Stuart Matthews wrote: > Hi all, > > I am currently running BackupPC on the following: > 1.5GB RAM > older processor - not sure how fast > 2TB external USB hard drive > > Clearly this isn't cutting it, although it was barely cutting it for a > few months. This wasn't my optimal setup but I have to be cost conscious > whenever I can, so I went with "free," because I either had all this > laying around or had it donated. The current bottlenecks seem to be hard > drive and RAM, although CPU could be better, too. > > The environment I am trying to back up is 23 laptops, mostly OS X. They > are generally only on the network from 10am - 5pm. The pool size is > 434.71GB comprising 4522859 files and 4369 directories. Our network is > 100Mbps. > > Here is the hardware I am considering buying: > Shuttle barebones case, PSU. > 2x4GB DDR2 800 RAM. max 16GB on this motherboard over four slots. > Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" > Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz Quad-Core Processor > > The WD 2TB will be used as the BackupPC drive. I will use a random SATA > drive that I have sitting around for the system drive. The OS will be > the latest Debian Linux. > > Before I propose to my boss that we spend $1100 on new hardware, I > wanted to get the opinion of the list as to whether this hardware should > be sufficient for, say, five years to come, assuming no hardware > failures.
So you say that your current limitation is currently disk (and possibly RAM), but you are spending $1,100 mostly on CPU (and RAM). Personally, I'd take that money and buy a hardware RAID controller and as many disks (in the $/GB sweet spot) as I could to use with my current set-up. Assuming your current computer does not have a PCI-Express slot... 4 Port 3Ware SATA Raid card* - $310 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116052 If you DO have a PCI-Express slot... 4 Port 3Ware SATA Raid card - $275 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116076 In either case... 1.5 TB SATA Drives - $145 each ( $725 for 5, so you have a spare) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148531 That leaves at least $65 for shipping and molex to SATA power adapters. Run the four drives in RAID 5 for maximum space, or RAID 10 for (possibly) better performance. > If you don't think it is sufficient, what do you think will be > sufficient so I can price that out and propose that to my boss instead? > Thoughts? > > Thanks! > Stuart Matthews Chris * PCI-X is backwards compatible with PCI, so this card will work in a PCI slot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Throughout its 18-year history, RSA Conference consistently attracts the world's best and brightest in the field, creating opportunities for Conference attendees to learn about information security's most important issues through interactions with peers, luminaries and emerging and established companies. http://p.sf.net/sfu/rsaconf-dev2dev _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
