So... Who else wants to hit 200,000 on ATTO?

TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
edited June 2003 in Hardware
The first article/guide I will probably churn out here for Icrontic is gonna be a guide to how to do just this on a budget.

Details on how to scarf around for parts and put one of these puppies together on a shoestring budget. Course... shoestring budget can be a dangerous term when your dealing with scsi raid and 64bit controllers but does $700 bucks for a dual amd server and hotrod scsi raid controller and 4 to 6 scsi drives sound interesting to anyone else? I'll show us putting one together and how to setup the controllers etc... complete with benchmarks of course... (grin) Sandra is showing the access times as 2ms. ATTO's are hitting 220,000+

Boot from the XP cd and install to the desktop in 14 minutes.

Lets call it "Welcome to the Dark Side". LMAO

I'm telling you guys right now... once you do scsi raid on a dualie you will never be happy again with anything else. Its the smoothest rig you will ever drive. Flintstone fell for my sirens song about raid and I warped his vision forever and I'll do the same for you !

Tex

Comments

  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited June 2003
    I wanna see gigabyte readings, wheres the solid state raids?? :)
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    Even then you get capped with ethe bus bandwidth. I guess the pci-x could maybe get close... Never even seen something like that.

    I did mess with SSD raid but it was a few years back. The SSD is just awesome anyway. Got a buddy thats an engineer that has worked for a couple controller manufacturers. He designs the boards and the whole bit and I asked him about SSD's and what it would take to build them. He said if we did it and he did it in his spare time to figure 10 grand for the first one and $800 a pop after that depending on the price of DDR and size etc..

    He said to make it a real project though at his billing rate, like if we had backers with deep pockets to figure 100 grand to get off the ground, and have it ready to market. Thats still cheap really.

    I seriously thought about going into buisness with him and making the suckers.

    Tex
  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited June 2003
    I've seen them that were basically a PCI card with ram slots and battery backups. Even with buss limitations, I still think it would create an amazing system.

    I guess you could pick up like a dual xeon box that held a shitton of ram, and just create virtual drives that load on boot and save now and then and at shutdown..

    Just a wet dream, my pockets aren't that deap or I would own one ;)

    What you propose to write is a very realistic goal that most members could reach. Plus diging around for parts is part of the fun. I think it would be a winner.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    The SSD's I messed with looked and acted like scsi drives. You hung them on a raid controller and they worked just like a scsi disk array.

    Teex
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited June 2003
    It's like opening Pandora's Box!! I've got 2 more drive cages coming now for my dualie and the drive CASE next to it! Yes, I said drive Case! I needed a separate case to hold all the 18gig drives I've got with it's own ps and fans to keep them cool! But like Tex said, I am now addicted to the Dark Side!!

    Flint
  • MattMatt
    edited June 2003
    How much would it be if I wanted a 50gig scsi. And what would I need to set it up?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    To hit 200,000 ? Or what ? (grin)

    Tell me your goals and I will help set you up

    Tex
  • MattMatt
    edited June 2003
    i dont know something around 150-300 dollar's is all i have to spend.
  • MattMatt
    edited June 2003
    200,000 would be nice.
  • EnisadaEnisada Edmonton Member
    edited June 2003
    I want to, I want to, Man those are some crazy high scores...

    Enisada
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited June 2003
    Watch out....He'll get you like he got me!!

    Seriously, with a little shopping and shipping, $300.00 can get you a screamin' hdd subsystem. Tex and I will both help. It typically starts at Ebay or Storage Review/2cpu's to pick up drives and a controller.

    A Great controller can be had off ebay for $150 and the drives for $50.00 each and you'll have a killer system for just what you want to spend, give or take.

    Flint
  • AranyicAranyic Casstown, OH Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    arg..you're gonna kill me Tex :p. How about waiting until I'm done getting my stuff before sending everyone in floods.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Aranyic
    arg..you're gonna kill me Tex :p. How about waiting until I'm done getting my stuff before sending everyone in floods.

    Aranyic my friend .... as Flinstone can attest now... now you NEVER done getting stuff once you start.

    I maxed out one controller pretty much with 6 drives hitting 230,000 and now I have two controllers so of course I want SIX more $50 drives so I can use software raid to raid the two raid arrays and see if I canb breal 450,000. See what I mean? Its a sickness.

