Reply 44880 of 56708, by Kahenraz
- Rank
- l33t
Nexxen wrote on 2022-05-30, 15:19:Kahenraz wrote on 2022-05-30, 15:06:I've run my Linux file server on a dual socket G34 for years and it's been great. It's not a fast CPU compared to what's available now, but the RAM is very cheap. It's still a good platform if you want a lot of memory and don't need as much raw horsepower.
With the cost of electricity today I'm reverting to a Rolodex.
😀
The processor can run in a low power mode and in its lifetime I've switched from dual processors to a single processor, since I've moved all of the heavy CPU use services to another machine. The abundance of PCIe I/O and memory is absolutely perfect for a large ZFS array. I have an 8x disk RAID-Z3 (three disk parity) of 4TB drives with a 9th as a hot spare. I use this array exclusively for years until it was cost effective to build a second array, this time a RAID-1 where each disk was large enough to contain the entirety of the old array. This second array is used as a backup and is only attached during mirroring. The large amount of memory that this platform supports allows me to have an enormous amount of caching in memory, in addition to an SSD that is its own read cache.
This is what I've been using to manage all of my data for a number of years now, and I'm very happy with it. There are certainly faster, better, and more optimal platform configurations available now, but upgrading would require a large investment that would not affect my use case at all. I have upgraded this setup incrementally several times over the years and have a small inventory of spare parts that I can swap in immediately in the event of a failure, including CPUs, memory, and two spare motherboards. I will run this system into the ground before I will replace it.
When it becomes cost effective to do so, I will eventually replace the 4TB spinning disks with an array of SSDs. That's the next planned upgrade, once it becomes affordable to do so.
I'm very happy with this setup.