[mythtvnz] CompactFlash to SATA adapters for /

[Ross Williamson]

> that event the fastest CF and SDHC cards are much much slower than
> platter hard drives.

Depends how you define "slower". Yes, as you mention, the max sustained 
throughput is nowhere near as quick but when is this going to be useful 
on a typical MythTV installation?

There is some truth to the comparison to CD speeds but you have to 
remember that CDs have horrid seek times that are non-existent on CF 
cards, so it is not really a fair comparison.

Generally applications, database accesses etc are going to be loaded 
from effectively random locations on the disk and finished up fairly 
quickly. Having hundreds of MB/s is not going to make much of a 
difference in this case compared to seek time which is zero on any flash 
based device.

> For some perspective: enterprise SATA/SAS drives and Ultrascsi IOp/s
> are in the 150-300 range which is why your proliant server disk from
> HP is 2k$ as opposed to 200$ for the equivalent consumer SATA disc.

I don't think anybody is putting enterprise disks in their Myth box.

> Just get a proper SSD.

As mentioned previously, the cost for doing so weighed against the 
benefits is generally such that it is not (IMO) worth the cost. It makes 
far more sense to either go with a cheap flash based solution or stick 
to platter drives.


Ross