advice for File Server - does ram speed matter?

[daytripper]

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 18:45:13 GMT, "FN" <newsgroupaccount@DELETECAPSyahoo.com>
wrote:
I'm looking at using one of these Gigabyte motherboards in a custom builtfile server, for a small business...http://secure.newegg.com/app/specification.asp?item=13-128-166http://secure.newegg.com/app/specification.asp?item=13-128-185I'll be using Windows 2000 Server. IDE hard drives will be attached via aseparate Promise IDE Raid 5 Card. About 1-2 gb of RAM (feel free tosuggest).Does RAM speed matter for this type of file server usage? I gather ECC ramsupport is good for a server, but I have no idea if I should go with dualchannel DDR 400 or 266? Would the difference be noticeable? Thedifference in the motherboard and the ram easily adds a couple hundreddollars minimum, and I'm wondering if its a waste.

A file server? Multiply the number of network hoses times their best-case
bandwidth and I bet you still won't touch the *disk* bandwidth available,
never mind the memory bandwidth available with the lesser of your choices...

ie: it's likely a waste to spend $$ on premium memory...

/daytripper

[FN]

"daytripper" <day_trippr@REMOVEyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:90uefvstu7d539h4coimi2aan6qmtih5t3@4ax.com... On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 18:45:13 GMT, "FN"
<newsgroupaccount@DELETECAPSyahoo.com> wrote:I'm looking at using one of these Gigabyte motherboards in a custom builtfile server, for a small business...http://secure.newegg.com/app/specification.asp?item=13-128-166http://secure.newegg.com/app/specification.asp?item=13-128-185I'll be using Windows 2000 Server. IDE hard drives will be attached via
aseparate Promise IDE Raid 5 Card. About 1-2 gb of RAM (feel free tosuggest).Does RAM speed matter for this type of file server usage? I gather ECC
ramsupport is good for a server, but I have no idea if I should go with dualchannel DDR 400 or 266? Would the difference be noticeable? Thedifference in the motherboard and the ram easily adds a couple hundreddollars minimum, and I'm wondering if its a waste. A file server? Multiply the number of network hoses times their best-case bandwidth and I bet you still won't touch the *disk* bandwidth available, never mind the memory bandwidth available with the lesser of your
choices... ie: it's likely a waste to spend $$ on premium memory... /daytripper


As for the hard drives, just having a single IDE 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm drive
makes a noticeable difference on a server. But thanks for the thoughts.

[daytripper]

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 23:27:03 GMT, "FN" <newsgroupaccount@DELETECAPSyahoo.com>
wrote:
"daytripper" <day_trippr@REMOVEyahoo.com> wrote in messagenews:90uefvstu7d539h4coimi2aan6qmtih5t3@4ax.com... On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 18:45:13 GMT, "FN"<newsgroupaccount@DELETECAPSyahoo.com> wrote:I'm looking at using one of these Gigabyte motherboards in a custom builtfile server, for a small business...http://secure.newegg.com/app/specification.asp?item=13-128-166http://secure.newegg.com/app/specification.asp?item=13-128-185I'll be using Windows 2000 Server. IDE hard drives will be attached viaaseparate Promise IDE Raid 5 Card. About 1-2 gb of RAM (feel free tosuggest).Does RAM speed matter for this type of file server usage? I gather ECCramsupport is good for a server, but I have no idea if I should go with dualchannel DDR 400 or 266? Would the difference be noticeable? Thedifference in the motherboard and the ram easily adds a couple hundreddollars minimum, and I'm wondering if its a waste. A file server? Multiply the number of network hoses times their best-case bandwidth and I bet you still won't touch the *disk* bandwidth available, never mind the memory bandwidth available with the lesser of yourchoices... ie: it's likely a waste to spend $$ on premium memory... /daytripperAs for the hard drives, just having a single IDE 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm drivemakes a noticeable difference on a server. But thanks for the thoughts.

Building a file server around a single anything is probably a bad idea, but
building one around a single IDE drive would be down right stupid if
performance is a criteria. At least a scsi solution would allow seek
reordering where an IDE drive won't...

[Robert Myers]

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 22:01:40 GMT, daytripper
<day_trippr@REMOVEyahoo.com> wrote:
A file server? Multiply the number of network hoses times their best-casebandwidth and I bet you still won't touch the *disk* bandwidth available,never mind the memory bandwidth available with the lesser of your choices...
Think we've been down this road before, but I'll risk it, anyway. I
don't know the ratio of bytes read from disk to bytes actually used,
but I'll bet it's significantly greater than one. Wasting bandwidth
by reading more data than necessary is one way of hiding latency.

That doesn't make your argument or your conclusion necessarily wrong,
but it isn't the slam dunk you make it out to be. As to memory speed,
same argument applies. How many memory references per byte read or
written to disk via a network connection? More than one, that's for
sure. Lots going on at once: many users, many transactions. Nobody
ever sees a delay due to memory bandwidth bottleneck? I'm skeptical.

RM