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CPU requirements for RAID 5/6?

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adam-the-kiwi   08-15-2008 at 04:49:53 PM

If I were building a fileserver with a dedicated RAID controller card running 4 x 500GB SATA disks in a RAID 5 configuration and attaching it to GigaE, what would be the minimum CPU that I would need such that the CPU was not the bottle-neck?

What about if it were, say, 5 X 500GB SATA disks in a RAID 6?

Cheers - Adam...

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leo2kp   08-15-2008 at 05:07:45 PM
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Probably just a basic, cheap dual-core. One core should be good to calculate parity while the other can handle OS tasks. Any speed should do fine as long as you're not expecting gaming performance on this machine ;)

------------------------------ "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" -- Jim Elliott
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chunkymonster   08-15-2008 at 05:20:51 PM
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adam-the-kiwi wrote :

If I were building a fileserver with a dedicated RAID controller card running 4 x 500GB SATA disks in a RAID 5 configuration and attaching it to GigaE, what would be the minimum CPU that I would need such that the CPU was not the bottle-neck?

 

What about if it were, say, 5 X 500GB SATA disks in a RAID 6?

 

Cheers - Adam...


If you use a RAID controller card that has an onboard XOR processor (3Ware, Areca, HighPoint), then the system cpu is removed from performing any parity calculations and you can get away with a low MHz single core proc. With a dedicated RAID controller card, a single core Celeron 430 1.8GHz would be more than fast enough for a file server/NAS.

------------------------------ ASRock X58 Extreme - Core i7 920 - 6GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1600 - Sapphire 4890 2GB - Creative Xtreme Gamer - 4-80GB WD in RAID0 on HighPoint RR 2310 as OS drive - 1-320GB WD scratch drive - Corsair CMPSU 750TX - HAF 932 - Hanns-G 281DPB @ 1900x1200
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adam-the-kiwi   08-15-2008 at 05:22:20 PM
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No, I just want a configuration such that the disk IO or the gigabit network (neither of which I can reasonably do anything about) are the limiting factors. This box will be running a pared-down Linux or FreeNas (or similar) OS and nothing else.

Having said that, I want this to be as low-power as possible, so I'm looking at either dredging up a dinosaur processor or using a modern ultra-low-power (mobile) cpu. How can I work out what processing power is required to run this?

Thanks!

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adam-the-kiwi   08-15-2008 at 05:27:57 PM
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chunkymonster - thanks! That makes my life much easier...

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