> From: zfs-discuss-boun...@opensolaris.org [mailto:zfs-discuss- > boun...@opensolaris.org] On Behalf Of Jim Klimov > > One idea I have is that a laptop which only has a single HDD slot, > often has SD/MMC cardreader slots. If populated with a card for L2ARC, > can it be expected to boost the laptop's ZFS performance?
You won't find that type of card with performance that's worth a damn. Worse yet, it will likely be extremely unreliable. In a SSD, all the performance and reliability come from intelligence in the controller, which emulates SATA HDD on one side, and manages Flash memory on the other side. Things like wear leveling, block mapping, garbage collection, etc, that's where all the performance comes from. You're not going to get it in a USB stick or a SD card. You're only going to get it in full size SSD's that consume power, and to some extent, the good stuff will cost more. (But of course, there's no way for the consumer to distinguish between paying for quality, and paying for marketing and margin, without trying it.) Even if you do try it, most likely you won't know the difference until a month later, having two identical systems with identical workload side-by-side. This is NOT to say the difference is insignificant; it's very significant, but without a point of reference, you don't have any comparison. All the published performance specs are fudged - but not lies - they represent optimal conditions, which are unrealistic. All the mfgrs are going to publish comparable specs, and none of them represent real life usage. _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
