE distribution and provides much of the code to the mostly-independent, non-proprietary OpenSUSE guys that make OpenSUSE 10.2. So technically OpenSUSE is not part of the MS-Novell deal and you aren't supporting MS by using it, but you'll not win many points with Linux fans by recommending SUSE in public.