[Gllug] Hardware comparisons

[Alain Williams]

I'm putting together a box for a customer, cost is not the primary
concern (I'm replacing a 40K AIX box with a dual core AMD based box),
stability/reliability are highly desirable ... might as well get it
fast as well.

There are a few choices, comments please:

* They wanted SCSI, I had specified SATA ... is SCSI still worth
  the premium ? We will need a SCSI card for the DAT drive anyway.

* Mirroring. Is this best done by the kernel or through a RAID controller ?
  I believe that if the kernel sees 2 drives it will do reads in parallel
  (I believe that computers read more often than they write); it is
  suggested that using a RAID controller will reduce bus bandwidth (write to
  controller once which writes to the disks twice) & so make the machine faster.

* Memory. Both DDR2 dual channel:
  One supplier can provide: PC2-4200 (533MHz)
  The other: PC2-6400 - 800MHz
  Will the faster memory make a real difference ?

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
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