Re: Performance tuning in PostgreSQL

<snip>
> SCSI is almost
> always faster than IDE, all other things being equal (i.e. my 80 gig IDE
> "mass storage" drives are way faster than a 2 Gig Ultra Wide SCSI drive
> from 6 years ago would be, but any modern SCSI drive will kick the butt on
> my IDE drives.
</snip>

That's not /entirely/ true.  There was an article on slashdot a while
back about what exactly the differences between IDE and SCSI are.  IDE
has pretty much almost caught up to SCSI in terms of everything except
testing -- i.e. one of the reasons SCSI drives cost so much more is that
they are each run through extensive individual tests to make sure
they're not gonna break down 5 minutes out of the box.

The only other difference, if I remember correctly, was the amount of
drives you could put on the same cable.  I'm going out on a limb here,
but while ATA133 or whatever you're running /needs/ a single cable and
controller to itself SCSI can put several drives on the same cable while
maintaining speed.

So the good news is that if money is tight you could probably justify an
IDE raid, but if you really need that extra reliability SCSI might be
the answer.
--
Daniel R. Anderson
Chief Lab Rat and Helper Monkey
Great Lakes Industries, Inc.
80 Pineview Ave.
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(716) 691-5900 x218

"Never let your schooling interfere with your education"
    -- Mark Twain