Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 14:29:38 -0400 From: Mike Tancsa <mike@sentex.net> To: "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@nwlink.com> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 3ware IDE Raid. SCSI killer? Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.0.20000810140659.04a1cc40@marble.sentex.ca> In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.96.1000810105259.13496A-100000@utah> References: <200008101614.MAA08561@sanson.reyes.somos.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
At 11:14 AM 8/10/00 -0700, Jason C. Wells wrote:
>On Thu, 10 Aug 2000, Francisco Reyes wrote:
>
> > Although people usually think performance there is the other
> > real big factor.. cost.
> > As FreeBSD starts to make it's way into
> > corporations/organizations more and more it will be used in
> > places where a mix of performance and cost are considered. An
> > IDE raid may be good for that mix.
>The cost of even a moderately pricey server ($4,000) is small change for
>any business with at least two employees who are not the propreitor's
>brothers-in-law. One could get SCSI with RAID in a box for under $2,500 by
>my guesstimation that could handle any small LAN and its users.
>
>I don't see much benefit in this. Maybe you save a couple hundred bucks or
>ten percent on your server with some detracting issues? This sounds like a
>solution looking for a problem, as I have heard it said recently. This is
>merely my $.02.
I certainly agree that RAID IDE is no complete replacement for SCSI RAID,
but I think there are some situations where it is very cost effective....
Using average prices (US dollars) for an 120GIG USENET partition for example.
IDE RAID card $200
4 x 40GIG IDE $250
-----
$1200
vs
Mylex SCSI RAID $500
4x 7200 36G IBM $500
-----
$2500
Thats quite a cost difference. Even if the failure rate is 1yr vs 2yrs for
the IDE drives, I can easily replace them all and still come out ahead cost
wise. Or better yet, get the 8 port controller , and strip another 2
drives to the 4 drive mix to get even more space/performance out of it.
Is this correct for all situations ? No of course not. But, there is
certainly a spot for _some_ applications... I have found compared to a
DAC960 based SCSI array, in terms of raw throughput and random IO they are
very close. In my production environment, my news server is not running
near capacity, so the machine's overall requirements are easily met by the
IDE RAID solution. I save quite a bit on my budget which I can target to
more needed areas than USENET but at the same time have a better news
retention period.
---Mike
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Tancsa, tel +1 519 651 3400
Sentex Communications mike@sentex.net
Cambridge, Ontario Canada www.sentex.net
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.3.2.7.0.20000810140659.04a1cc40>