Message-ID: <453BECDB.8070302@tweakers.net>
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:12:43 +0200
From: Arjen van der Meijden <acmmailing@tweakers.net>
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To: Dave Cramer <pg@fastcrypt.com>
CC: Ben Suffolk <ben@vanilla.net>,  pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: New hardware thoughts
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	<463B9F43-74FC-4DFE-ABC4-357228901174@fastcrypt.com>
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On 20-10-2006 16:58 Dave Cramer wrote:
> Ben,
> 
>> My option in disks is either 5 x 15K rpm disks or 8 x 10K rpm disks 
>> (all SAS), or if I pick a different server I can have 6 x 15K rpm or 8 
>> x 10K rpm (again SAS). In each case controlled by a PERC 5/i (which I 
>> think is an LSI Mega Raid SAS 8408E card).
>>
> You mentioned a "Perc" controller, so I'll assume this is a Dell.
> 
> My advice is to find another supplier. check the archives for Dell.
> 
> Basically you have no idea what the Perc controller is since it is 
> whatever Dell decides to ship that day.

As far as I know, the later Dell PERC's have all been LSI 
Logic-controllers, to my knowledge Dell has been a major contributor to 
the LSI-Linux drivers...
At least the 5/i and 5/e have LSI-logic controller chips. Although the 
5/e is not an exact copy of the LSI Mega raid 8480E, its board layout 
and BBU-memory module are quite different. It does share its 
functionality however and has afaik the same controller-chip on it.

Currently we're using a Dell 1950 with PERC 5/e connecting a MD1000 
SAS-enclosure, filled with 15 36GB 15k rpm disks. And the Dell-card 
easily beats an ICP Vortex-card we also connected to that enclosure.

Ow and we do get much more than, say, 8-50 MB/sec out of it. WinBench99 
gets about 644MB/sec in sequential reading tops from a 14-disk raid10 
and although IOmeter is a bit less dramatic it still gets over 
240MB/sec. I have no idea how fast a simple dd would be and have no 
bonnie++ results (at hand) either.
At least in our benchmarks, we're convinced enough that it is a good 
set-up. There will be faster set-ups, but at this price-point it won't 
surprise me if its the fastest disk-set you can get.

By the way, as far as I know, HP offers the exact same broadcom network 
chip in their systems as Dell does... So if that broadcom chip is 
unstable on a Dell in FreeBSD, it might very well be unstable in a HP too.

Best regards,

Arjen