[vfio-users] Hardware recommendation?

[Alex Williamson]

On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 8:37 AM, Tobias Geiger <tobias.geiger at vido.info>
wrote:

> Hello List!
>
> yesterday my beloved dx58so with its first gen 920 i7 got broke :(
> im really sad, except for the astronomicaly high power usage i was 100%
> happy with the system.
> Now it suddenly only recognizes 2998MB (?!) of the installed 16GB RAM -
> all of a sudden, dont ask me why.
> it also fails to let me into the bios ("hit f2" just doesnt work anymore)
> - in short: its broke. which is ok after about 7-8 years...
>
> so my question:
> can you recommend me a motherboard/cpu combination which makes as few
> problems as possible regarding vfio/vga passthrough?
> I'd like to re-use the existing AMD 88something GPU which is enough for me
> right now, but will surely update that in a few months/years and the next
> one is likely to be an NVIDIA one, so it would be nice if the new cpu/mobo
> will also work with nvidia cards regarding vfio.
>
> I'd prefer an up-to-date CPU/motherboard like Skylake, but Alex mentioned
> in his blog this might not be a good idea?
>

Skylake should be not much worse than other Intel client systems starting
with kernel v4.7, we figured out that they just botched the ACS support on
the PCH ports.  The only significant difference beyond that will be that
integrated devices may be more difficult to assign because they're often
part of multi-function packages with system management devices.

Beyond that, you need to figure out whether the lack of isolation in client
systems (Core i3/5/7) matches your expected use case.  The High End Desktop
Processors and Xeon E5 offer the most flexibility, but you pay a premium
for that.  With client systems you either need to use the slower PCH root
ports or assume that all of the processor root ports are dedicated to a
single VM.  If you're happy with IGD performance on the host and want a
single guest that doesn't need VGA (OVMF or secondary), there are lots of
inexpensive boards that will serve you well.  I used such a board and
described its limitations in the howto series on my blog.  The ACS override
patch will never be supported and will never be upstream, so I personally
wouldn't design a system depending on it.  Work within the capabilities of
the system or upgrade.  Thanks,

Alex
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