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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!news.jhu.edu!boingo.amil.jhu.edu!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!news.sgi.com!news.mathworks.com!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!portc01.blue.aol.com!newsxfer2.itd.umich.edu!news.itd.umich.edu!naughty.monkey.org!pha From: pha@monkey.org (Paul H. Anderson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Recommended SCSI hard drive for BSD system Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Date: 1 Oct 1996 02:46:28 GMT Organization: the International House of Primates Lines: 38 Message-ID: <52q0m4$bmd@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> References: <324703FC.41C6@austin.ibm.com> <3249A04D.41C67EA6@cisco.com> <vw20fn92ks.fsf@mina.sr.hp.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: naughty.monkey.org X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:5027 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:28346 Darryl Okahata (darrylo@sr.hp.com) wrote: : Funny, I can get 6MB/sec *sustained* out of a narrow-SCSI 4GB : Quantum Atlas (this is reading a 256MB file), and I've heard of others : getting even better performance. If this is poor performance to you, : I'd like to know what you consider good. More data points: I have 5 quantum XP34300W (fast wide 4.3 GB drives), and 4 Baracuda-2 FW drives (the old ones, not the newer 2LP - low power drives). With an Adaptec 2940UW and FreeBSD on a P6/200, I was getting about 6-7.5MB/sec for large (multigig) reads on each of 3 drives concurrently. For a similar arrangement with the 2GB baracuda drives, it was a little lower peak throughput, but I expected this because of lower bit density. I also expect, but didn't verify, that random I/O would be faster on the baracuda drives, as the seek time seems a bit better. My experience to date favors the quantums, but primarily on two points: heat, and cost. I don't really know about the reliability, as the 5 quantums have only been in service for about 3 months. Heavy stress testing indicates no problem with either set of drives. Oh yeah - the quantums are noisy sons of guns. At least to me, hearing all four buzzing away at once is really, really loud sitting next to them. : Here's my $0.02: : * Seagate: The old (obsolete?) Hawk series are good. I don't know about : the newer Hawk 2XL drives. The Barracudas also seem to be good, but : they run *HOT* and need to be cooled well, or they can die a VERY : early death. The Barracudas (old ones, at least) also seem to come : with the write cache disabled (it's enabled by default on Quantum : Atlas drives), which slows down performance. Paul Anderson pha@umich.edu