pci-x fast enough for media server?

[hypothalamuse]

I picked up an old poweredge server on the cheap, Plan is to load it up with 1.5TB drives and stick it in the basement as a centralized media repository.

But it only has pci-x slots If I get a pci-x SATA controller will that interface be fast enough to stream video (I'm assuming it will hand audio okay).

If so, it there a problem with having two raid controllers (each 4 disks) in the same machine?

Is there a particular router spec you'd recommend for max transfer? Thanks, do appreciate the help.

 

[myocardia]

A PCI-X slot is fast enough to handle multiple fast hard drives simultaneously. IIRC, that is actually the sole reason PCI-X exists.

 

[Blain]

Do you have PCI-X slots or PCI Express slots?

 

[phaxmohdem]

PCI-X is a 64 bit slot running at 133MHz... so doing the math: 64 bits * 133,000,000 Hz = 8,512,000,000 bits transferred per second (8,512,000,000 / 8 bits per byte = 1,064,000,000 bytes per second (1.064 GB/second)

So theoretically you could transfer a shade over 1 gigabyte of data per second over the bandwidth offered by PCI-X (assuming your drives and controller could come anywhere close to that)

by comparison, your standard joe blow PCI slot is 32 bits @ 33MHz which equates to ~132 MB/second.

Your network controller will become a bottle neck way before the PCI-X interface. Assuming you're running gigabit ethernet, (max theoretical transfer rate of ~125 Megabytes a second... and in practice you'll be lucky to hit half that unless you have top notch gear and cabling.)

 

[heymrdj]

This might help you: http://www.icc-usa.com/store/p...ewContent.asp?idpage=1

 

[armstrda]

in theory a PCI-X slot is equivalent throughput to a x2 PCIe slot (assuming perfect bidirectional traffic on PCIe). However, you have to remember that PCI and PCIX were parallel busses, so anything else on that same bus is using into that same bandwidth. A lot of times the NIC was slapped on the same bus, so you have to take that into account as well. And if it happens to be shared with another PCIX slot, chances are if you fill both, you bring the freq down to 100MHz from the 133, so there your bandwidth gets cut down to ~800MB/s

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: phaxmohdem
PCI-X is a 64 bit slot running at 133MHz... so doing the math: 64 bits * 133,000,000 Hz = 8,512,000,000 bits transferred per second (8,512,000,000 / 8 bits per byte = 1,064,000,000 bytes per second (1.064 GB/second)

So theoretically you could transfer a shade over 1 gigabyte of data per second over the bandwidth offered by PCI-X (assuming your drives and controller could come anywhere close to that)

by comparison, your standard joe blow PCI slot is 32 bits @ 33MHz which equates to ~132 MB/second.

Your network controller will become a bottle neck way before the PCI-X interface. Assuming you're running gigabit ethernet, (max theoretical transfer rate of ~125 Megabytes a second... and in practice you'll be lucky to hit half that unless you have top notch gear and cabling.)

Excellent reply and all true. I'll just add a few things for the OP.

Just keep in mind that a good PCI-X, SATA RAID controller is going to be in the $500+ price range depending on how many ports it has. The server probably has an onboard SCSI controller (chip on the motherboard) that could be used for the operating system drive(s)...a RAID 1 mirror is not a bad idea. You can find a couple of used 10K rpm 18 or 36GB SCSI drives cheap. I'd keep the OS drives and the storage drives off the same controller if possible.

As has been said, your network interface will be the bottleneck long before you run out bandwidth on the PCI-X slots. And speaking of network, if it's an "old" Poweredge there is a good chance that the onboard NIC is not gigabit. Check that out. You may need to buy a gigabit NiC to put in one of the PCI-X slots. There are different PCI-X channels; make sure to put the NiC on it's own channel and not shared with the SATA RAID card.

Sample configuration:

2 10K rpm SCSI drives RAID1 for OS on onboard controller (or even IDE drives for that matter...OS speed not important here)
8 (or 6 or even 4 if budget is an issue) 1TB SATA drives, RAID5 on PCI-X SATA RAID card for media storage

Keep us posted on your progress. I enjoy these kind of threads.

 

[0roo0roo]

maybe if u run raw 4k hd files or something mad. "media" for home use has bandwidth requirements that are laughable when it comes to system buses

 

[hypothalamuse]

Thank you all for these very helpful comments on dealing with pci-x and relative speed considerations in this setup.

There is onboard raid for two scsi dives, and I'll put the OS there as has been suggested.

So I'm looking at PCI-X SATA controllers seems one or two of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16816104007 should do the trick.

 

[WildW]

You do know a PCI-X slot will also run regular PCI cards, right? A PCI hard disk controller is plenty quick enough for what you want.

 

[hypothalamuse]

If a plain pci controller will work, fantastic, saves $100 (if connecting 8 drives).

 

[Blain]

Does your MB have a PCI-X slot?
Usually only server MBs have them.
That's why I asked...

Originally posted by: Blain
Do you have PCI-X slots or PCI Express slots?

 

[hypothalamuse]

yes - I scrounged an old server that has pci-x

 

[phaxmohdem]

Not really storage related, but could you fill us in with the rest of the servers specs? (CPU(s), RAM, etc) Just to satisfy my geek curiosity

BTW, I have a Compaq Proliant 850R Dual Pentium Pro 200/1M w/ 512MB EDO RAM, 10K 36GB SCSI drive, and a 10/100 PCI NIC running XP Pro, that can stream standard def videos over my gig-E network at home just fine (tested it cause I was bored ) Videos were DVD XVID rips 1GB in size a piece. (which is a combined data stream rate of about 8.333 Megabits/second. for a 120 minute movie.)

^ all while running Apache, PHP & MySQL servers in the background... + freecell