Jon, I don't know what your motherboard is nor what your PCI bus version is, so you may want to take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_PCI At that link you can see the PCI bus speeds for the different versions and calculate how much you'll get out of your disks. I suggest you run a quick benchmark of how quick your disks can read/write (using hdparm -tT or dd). If you're not familiar with either, check this: http://mbhtech.blogspot.com/2009/09/software-raid-vs-lvm-quick-speed-test_08.html When benchmarking the disk, make sure it's connected to a native SATA port, not to a PCI card, to make sure that the numbers you're getting are not crippled by the PCI card or so. P.S.: Last year I bought 2 dual SATA port cards that were cheap from Amazon, hoping to expand my storage easily. Those two required flashing their controller with newer firmware and because the manufacturer's website was so vague, I ended up bricking the first card (flashed the wrong BIOS/firmware). And even when the 2nd card detected the 1TB disks, it was utter crap; the cables were mostly loose due to low-quality connectors. So because BackBlaze is using the cards they said they use, I'm sure at least those have good connectors and firmware! On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 10:44 AM, Jon Hardcastle<jd_hardcastle@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > --- On Tue, 8/9/09, Majed B. <majedb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> From: Majed B. <majedb@xxxxxxxxx> >> Subject: Re: Adaptec 1430SA >> To: "John Robinson" <john.robinson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >> Cc: Jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> Date: Tuesday, 8 September, 2009, 11:13 PM >> Check this link out: >> http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/ >> >> AT the end, they have a list of components, cheap ones. One >> is a >> 2-port sata card and another is a 4-port sata card. You >> might find >> them appealing to your usage. > > Are you referring to the Addonics ADSA4R5? Thanks for the heads up! Is PCI straight up got the throughput for 4 devices? I have a 2 port cheapy PCI via card Sata 1 and it has turned out to be abit of a mare... > > Whilst I have a skilled audience :) Do you have any experience with port multiplier? -- Majed B. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
