We have a requirement to store images/documents with an average size of 1-2MB on PostgreSQL database. We have PostgreSQL 9.2.4 running on Red hat linux 64 bit. We decided to setup a stand alone postgreSQL server without streaming replication to host the images/documents only. We are new to postgreSQL and we heard a lot of conversation about using Bytea vs Large object facility. We would be inserting and retrieving document as whole using java webservices call from hibernate/JPA interface into postgreSQL database. Is there any performance benchmark when using ByteA vs Large object facility? Is there a general guidance to use one of these?