[GRLUG] Solid State Drives

[David Pembrook]

Michael Mol wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 3:32 PM, Collin Kidder <adderd at kkmfg.com> wrote:
>   
>> Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
>>     
>>> On Mon, 2008-12-01 at 12:14 -0500, Collin Kidder wrote:
>>> If your server or workstation's storage's maximum throughput is 30MB/s
>>> then its crap.  For a laptop where you've only got one lousy spindle,
>>> then yes, you really don't want to page (assuming you have a choice).
>>> But a laptop is portable, so sometimes one just has to live with it.
>>>
>>>       
>> I don't believe that even desktop harddrives can sustain better than
>> 30-40MB/s. Now, servers can be reading off of multiple drives with
>> multiple platters and can reach much higher throughput.
>>
>>     
>
> Western Digital's VelociRaptor can sustain 77MB/s, but seeking will
> blow that.  I believe Intel's SSD offerings include a drive capable of
> 80MB/s.  I don't know about the vanilla Caviar line.
>
>   
It think some of the disagreement comes back to the use of the computer 
in question. On a desktop many (not all) users never touch their swap. 
Would I ever run a server without it? no!

On a desktop I have turned it off in xp before. When I first put 2gb of 
ram in a system a few years ago, I only found one case where it used 
more than the first gig of ram and that was a game. If the sum of my 
work uses 50% (or less) of my ram, why even allow the system to swap 
from memory to hard drive. I'm just breaking a gig now after working all 
day. I'm also booting more as I'm shutting down to cut back on electric use.