Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.187]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A60B69FA04E for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2007 03:55:03 -0300 (ADT) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.187]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 78097-02 for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2007 03:54:52 -0300 (ADT) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.5 Received: from ctb-mesg5.saix.net (ctb-mesg5.saix.net [196.25.240.75]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0E889F9D54 for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2007 03:54:59 -0300 (ADT) Received: from mirasol.co.za (dsl-240-132-190.telkomadsl.co.za [41.240.132.190]) by ctb-mesg5.saix.net (Postfix) with SMTP id DCC1C222D for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2007 08:54:53 +0200 (SAST) Received: (qmail 24973 invoked by uid 453); 6 Sep 2007 06:54:52 -0000 X-Virus-Checked: Checked by ClamAV on mirasol.co.za Received: from pc-00052.mirasol.co.za (HELO [172.16.0.52]) (172.16.0.52) by mirasol.co.za (qpsmtpd/0.40) with ESMTP; Thu, 06 Sep 2007 02:54:52 -0400 Message-ID: <46DFA43C.2030201@mirasol.co.za> Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2007 08:54:52 +0200 From: Willo van der Merwe User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (X11/20070326) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Hardware spec Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.001 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests=BAYES_50=0.001 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200709/72 X-Sequence-Number: 26617 Hi guys, I'm have the rare opportunity to spec the hardware for a new database server. It's going to replace an older one, driving a social networking web application. The current server (a quad opteron with 4Gb of RAM and 80Gb fast SCSI RAID10) is coping with an average load of ranging between 1.5 and 3.5. The new machine spec I have so far: 2 x Intel Xeon 2.33 GHz Dual Core Woodcrest Processors 4 Gb RAM 5x73 GB Ultra320 SCSI RAID 5 (288 GB storage) I've heard that RAID 5 is not necessarily the best performer. Also, are there any special tricks when partition the file system? Regards, Willo