[Pc_Support] Re: MEdia Driven Universal Storage Array (MEDUSA)

[Jason Boxman]

On Sunday 23 January 2005 12:01, you wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-01-23 at 04:25, Jason Boxman wrote:
> > Are they random 160GBs or are they the Maxtors I keep seeing?
>
> They were Western Digitals.  Actually, I think I'm going to return the
> (unopend) ones I have and get 200GB Seagate drives (I already have 2 in
> use -- so I only need 3).

Nice -- 5yr warranty.

> > Why did you choose NetCell over 3Ware?  The fast writes?
>
> NetCell is better for desktop/appliances -- way faster at both reads and
> writes, especially when you lose a disk.

Ah, not RAID 5.  Sweet.

<snip>
> > How will you deal with the issue of PCI bus bandwidth?
>
> The 64-bit x 33MHz (266MBps) bus should suffice for the disk.
>
> > Is the NIC on its own PCI bus or will it share it with the HD-3000?
>
> It's only a 10/100Mbps NIC.  I am purposely _not_ putting in a 1000Mbps
> NIC.  I only want to stream audio and video _after_ it is processed.  So
> I only need 5MBps tops, and I won't be using it at the same time.

But if you did want 1000Mbps, you would need to buy a mainboard with yet 
another PCI bus to segment the NIC?  (i.e. you would now need 3.)

> It will go on the 32-bit x 33MHz PCI (133MBps) slots that are bridged
> off of the 64-bit PCI bus.
>
> > I imagine the RAID card will be on a bus by itself?
>
> I'm only going to use
>
> > With hardware MPEG encoding,
>
> Nope, it's software.  But I don't plan on encoding in real-time.  I'm
> going to take the "raw" 19.2MBps ATSC stream and store it.

May I ask why?  The NetCell card is at least $250.  You can't get a hardware 
encoder too? ;)

> > do you really need much bandwidth for this application?
>
> Yes.  Ideally I wish I had PCI-X slots.  But the pcHDTV HD-3000 requires
> a 5V slot.  So that's not an option.
>
> Ideally I should consider spending $135 to get a Tyan S2466 Tiger MPX
> which uses (2) 64-bit x 66MHz PCI (533MBps) 3.3V slots, and then (4)
> 33-bit x 33MHz (133MBps) 5V slots.  That would give me twice the
> bandwidth for the NetCell card, but it's probably overkill.

You expect you might fully utilize your 266MBps bus with that RAID card?

I'd love to see some benchmarks whenever you get the box up.

> I was thinking about getting one anyway, because the S2466 has better
> power stability than the S2460 thanx to the 4-pin +12V plus 4-pin
> Molex.  As the system heats up, the efficiency of the power supply
> drops, and the sole 20-pin ATX has trouble delivering over 130W (~70A at
> the voltage) to just the CPUs.  Hence why I got the PC-V1200, so the PS
> is at the very bottom, drawing cool air directly from the floor.  If I
> was running with my old, original 1.4GHz Athlons, or maybe even old
> Durons (yes, they worked too), it wouldn't be an issue, but these latest
> MP2400+ Athlons really suck up the juice (65W/piece).

Yeah, I read about many hardware mods people were trying to avoid nuking their 
S2460 boards.  The threads I read indicate it was still an issue even with 
good power supplies.  Something about resistance on the +5V of the ATX 
connector itself?  People were soldering an extra Molex on.

> If I got one, would anyone be interested in my older Tyan S2460 Tiger
> MP?  64-bit (33MHz) slots, dual-CPU, etc... -- although make sure you
> _do_ have a _true_ 500W+ for dual-CPU and _good_ cooling, etc...  Again,
> I'd either in single mode, or if you have pre-XP processors (I
> personally used 1.4GHz before, and I think older Durons will too), they
> _will_ work in MP mode.  You don't need Registered memory if you only
> use 1-2 DIMMs, but definitely if you're going to use 3-4 like I do.

I'd be curious, but they go for >$200 on Ebay which is probably way outside my 
price range when a good PSU will be another $100+.  I imagine you mean just 
the mainboard, so it ought to be a bit less than $200.

Would there be any point in replacing my ServerWorks IIILE board with this?  
It still only has two busses.

-- 

Jason Boxman
Perl Programmer / *NIX Systems Administrator
Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing | University of Florida
http://edseek.com/ - Linux and FOSS stuff