[Info-vax] Hobbyist DS10/DS15 fastest storage option

[terry-groups at glaver.org]

On Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at 12:21:00 PM UTC-4, Rich Jordan wrote:
> I may be gifted a retiring DS10, and maybe a DS15 in the next couple of months.  Both of them are 2GB RAM with a single KZPCA and a 73GB internal disk.  I have a compatible graphics card and GbE ethernet card; either would upgrade my home hobby setup currently on a PWS-600au and a DS10-L.  I also have a KZPEA and some random 10K and 15K SCA connector U3 disks that can be adapted with suitable cables and external housing.  My recollection is that U160 is as good as it gets on Alpha without moving to fiber channel, and I don't want an MSA at home.

Back when I ran a physical DS10 (I'm now in an AlphaVM virtual instance), I used a pair of Adaptec U160 controllers (they were dual port, but I only used one port on each) each cabled to a single 15K RPM Seagate drive, and built a shadow set out of those. My hope was that performance would be slightly better across 2 different PCI slots (and SCSI buses), though I don't know if it mattered.

My AlphaVM instance runs on a Dell R710 with 6 SAS SSDs, dual X5680 CPUs and 96GB of RAM, so it is a lot faster than the DS10, even for a DS10-identical config in AlphaVM.