[mythtv-users] RAID versus Drobo

[Brian Wood]

Eric Robinson wrote:

>>   
> @Michael and Robin:
> Wow, thanks for the info that clears up a whole load of haziness I had
> regarding the issue.  I will certainly stay away from fakeraid
> implementations.  Sounds kinda nasty, actually.

Actually it's just marketing, but that's a nasty word to a lot of us.

> 
> That leaves me with one question:  Is Linux kernel software RAID
> (controlled through mdadm) generally fast enough to serve as the media
> repository for an HD MythTV setup?
>   I'll be using identical 750GB 7,200 RPM drives on Intel ICH9 based
> SATA II ports.  Should I fear a bottleneck here or should I be okay?

Unless you're running a really dog slow machine you should have no
problems (and if you are doing that you'd never decode HD in real time).

Back in the days when 500Mhz. CPUs were the rule we did some testing of
Linux software RAID versus hardware RAID cards and found no perceptible
difference in real-world applications. This was with RAID5 with database
apps.

Any modern CPU should have no problems at all.

beww