From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 24 08:16:28 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 856B916A4CE for ; Tue, 24 Feb 2004 08:16:28 -0800 (PST) Received: from deerite.fhcrc.org (deerite.fhcrc.org [140.107.52.11]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 626E543D1D for ; Tue, 24 Feb 2004 08:16:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jgoodlea@fhcrc.org) Received: from e500b.fhcrc.org (e500b.fhcrc.org [140.107.52.110]) i1OGGSMh011127 for ; Tue, 24 Feb 2004 08:16:28 -0800 Received: from jarlite.fhcrc.org(140.107.42.11) by e500b.fhcrc.org via csmap id 9160; Tue, 24 Feb 2004 08:15:17 -0800 (PST) Received: from shemp.fhcrc.org (shemp.fhcrc.org [140.107.42.41]) i1OGGRPi017854 for ; Tue, 24 Feb 2004 08:16:27 -0800 Received: by shemp.fhcrc.org with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2657.72) id ; Tue, 24 Feb 2004 08:16:26 -0800 Message-ID: From: "Goodleaf, John M" To: "'freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org'" Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 08:16:25 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2657.72) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-FHCRC: INTERNAL Subject: yet another request for hardware rec. X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 16:16:28 -0000 I know these questions come up all the time, but I think it's okay, since no one ever tires of talking about good hardware. Also, hardware changes pretty frequently. I need backup/storage space. I know I could go tape or DVD RAM. But I want a machine running a true RAID to serve as storage space for various databases and so forth. Here's the trick: I want not to spend a ton of money. So I'm looking at getting five or so SATA drives of maybe 80 or 120GB apiece. Then I'd probably get the 8-port 3Ware SATA controller. SCSI would cost just too damn much money. Besides, SCSI drives are really, really loud (I have a machine with dual 15Krpm scsi drives and I can barely be in the same room with it). What I'd like is to identify a solid motherboard. I'm comfortable with a behind-the-curve processor, since the storage machine won't need much muscle of its own, but I would like it to have a 64/66 PCI slot for the SATA card. I know there's some performance drag with RAID5 and I want to crank out as much disk speed as possible. I have no particular preference on the AMD/Intel question. It seems that AMD generally gets you better bang for your buck, but it seems that an Intel board is more likely to have the 64/66 slot I long for. I don't know, and there's a bewildering array of MBs on the market. Any thoughts? Also, feel free to criticize the whole plan. If you've heard of a RAID appliance that doesn't cost $5K, I'm interested. Thanks, John PS I just thought of this: What about network bandwidth? Since I don't want to go to gigabit hardware on the network, is there a way I can install two or so 100M cards and bind them to one IP, just to increase the throughput?