Comments on: Refurb xServe RAIDs for cheap http://www.buscema.org/2010/03/16/refurbish-xserve-raids-for-cheap-10-5tbs-for-2100-i-love-ebay/ The life and work of Jason P. Buscema. Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:47:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Jason Buscema http://www.buscema.org/2010/03/16/refurbish-xserve-raids-for-cheap-10-5tbs-for-2100-i-love-ebay/comment-page-1/#comment-96 Jason Buscema Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:21:05 +0000 http://www.buscema.org/?p=312#comment-96 It would be remiss if I didn't mention the very cool storage design the guys at BackBlaze have put together. They've built an impressive 67TB RAID unit for $7,867... that's just $117 per TB! They were nice enough to put together a very detailed write up on their cloud storage design at http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/ It would be remiss if I didn’t mention the very cool storage design the guys at BackBlaze have put together. They’ve built an impressive 67TB RAID unit for $7,867… that’s just $117 per TB! They were nice enough to put together a very detailed write up on their cloud storage design at http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/

]]> By: Jason Buscema http://www.buscema.org/2010/03/16/refurbish-xserve-raids-for-cheap-10-5tbs-for-2100-i-love-ebay/comment-page-1/#comment-95 Jason Buscema Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:46:24 +0000 http://www.buscema.org/?p=312#comment-95 Good points James. While I would agree with you here if we were talking about servers themselves not much has really changed with storage unless you go down the path of SSDs. The drives are still mainly the same although newer drives do have larger capacities as you've mentioned. Both the Promise VTrak E-Class 16x 1TB SATA RAID and the Apple xServe 14x 750GB RAIDs pull around 2-3A on average. They will both spike higher during full processor utilization. This would mean the Promise pulls, on average, .125A per TB while the xServe RAID pulls .19A per TB which is approximately a 65% difference. The xServe RAID uses around 1365 BTU/h while the Promise right around 1500BTU/h. Both units are pretty closely matched up with the Promise obviously providing more usable storage for about the same footprint. I haven't done the hard math but it would take a very long time to balance the increased power/HVAC costs per TB of the xServe RAID vs a newer Promise. I do not have a Kill-a-watt but I do use many of the APC AP7901 switched PDUs. Among other features, these give me a real-time amperage usage of the connected devices. Good points James. While I would agree with you here if we were talking about servers themselves not much has really changed with storage unless you go down the path of SSDs. The drives are still mainly the same although newer drives do have larger capacities as you’ve mentioned. Both the Promise VTrak E-Class 16x 1TB SATA RAID and the Apple xServe 14x 750GB RAIDs pull around 2-3A on average. They will both spike higher during full processor utilization. This would mean the Promise pulls, on average, .125A per TB while the xServe RAID pulls .19A per TB which is approximately a 65% difference.

The xServe RAID uses around 1365 BTU/h while the Promise right around 1500BTU/h. Both units are pretty closely matched up with the Promise obviously providing more usable storage for about the same footprint. I haven’t done the hard math but it would take a very long time to balance the increased power/HVAC costs per TB of the xServe RAID vs a newer Promise.

I do not have a Kill-a-watt but I do use many of the APC AP7901 switched PDUs. Among other features, these give me a real-time amperage usage of the connected devices.

]]> By: JW http://www.buscema.org/2010/03/16/refurbish-xserve-raids-for-cheap-10-5tbs-for-2100-i-love-ebay/comment-page-1/#comment-94 JW Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:36:38 +0000 http://www.buscema.org/?p=312#comment-94 What about space and power requirements? Power efficiency improves with successive generations of gear, not to mention having to run less units with higher drive capacities. This can give you a lower power footprint overall and reduce your data center space and HVAC requirements. Yeah you're keeping stuff outta landfills for a bit longer, but you're offsetting that by burning more coal. :-P You do have a Kill-a-watt, right? What about space and power requirements? Power efficiency improves with successive generations of gear, not to mention having to run less units with higher drive capacities. This can give you a lower power footprint overall and reduce your data center space and HVAC requirements. Yeah you’re keeping stuff outta landfills for a bit longer, but you’re offsetting that by burning more coal. :-P

You do have a Kill-a-watt, right?

]]> By: paul shriner http://www.buscema.org/2010/03/16/refurbish-xserve-raids-for-cheap-10-5tbs-for-2100-i-love-ebay/comment-page-1/#comment-93 paul shriner Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:57:02 +0000 http://www.buscema.org/?p=312#comment-93 Very cool post Jason! Very cool post Jason!

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