Re: system requirements for SCSI
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way, someone said...
> I want to by a SCSI drive and controller for one of my older computers
> so it can act as an ftp server. My understanding is that a slower
> computer can act as a decent server if you use SCSI since it doesn't
> require much from the processor. Is that right? Also, are there any
> minimum requirements? The computer is a Gateway P166 with 32MB of EDO
> ram.
First thing to do is as more RAM. Even a SCSI disk can go slow if there's
a lot of programs trying to read off it. That way quite a few files can
be stored in the file system cache and won't have to be read off the disk.
I would also recommend that you look into the 2.3 kernel series - it's
less stable than 2.2 so it may not work for you, but the multithreading in
the file system layer has led to visible improvements in performance when
reading data off disks.
> It will boot from an IDE drive, but the files that will be available
> from the server will all be on the SCSI drive.
That's fine.
> Sorry this isn't entirely Debian-related, but I use Debian and I want
> to install Debian on this computer, too. I'm thinking of buying a
> 9.1GB IBM Ultrastar 18ES and an Adaptec 2940U2W U2W/S host adapter.
I would look into other brands of U2W SCSI adapters, like ones that use
the Symbios logic chips - they tend to be quite a bit cheaper (up 40%
cheaper last I checked) and work every bit as well. Stick with the IBM
disk - you can't go wrong there.
> Thanks in advance for any input.
--
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Phil Brutsche pbrutsch@creighton.edu
"There are two things that are infinite; Human stupidity and the
universe. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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