SCSI vs IDE Reliability

[Breadfan]

Was putting together a configuration for a basic file server at work. This file server will only serve between 8-10 users maximum, and won't necessarily be a "high stress" application.

I believe that an IDE raide setup with 2 40gb IBM 60gxp's will be sufficient speedwise, and will give plenty of file space.

The alternative is a much more expensive setup of an Adaptec SCSI RAID controller and 2 u160 Maxtor 18.3gb drives.

Both RAID's are for mirroring...

I don't think they'd ever use the extra speed of scsi, especially since IDE has done alot to catchup speed wise. First off, is this a bad assumption to make?

Secondly, it was agreed that the speed of SCSI might not be needed, but the reliability of the ide drives over scsi was directly questioned by another guy. How much of a difference in reliability are we talking here?

The server will most likely have a RAID motherboard in it, most likely the Abit KR7A-RAID. So, 2 ibms drives is $180 and 2 SCSI drives+ the Adaptec card are roughly $550.

Seeing as though the mirroring raid will add plenty of data redundancy to the ide setup, I don't see a need to go scsi for an eight user basic fileserver.

Just looking for some input...

Mike

[Jon]

Well, 8-10 users isn't alot but how many of those, at any given time, will be accessing data from those disks simultaneously? How large are the files?

Speed isn't really important when dealing with a few users but multitasking is and this is what SCSI really has over IDE. If 3-4 people are going to be accessing data at the same time from an IDE hard drive, it's going to come to a crawl. Try unzipping a large zip file to disk and moving another large file from one directory to another on an IDE drive...it nearly halts it in some situations. SCSI would cut that without a sweat, with 3 times that load.

In short, SCSI is the better answer if you are going to have alot of simultaneous user accesses.

[Breadfan]

If there are any large file transfers, it would most likely be done one user at a time. Any simultaneous activity would be pretty much limited to saving reports in the form of word documents and excel documents. I've talked more with my boss about it, and got a better understanding of what this will be used for. Sounds to me that IDE RAID will be more than enough, and that in a sense, the server will act more as file storage than transfer/access. In otherwords, users will save word files there, and other things, but it won't be used to send large graphic files or CAD files or anything like that.

Mike

[klosters64a]

Most new SCSI HDD's have a five year warranty. The manufacturer's reputation is more on the line than it is with IDE drives. It's my understanding that RMA service is much better with SCSI HDD'S.

I'm no expert with SCSI. That said, I'd personally choose, and have bought Seagate SCSI drives over the rest.

The onion in the ointment is your need for a SCSI RAID controller. Anywhere from expensive to thousands upon thousands of bucks.

Why not go with your IDE RAID plan? If it can't handle the strain, you already know what to do about that.

Is there a reason not to use a real Server mainboard? It can be argued that regular PC class gear just ain't up to the job, IMHO.

[Jon]

IDE definately should be enough if that's the type of resources it's going to be sharing, I'll agree.

[Ridenow]

Given your options I would feel more secure with IBM drives than Maxtors. SCSI drives are usually slightly better quailty and last longer than IDE, but not by much if you have a good IDE drive. If you have to have Maxtors as the SCSI drives, their quality is usually much worse than everything else, IDE or SCSI.

[Breadfan]

Thanks for the input. As for the server mainboard issue, I did consider the Tyan TigerMP, but in all honesty, as much fun as that'd be to play with :) , there's absolutely no way this server will require that much CPU power.

Looks like we may go IDE RAID, since that'll cost $200 compared to atleast $800 for SCSI RAID...

The whole issue isn't really what works best, but what works best for this application when considering this is a non-IT company that wishes to save as much as they can on IT yet still have an adequate level of functionality. Its a tough balance, and its my job to strike that balance for them...and not be wrong!

Its fun though, this is for an office in North Carolina that they're opening, and talknig to my boss, he might send me down there to set the network up from ground up becuase thusfar the people they have down there are sounding kinda shady and not very knowledgable...

Mike