From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Bill Davidsen Subject: Re: future hardware Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:22:26 -0400 Message-ID: <45427892.4070008@tmr.com> References: <000901c6f509$1bd65560$eb00000a@mine3ad5e808fe> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <000901c6f509$1bd65560$eb00000a@mine3ad5e808fe> Sender: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org To: Dan Cc: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-raid.ids Dan wrote: >I have been using an older 64bit system, socket 754 for a while now. It has >the old PCI bus 33Mhz. I have two low cost (no HW RAID) PCI SATA I cards >each with 4 ports to give me an eight disk RAID 6. I also have a Gig NIC, >on the PCI bus. I have Gig switches with clients connecting to it at Gig >speed. > >As many know you get a peak transfer rate of 133 MB/s or 1064Mb/s from that >PCI bus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_Component_Interconnect > >The transfer rate is not bad across the network but my bottle neck it the >PCI bus. I have been shopping around for new MB and PCI-express cards. I >have been using mdadm for a long time and would like to stay with it. I am >having trouble finding an eight port PCI-express card that does not have all >the fancy HW RAID which jacks up the cost. I am now considering using a MB >with eight SATA II slots onboard. GIGABYTE GA-M59SLI-S5 Socket AM2 NVIDIA >nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX. > >What are other users of mdadm using with the PCI-express cards, most cost >effective solution? > There may still be m/b available with multiple PCI busses. Don't know if you are interested in a low budget solution, but that would address bandwidth and use existing hardware. Idle curiousity: what kind of case are you using for the drives? I will need to spec a machine with eight drives in the December-January timeframe. -- bill davidsen CTO TMR Associates, Inc Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979