[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       reiserfs-devel
Subject:    Re: [reiserfs-list] XDSM and ReiserFS
From:       Russell Coker <russell () coker ! com ! au>
Date:       2001-12-20 11:24:01
[Download RAW message or body]

On Wed, 19 Dec 2001 23:56, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
> > OK, so shopper.com has an LTO tape drive for only U$2800, and cartridges
> > for U$95 for a 100GB tape ($.95/GB).  It also has 80GB IDE drives for
> > $139 ($1.73/GB), and 160GB drives for U$289 ($1.80/GB).  Choosing the
> > 80GB drive for comparison, I would need to store about 3.6TB before the
> > tape drive became more cost-effective (not including the cost associated
> > with having 44 hard drives on-line all the time, but also not counting
> > the high up-front cost of having the tape drive and tape robot).
>
> Don't forget the number of IDE drives you can attach per interface,
> and the number of controller slots in your machine. This changes the
> numbers somewha. Do you *HAVE* enough controller slots to attach 44
> IDE hard drives? Maybe I'm out of it, but the IDE in my Dell has 2
> buses, and only a primary/secondary driver per bus.  The drives per
> controller ratio gets a lot better with SCSI - but then you get to
> re-calculate your break-even point because SCSI tends to cost more.

There are quite a few companies selling IDE controllers that have 4 IDE 
busses or more.  These provide as much ability to control hard drives as you 
can manage given the 45cm length limitation of IDE cables.

To control any decent amount of drives you need some sort of NAS type device 
doing either NFS or some sort of network block device.  Last time I looked 
into NAS type devices everyone said that they were just about to release new 
ones based around IDE (I haven't checked on whether they have done so).  Also 
there's the option of rolling your own with standard PC hardware.

-- 
http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/     Bonnie++ hard drive benchmark
http://www.coker.com.au/postal/       Postal SMTP/POP benchmark
http://www.coker.com.au/projects.html Projects I am working on
http://www.coker.com.au/~russell/     My home page
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]