From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jan 25 18:53:41 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E35031065693 for ; Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:53:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@koitsu.dyndns.org) Received: from qmta15.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net (qmta15.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net [76.96.27.228]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C6B678FC22 for ; Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:53:41 +0000 (UTC) Received: from omta16.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.30.72]) by qmta15.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net with comcast id ZuH81d00F1ZMdJ4AFutiwR; Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:53:42 +0000 Received: from koitsu.dyndns.org ([98.248.46.159]) by omta16.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net with comcast id ZuuV1d0023S48mS8cuucZr; Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:54:40 +0000 Received: by icarus.home.lan (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 296941E3033; Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:53:24 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:53:24 -0800 From: Jeremy Chadwick To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20100125185324.GA21007@icarus.home.lan> References: <4B5DD7A2.4000101@FreeBSD.org> <4B5DE3C1.4060508@FreeBSD.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Subject: Re: 8.0-RELEASE/amd64 - full ZFS install - low read and write disk performance X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:53:42 -0000 On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 08:39:01PM +0200, Dan Naumov wrote: > On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 8:32 PM, Alexander Motin wrote: > > Dan Naumov wrote: > >> Alexander, since you seem to be experienced in the area, what do you > >> think of these 2 for use in a FreeBSD8 ZFS NAS: > >> > >> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/ICH9/X7SPA.cfm?typ=H > >> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/ICH9/X7SPA.cfm?typ=H&IPMI=Y > > > > Unluckily I haven't yet touched Atom family close yet, so I can't say > > about it's performance. But higher desktop level (even bit old) ICH9R > > chipset there is IMHO a good option. It is MUCH better then ICH7, often > > used with previous Atoms. If I had nice small Mini-ITX case with 6 drive > > bays, I would definitely look for some board like that to build home > > storage. > > > > -- > > Alexander Motin > > CPU-performance-wise, I am not really worried. The current system is > an Atom 330 and even that is a bit overkill for what I do with it and > from what I am seeing, the new Atom D510 used on those boards is a > tiny bit faster. What I want and care about for this system are > reliability, stability, low power use, quietness and fast disk > read/write speeds. I've been hearing some praise of ICH9R and 6 native > SATA ports should be enough for my needs. AFAIK, the Intel 82574L > network cards included on those are also very well supported? That's just the thing -- I/O transactions, not to mention ZFS itself, are CPU-bound. If you start seeing slow I/O as a result of the Atom's limitations, I don't think there's anything that can be done about it. Choose wisely. :-) WRT the Intel 82574 series: em(4) supports this, just please be sure to run RELENG_8 as there's been em(4) fixes and improvements which RELEASE doesn't have. http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/e1000/ If you have issues with the NIC(s), Jack Vogel at Intel can be of great assistance. :-) -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc@parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |