From owner-freebsd-sparc64@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 29 13:47:21 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 236E516A4CE for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2003 13:47:21 -0800 (PST) Received: from PIKES.panasas.com (gw2.panasas.com [65.194.124.178]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4342F43D55 for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2003 13:47:19 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from chris@behanna.org) Received: from waumbek.panasas.com ([172.17.2.36]) by PIKES.panasas.com with SMTP (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service Version 5.5.2653.13) id SVSYFWMT; Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:47:18 -0500 From: Chris BeHanna Organization: Western Pennsylvania Pizza Disposal Unit To: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:47:17 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.4 References: <3844188062.20031229025552@blue.calx.nl> In-Reply-To: <3844188062.20031229025552@blue.calx.nl> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200312291647.17666.chris@behanna.org> Subject: Re: Success / New hardware / gem or hme? X-BeenThere: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Sparc List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 21:47:21 -0000 On Sunday 28 December 2003 20:55, Walter Hop wrote: > [...snip...] > > I am looking for a 1U server for a database server where disk I/O is > important. Does somebody have any comments on whether the > performance of the new Sun Fire machines are worth the price? If disk I/O is important, then nothing in a 1U form factor is going to be adequate for you. If you have the physical space for it, a secondhand E450 provides a lot of bang for the buck. It may not come with the speediest CPUs, but the E450 is built for I/O (they can be expanded to have five SCSI channels feeding up to 20 hot-swap disks). You can build a couple of nice striped arrays with that. Even Sun's 4U boxes are kind of limited for a heavy I/O box: an E420R, for example, only has space for two internal 36GB disks. > Last question: the 2nd hand machine I bought has two on-board ethernet > ports (gem0, gem1) and a PCI card with 4 hme ports on it. Is there a > difference in quality in these adapters, or can I just pick a port at > random? IIRC, the gem devices are gigE. "man gem" should tell you for sure. The quad hme (usually qfe0 through qfe3 if you run Solaris) board provides 4 10/100 ports. -- Chris BeHanna Software Engineer (Remove "bogus" before responding.) behanna@bogus.zbzoom.net Turning coffee into software since 1990.