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Re: [TCLUG:6384] Cheap high-volume backups?



On Tue, 8 Jun 1999 14:48:24 -0500 (CDT), kotek@postal.oath.net wrote:
>Well a software raid uses up major CPU performance, and most people do not want
>to invest the 2K-5K for a hardware raid controler.  And now with the speed of
>some UltraDMA drives out there they are giving scsi a run for it's money.
>

Please don't tell me you bought into the UDMA lie... UDMA can not touch the
performance of SCSI, and at two devices / chain, IDE is just a broken interface.
And the truth is that the DMA transfer of IDE does not seem to reduce the amount
of CPU time spent on I/O, especially on Linux.  Meanwhile, UDMA/66 is just
about available, and SCSI is already there and beyond with 80MB/sec interfaces,
and will be at 160MB/sec interfaces soon.  As for RAID controllers,
www.pricewatch.com has Ultra SCSI2 RAID controllers for $99, and even IDE RAID
for <$100.  So 2k-5k isn't even true.

Back to the original question, while RAID would be ideal, you still need backup.
What it really comes down to is how much $$ you want to spend.  If you can drop
$4k, you can get a great Quantum DLT tape drive that does 20/40GB, but you can
get the travan drives (scsi or atapi - you should look at scsi since your ide is
maxed out) for $250-$400.  Check on pricewatch.

-Chris