    But that 230,000 on atto was six $45 drives roughly and the two controllers cost $107 and $135 a piece.

    The key is scarfing for used parts. But my 6 scsi drives cost about the same as two raptors.

    Tex
  • MattMatt
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Tex


    I maxed out one controller pretty much with 6 drives hitting 230,000 and now I have two controllers so of course I want SIX more $50 drives so I can use software raid to raid the two raid arrays and see if I canb breal 450,000. See what I mean? Its a sickness.
    Tex
    im lost you can use software raid and that Dubbles you score?
    iv got the money i just need to know what to buy.
  • MattMatt
    edited June 2003
    And how do you find a score? are you taking the score of the controller are the hard drive's? im a noob when it comes to hard drive's.
  • EnisadaEnisada Edmonton Member
    edited June 2003
    Man you are getting 230,000 and you said it cost you as much as two Raptors and I'm getting roughly only 100,000. :(
    Thats alright though I can justify the cost by simply saying my cables look better....

    :D

    Enisada
  • EnisadaEnisada Edmonton Member
    edited June 2003
    Yes I believe so. The controller of the RAIDed drives... They are just like one big ultra uber crazy hard drive....

    Enisada
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Enisada
    Man you are getting 230,000 and you said it cost you as much as two Raptors and I'm getting roughly only 100,000. :(
    Thats alright though I can justify the cost by simply saying my cables look better....

    :D

    Enisada

    Yes but I don't have internal cables at all... (grin) Most the drives sit in here. Easier on the psu and less heat in the case for the servers.

    Remember when you compare our atto's that mine are coming in a dualie with a 64bit slot. I have 4 times the available bandwidth you have in a 32bit/33mhz slot. Around 140,000 is probably the best you will ever be able to squezze out of a 32/33 pci bus even if you raided 5000 raptors together,

    Tex
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    This is the best atto from a 32bit slot I have ever seen period.

    4 old ibm 60 gxp on a 4 channel hpt on a nforce2 board.

    Tex
  • MattMatt
    edited June 2003
    And i thought that my 5 ATA133 harddrive's was a lot.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    Its not like it looks. I sold one of the top racks to a buddy already and only the bottom one is full.

    Tex
  • EnisadaEnisada Edmonton Member
    edited June 2003
    So Tex what else can I do to squeeze some more performance out of my RAIDs.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by matt

    im lost you can use software raid and that Dubbles you score?
    iv got the money i just need to know what to buy.

    With the software raid you can raid two drives. So with a pair of these controllers (and I own two) The I could have XP see a pair six drive raid-0 arrays as single drives and then use the software raid to bascialy raid two rai-o arrays together.

    Tex
  • EnisadaEnisada Edmonton Member
    edited June 2003
    How realiable is it to use that software. And what is it called??
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Enisada
    So Tex what else can I do to squeeze some more performance out of my RAIDs.

    Dude yours didn't look to shabby! I wouldn't muck with them other then playing with the latency maybe.

    Tex
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Enisada: You can do it right in Windows 2K/XP's disk management control panel. No special software required
  • EnisadaEnisada Edmonton Member
    edited June 2003
    Well nice to know I don't have to run out to buy the software to fool around with it.
  • trippintrippin Chatt, TN
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Flintstone
    It's like opening Pandora's Box!! I've got 2 more drive cages coming now for my dualie and the drive CASE next to it! Yes, I said drive Case! I needed a separate case to hold all the 18gig drives I've got with it's own ps and fans to keep them cool! But like Tex said, I am now addicted to the Dark Side!!

    Flint

    What kind of case do you have for you computer and for you drives... would be nice to have that much extra room!
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited June 2003
    It's a varition of this case:

    http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?style=album

    Mine doesn't have the door over the optical drives, though. It'll hold 5 x 1" drives in the removable trays at the botton front which are cooled by the 120mm fan in the front door. It also has a cage for 4 more 1" drives up next to the ps at the top rear with a fan on the back panel to pull case air through the cage to cool the drives. But, with all those drives in there, it was too crowded so I took an old case that I had lying around, put an AT powersupply in it, and I'm waiting for some drive cages with sca backplanes to mod into it for 6 or 8 15K scsi drives. The Maxtop case is alos a lot cooler without all those 15K drives in it!!

    I'll post pictures when it's done.

    Flint
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