Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 21:45:21 -0700 (MST) From: Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com> To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de (Joerg Wunsch), nellie@home.com Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: hardware Message-ID: <199711060445.VAA23332@obie.softweyr.ml.org> In-Reply-To: <19971105092746.CJ29364@uriah.heep.sax.de> References: <v03110706b08443751dbd@[24.3.111.2]> <19971105092746.CJ29364@uriah.heep.sax.de>
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J. Wunsch writes:
> <personal opinion>
> Leave out the IDE cra^H^H^Hstuff, and go for SCSI instead. Start with
> a cheap NCR (actually, Symbios Logic) 53c810 controller, and buy the
> drives as you need them. You won't regret it in the end.
What's the current scoop on NCR 875 controllers? I heard Diamond pulled
their FirePort 40 from distribution; what's up? Were they just getting
inundated by moron Windows losers trying to hook IDE drives to SCSI
controllers?
What about other current 875 controllers?
> The IBM DCAS 4 GB drives seem to be *the* current tip for SCSI hard
> disks. Cheap, cool, silent, fast.
>
> I think you almost can't buy any SCSI CD-ROM drive that wouldn't work
> with FreeBSD.
Yeah. I've got a nice 2X I'll be glad to sell ya. I spotted some
Plextor 6X's somewhere a while back for $69; those'd make good FreeBSD
installation drives. ;^)
> For a backup solution, if reliability counts more to you than
> cheapness, save your money, and by a Real Tape Drive some day.
> Jonathan Bresler reported to be very happy with his Archive Anaconda
> 2750, this seems to be one of the cheapest drives that offers the
> quality i would consider minimum standard for a backup solution. (See
> the handbook section on tape drives.)
>
> For faster and cheaper backups, use /dev/null. :-)) You can't beat it
> pricewise, but anything else below a Real Tape Drive i've seen so far
> (floppy tapes etc.) seems to compete with /dev/null on the reliability
> of the stored data.
Hear hear! I had to restore the entire source code control database for
my product from tape last week, after the disk lost a sector in the
middle of the database and NT drooled all over the disk in the process
of not recovering. You'll (hopefully) never know how happy I was that
I'd bought that nice Sony DAT drive two weeks before.
I'm moving the source code control system to our FreeBSD system as soon
as we get the next release out. NT sucks -- anyone who'd trust critical
data to one of those things is out of their mind. I'll transfer the
2940 and the DAT at the same time; I can make tar work just fine. ;^)
Been there, done that, WORE OUT THE T-SHIRT.
Do yourself a favor: if you're looking for a backup device, get a DAT
drive. The drives cost a bit more, but the tapes are cheap, and you'll
not regret it.
<SOAPBOX>
If you're really putting together a system for FreeBSD, remember to
spend your money in the important areas. First, throw out the IDE
interface, don't even think about using it. (I do, but only on *other*
people's machines. This one doesn't even have an IDE controller in it.)
Second, buy motherboards, network cards, video cards, etc. that others
have already gotten working. If you're using FreeBSD for other than
developing FreeBSD, don't pioneer. Check the supported hardware list,
ask here about specific items, find out what others did and did not have
trouble with.
Third, find out what will get you performance. Don't spend money on
getting the 200 Mhz processor vs. the 166 when that same money will
double your RAM; the RAM will do you more good than small performance
gain on the processor. More disks are better, especially with SCSI. If
this is a FreeBSD-only system, swapping on two or three disks on a fast
SCSI controller will be a win.
</SOAPBOX>
In short, I strongly agree with Joerg, and wanted to elaborate a bit on
his arguments. I have some idea what I'm talking about; I just sold my
thirteenth FreeBSD system this year. Yeah, small volume, but I built
everyone by hand. Mine's next; it'll be a doozy for a trailing-edger
like me. ;^)
> </personal opinion>
Ditto.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
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