12/1    I think getting 72GB 10K RPM SATA drives at $160 a piece was a bad
        idea. You could have gotten much larger 7200RPM drives for that price.
        Most people would take larger quotas over slightly better performance.
        Besides, a RAID controller with a reasonable amount of write cache
        memory should have provided a decent write speed even with relatively
        slow drives. Read speed should also be fairly decent with so many
        drives and any RAID level. My $0.02
        \_ Gee, let's just kvetch about the call after it's been made.  Now,
           this comment might just possibly have been constructive if you'd
           been able to deliver it beforehand, but what purpose does it
           serve now?  Seems like you're just biting the hand that feeds you
           because you didn't get fed exactly what you wanted.  As for me,
           hey current CSUA admins:  thank you for doing anything at all
           for me.  I realize I'm entitled to nothing, and what you're doing
           for me is much better than that.  What you have done may, or may
           not have been optimum, but the call was yours to make and I don't
           think what you did was unreasonable.  Please ignore
           bozos like o.p., who decided to deliver criticism above the thanks
           we all owe you for your efforts on everyone's behalf.  --PeterM
           \_ Gee, let's just jump all over someone for giving a valid
              opinion, why don't you. I agree with OP, paying $160 US is
              too much for 72 GB disks. Maybe it is too late to do something
              about it, but that still doesn't mean the opinion isn't valid.
              I don't know what the time schedule was for getting parts, but
              you could've gotten at least twice the capacity for SATAs
              in the past two months. Granted, any improvement is better than
              no improvement, but the OP wasn't demanding anything, just
              offering advice. -williamc
              \_ You are making the assumption that we were going for capacity.
                 What we would have liked were SCSI disks.  Those are too damn
                 expensive.  However, the Raptor (which is 74GB) is a 10K RPM
                 SCSI internals w/ SATA connector disk.  This gives us very
                 good performance, without the huge cost.  Yes, we could have
                 purchased a 200GB disk, probably even for less than the 74GB
                 ones we invested in, but on a system that has 200+ simultaneous
                 logins, spindle speed and seek times becomes more important
                 than raw storage space.  In any case, the CSUA is *not* a
                 data storage facility...if you want lots of storage, buy
                 yourself a drive and put it in your own damn case.
                   --njh (one of the SAs putting in much more time running
                          the CSUA's systems than the motd complainers)
                \_ PeterM is right, the horse has left the barn.
                   The CSUA SA's have been pretty good over the years, and
                   the uptime at soda beats a lot of commerical systems.
                   AND SODA IS FREE!  Instead
                   of bagging on the SA's, make a paypal contribution.  If everybody
                   who complained on the motd sent in some money, we'd have a
                   CSUA jet named soda instead of a PC.  They've made reasonable
                   decisions in the past, and I'm sure they had one for their choice
                   of disks.  -ax
                   of bagging on the SA's, make a paypal contribution.
                   If everybody who complained on the motd sent in some
                   money, we'd have a CSUA jet named soda instead of a PC.
                   They've made reasonable decisions in the past, and I'm
                   sure they had one for their choice of disks.  -ax
                   \_ Yes, please contribute to the CSUA!  There's a
                      paypal link on the main page now.  I did.  --allum
                        \_ no dropcash progress bar?
        \_ I want my lottery-scheduling system!  CPU cycles for everyone!
           -lazy sl0da h0z3r
        \_ I am putting a box together with a bunch of 200GB SATA
           drives--any opinions on 5+ disk RAID-5 controllers that are
           happy with FreeBSD?  Also, should I be looking at CPU power
           management?  The thing should be as quiet/cool as possible.  -John
           \_ Think about this for a moment.  You're planning to stick five
              or more > 72K RPM drives in the box, and you're worried about
              the the heat/power that the CPU is going to generate/consume?
              The drives are going to suck WAY more power and generate WAY
              more heat than the CPU. -dans
              \_ Fair enough, I'm looking at an Antec P160.  Will low-rpm
                 drives make any difference?  -John
              \_ Actually, this is wrong.  Hard drives these days only pull
                 about 10W each.  Processors pull on the order of 100s
                 of Watts. --njh
        \_ I think you're an idiot.  Want to make specific objections?  At
           least sign your name.
        \_ bigger, faster, more reliable.  for a given amount of money,
           pick any 1.5
           \_ yermom can't afford me