Tyan Tiger i7505 (S2668)

[Doran]

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tigeri7505.html

I'm concidering this motherboard for my next Xeon Toaster station. Does anyone have a opinion pro or con?

[rbartlett]

S2668 will have a bandwidth limit for your drives - unless you wish to put your video drive array on SATA-150 entirely? I guess there are still three buses on the S2668, but only presented as PCI32@33 max? equating to <110MByte/sec per additional storage controller.

PCI-X is the place to target for SCSI or 3ware 64bit (either 33 or 66MHz or higher) peripherals.

Not sure if S2668 needs special PSU or bigger than average case (EATX).... these two items can equate to the cost of 2x Xeon CPUs. Plus these server platforms often require buffered DDR266, not just the high street DDR266 (I don't mean ECC or registered).

S2665ANF would be more Toastarian with a 64bit slot or two in addition to the onboard gubbins.

Unless you are a Tyan-head. Also check the cousin company I-Will DP533-S. My interest, albeit ALSO unproven personally for use with Toaster (caveat emptor), is SuperMicro X5DAL-TG2.
Less slots, but one is fully usable unshared as a PCI-X, fits in a regular ATX case, normal PIV PSU, unbuffered DDR266.

DAL-TG2, to me, is a modern day Abit BP6, to coin in on Mr Morger. (I feel that I can as I have a BP6 chugging along with dual CPUs but no SSE, still).

[PIZAZZ]

I would go with a Supermicro 7505 if possible.

I and I know at least one other dealer have not had luck with the Tyan motherboards and Toaster.

[Doran]

I was thinking that the SATA would be fast enough. I guess I'm mistaken? So then the only card that I would need the 64 bit PCI for would be the ultra SCSI?

I'm really not worried about the size of the board; I have a ton of large multi-configurable server cases lying about.

Is there a good reason for the limited number of PCI slots on these motherboards? Cards are getting thicker and the slots usually are spaced too closely, eventually rendering some slots useless. I just feel like there is too much built in obsolescence in a slot challenged board.

I never used the BP6 but I do have a VP6 which was a great workhorse for me.

[johnq]

I just put a SuperMicro X5DA8 together, replacing my dual AMD CPU Tyan K7 (in anticipation of VT3). The X5DA8 is working great! A few things: (1) you can search ar www.pricewatch.com for prices; (2) some dealers will install and test the components if you order both the motherboard and CPU(s). For example, Micro-Pro and Monarch Computers offer this service. It might prevent the dreaded "dead-on-arrival" fear. (3) you will probably need/want a new power supply. The SuperMicro will work with either 20 or 24 pin power connectors and has an 8-pin connector for supplying 12V to the CPUs. However, it is possible to insert a standard P4 4-pin connector into the 8-pin slot. While this is probably OK, in the end I got a new 550 watt "Xeon" power supply for about $100.

I found a big performance increase on the VT2 Autoconfig results for my SCSI array. It went from about 155 MB/sec (on the K7 33MHz/64 bit PCI bus) to 220 MB/sec on the X5DA8 on-board SCSI.

john

[Doran]

What cards do you have installed on the new board?

[johnq]

Cards installed? That is a good question and could impact your choice of 7505 systemboard. The SuperMicro X5DA8 has two standard PCI slots (33MHz and 32 bit). I have the VT2 in one and a 3Ware7800 IDE RAID controller in the other (with four 80 GB drives attached). The 3Ware cannot fit in any of the other "fast/wide" slots because it requires 5V and physically won't insert into them. I have a SIIG 3 channel 1394 card in the 133 MHz/64bit slot. This slows the bus to 33MHz, but it is the only card on that bus. I have a Gainward Nvida 4200 AGP card. The SCSI drives (6 at 10Krpm) are connected to the two onboard U320 controllers. There are 6 USB-2 ports and gigabit LAN port built-in.

Other competive motherboards have built-in 1394 and may have a SATA RAID connection included.

john

[djlithium]

Hmm...

I have had very good expierences with the Tyan boards expecially the 760 MP based units with dual SCSI160/DualLan versions. Which models did you have trouble with??
While these units were not Intel CPU based, they worked great. Still each manufacturer has its bad ideas for boards occasionally. I think ASUS is going through that phase right now.


K.

[Gordon]

Originally posted by johnq
I have the VT2 in one and a 3Ware7800 IDE RAID controller in the other (with four 80 GB drives attached). The 3Ware cannot fit in any of the other "fast/wide" slots because it requires 5V and physically won't insert into them.
john

Are you sure? First of all I have installed the card in the Supermicro motherboards, (although different model - ), and second I'm pretty sure that they are dual voltage, 3.3 and 5V. Plus they are listed as having been tested and working on that particular motherboard in the PCI-X slots! Here is the line from the compatibility chart:

SuperMicro X5DA8 Intel E7505 Phoenix Rev 1.0 64-bit PCI-X-133 Dual Xeon

You can look at the whole chart here:
http://www.3ware.com/support/

Finally, swapping the 3Ware card and the SIIG 3 channel 1394 card will not only give you a much improved throughout by getting the drives off the same PCI bus as the Toaster but it will take advantage of the 64 bit bus on the 3Ware card.

Contact 3Ware tech support if you have any questions but short of it truly not fitting the PCI-X slots on the Supermicro motherboard, the 64bit slots should be a better location for the 3Ware card.

[eetu]

i'm considering this exact same board, did you buy it?
did it have any problems?

eetu.

[Gordon]

No I have not purchased the Supermicro board at this point, (although that may change in the next day or so).

[hasansheikh]

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tigeri7505.html

I'm concidering this motherboard for my next Xeon Toaster station. Does anyone have a opinion pro or con?


PLEASE let us know
if any one or more had LUCK with GOOD results on
TYAN S2676?
as its the only one easily available localy.
Please confirm ..... THANK U

TYAN S2676 i7525 with VT3 and VT4.

Dear Doran what about U?which board did U buy and success?

[kleima]

I have had excellent results with the Tyan S2665UANF. I don't know what the differences are (probably it is just a slightly older model). The S2665UANF
does have 64 bit slots. I would assume the S2668 does also.

[eracer]

I have been building systems with nothing but TYAN S2665UANF motherboards, and (aside from the usual crash problems that EVERYONE has - whether they admit it or not) they've been working great. The Seagate U320 SCSI array on the motherboard's controller seems bulletproof.

I do see CG crashes. I do see "drag & drop" crashes. Those are VT issues, not motherboard problems (unless all motherboards are defective.)

Bottom line, for a stable dual-XEON system with 64-bit slots and a SCSI SCSI SCSI (not SATA until Newtek certifies it...) drive array, you can use the S2665UANF.