My next Workstation

[Billie Walsh]

On 07/08/2010 10:19 AM, Francisco Diaz Trepat - gmail wrote:
> I hope you don't mind me asking this here:
>
> Hi guys, I'm currently in the process of researching some hardware for 
> my next ubuntu workstation.
>
> My goal is to spend between 500 and 600 uds, and I want to put some 
> enfasis on what I think is the current bottle neck of speed this days, 
> and that is Hard Drives.
>
> I would like to have a RAID array to have better performance.
>
> I am thinking in getting Intel 2 Core Quad 8300 processor. But I am 
> open to other choices too. Because Ubuntu is more focus on 
> software/fake RAID I would like a multicore processor, and 64bit arch 
> sounds good too.
>
> So right now my options looks something like this:
>
> Processor   Intel Core 2 Quad 8300
> RAM         1 X 2gb DDR2 800mhz
> Mother      Intel Dg43gt
> HD          2 X 500gb SATA 3.0Gb/s
>
> If I could I would like more drives in RAID.
> And if possible real RAID?
>      I found about this controller: Syba PCI Express SATA II 4 x Ports 
> RAID Controller Card SY-PEX40008
> PCI Express with transfer rate 2.5 Gb/s Full Duplex channel. Fully 
> Plug & Play compatible. Supports Raid function 0, 1, 5, 10. SATA II 
> Interface
>
> I had some people comments about AMD but I am kind of unfamiliar and I 
> thought the Quad was a nice processor but that it used to be too 
> overpriced.
>
> Any comments guides or recommendations would be great, I feel a bit in 
> the dark with this and would surely appreciate some guidance.
>
> Regards,
> f(t)
>

Liam mentioned an SSHD.

In my experience with computers memory is always going to be faster than 
mechanical hard drives. Back in the dark ages I had an old 8088 computer 
that I installed what was called a "Rampat" board with 100meg of memory 
on it. The computer was already running the maximum memory that it could 
see so I used the extra as a ramdisk. When I called a program from my 
bat file it first copied the program from the hard drive to the ramdisk 
and then executed it. There was a slight performance hit from the copy 
process but the programs ran so much faster it was unreal.

I have an Asus EeePC with a 64 gig SSHD, 2 gigs memory and Atom 
processor, with 10.4 installed. For speed it kicks butt. It's way faster 
than my dual core laptop or quad core desktop [ four gigs memory on both 
]. Boots faster and executes programs faster.

I've heard a lot of talk about long term durability with SSHD's but then 
I have some really _OLD_ computers around here with no memory problems. 
Some have outlived the original hard drives that were in the computers 
by many years. [ two or three hard drives ] YMMV

Something else. Never skimp on memory. Use as much as possible or until 
your dipping into the kids college fund, whichever comes first. Best 
investment in computer performance.

Just my $1.00 worth [ $0.02 adjusted for inflation ].

-- 
"A good moral character is the first essential in a man." George Washington

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