makes sense, but not entirely needed. I'm sure that the max speed of the ICH (did you say around 600MB/s?) would be plenty fast enough for the OPs situation
It's ~660MB/s (approx 110MB/s per drive), of which there are 6x SATA ports in a 4 + 2 configuration on the ICH parts. As
Techie only wants to run 1x SSD, the logic board is absolutely FINE.
You're skimming to quickly and missing the big stuff.
ahh i see. am i correct in assuming that the fastest PCIe slots on a MP are
16GB/s? just making sure that we aren't going to go any faster then the logic board can take
No. The '08 and '09 systems use PCIe v 2.0 (500MB/s per lane) for the 16x lane slots, which can provide 8GB/s max. But they differ on the 4x lane slots, as the '08's are PCIe v 1.1 (250MB/s per lane). The '09's use PCIe 2.0 for all 4 slots.
But ultimately, it will depend on how much bandwidth is available from PCIe to the CPU. It's different architecture between the '08 and '09 systems, and neither can handle all the slots running at full bandwidth (18 - 20GB/s). It's a design compromise, and they may not all need to access the CPU anyway (i.e. Crossfire or SLI).
PCIe v 3.0 is capable of 1.0GB/s per lane, but isn't even finished with validation, as the final specification isn't due until Q2 2010. So it's going to be a little while. I'd expect it about March 2011 or so (new Intel CPU architecture, and PCIe 3.0 would be present in the accompanying chipset/s).
you've got me! i might save up for one of these said enclosures. i hope they dont cost too much! eSATA cables can be pretty long too right? too bad my iMac doesn't have eSata! i will have to put one in my hack
SATA spec:
1.0 m = passive signals (no electronics between the eSATA port and drives in the enclosure to amplify the signals, which = Port Multiplier board)
2.0 m = active signals (Port Multiplier board between the card and drives)
RAID cards are actually passive. eSATA cards alone are passive. It's the use of a Port Multiplier enclosure that can allow you to use 2.0 m cables. Otherwise, it's 1.0 m.
LESS than 50%? right, didn't know that.
50% theoretical, but it doesn't take into account the controller section in the CPU has to switch processes back and forth (2 separate threads), which adds latency, and slows you down.
he most def does not need a RAID card!! how does the speed get calculated in a mixed mode environment (MME for easy reference).
It's going to depend on usage. But assuming simultaneous access (all drives going at the same time), it's the throughput speeds of each disk added up for a max throughput scenario. So if you're looking at averages, and have
SSD = 250MB/s
4x HDD = 85MB/s each (340MB/s total, likely via a stripe set)
1x ODD = 60MB/s (likely not simultaneous in most cases, so it's up to the user as to consider this or not)
Grand total = 650MB/s (basically right at the limit of what the ICH can handle maxed out).
