From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:39:00 -0500
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Message-ID: <4437f1c6935caf21abba5b433f0da0a0@ladd.quanstro.net>
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References: <20100111082408.3F3BE2803F@smtp.hushmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] Hardware for Plan9
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> >1.  unless one needs more ports than the motherboard
> >offers, i would stick with on-board ports.
>
> That makes sense for me. Perhaps I could save money and
> use the onboard network chip too (most RELTEK)? Then I
> could invest more money in the board and the CPU.

some 8169 parts are pretty good.  but there is a wide
variation.  some have pretty lackluster performance.

> >3.  if you set up a venti+fossil fileserver, you will have
> >a quite seeky load and the performance of the controller
> >should not be a big factor.  but the performance of the
> >disks will be.
>
> After reading many mails here I plan to run a fossil only
> fileserver. So far I understand the "Ken" dedicated fileserver
> has gone.

ken's fs works for me.

>
> So disks >= 7200 u/min are ok?
>

you may wish to spend a little extra money (or get
a smaller disk) and get "enterprise" sata disks.

> >> For network cards the intel gbe cards seems to be the best?
> >
> >yes.  the 82563 and 8257[12456] are particularly good.
>
> I could get a 82574L (PCIe) (Desktop pro CT - EXPI9301CT) for 30$.
> Would this be a good buy?

that's a very good deal.

- erik