On 09/23/10 19:08, Peter Jeremy wrote:
The downsides are generally that it'll be slower and less power- efficient that a current generation server and the I/O interfaces will be also be last generation (so you are more likely to be stuck with parallel SCSI and PCI or PCIx rather than SAS/SATA and PCIe). And when something fails (fan, PSU, ...), it's more likely to be customised in some way that makes it more difficult/expensive to repair/replace.
Sometimes the bargains on E-Bay are such that you can afford to get 2 or even a 3rd machine for spares, and a PCI-X SAS card has more than adequate performance for SOHO use. But, I agree, repair is probably impossible unless you can simply swap in a spare part from another box. However server class machines are pretty tough. My used Sun hardware has yet to drop a beat and they've been running 24*7 for years - well, I cycle the spares since they were never needed for parts, so it's less than that. But they are noisy... Surely the issue about repairs extends to current generation hardware. It gets obsolete so quickly that finding certain parts (especially mobos) may be next to impossible. So what's the difference other than lots of $$$? Cheers -- Frank _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
