Hardware & Reliability

[dezza]

Hello everyone.

Can I ask for your opinions such as to choose hardware for reliability when building a new computer? It has to be low budget, but really bang for your buck when it comes to compiling and other resource-intensive tasks, 3D gaming is not necessary, but some beneficials like dual or quad head monitor would be great as long as it's discount and still chosen to last (Not a dodgy product) ..

- Intel chipset?
- Motherboard brand any preferences?
- RAM? Corsair? Kingston? (Fail-rate)
- Harddrives, RAID, SAS maybe or what is a reliable HD?
- A good extensible case with as many disk arrays as possible 10+

Over the years I stopped building my own computer, I think many of the new motherboards are half-cooked when they're sent out to the consumer and has many errors with intensive use.

 

[Blain]

Are your queries based on a system build you're planning or just an intellectual discussion of hardware?
If you're planning a build, please dole out more details...

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.


The above information IS NEEDED, in order that WE can help YOU make wise judgments on YOUR purchases

 

[dezza]

OK I will sum up quickly.

Money no object, if it means a rock solid workstation. But the median of price/performance ..

I will be buying it from DK (Denmark)

No OC.

Intel/AMD is not important as long as the price is right.

NVIDIA preferred over ATI cuz of Linux drivers. I don't know if ATI made any progress with any newer cards. But the GFX should be budget solely, have to do Full HD 1080p ..

Not used for gaming, but the capability of running basic 3D-accellerated RTS like StarCraft 2 or the like and HD-output with FullHD is a low minimum.

High I/O on SYSTEM disks (SSD?) is a preferance while maintaining full data integrity (RAID-1, or a combination that favors I/O which means no RAID5 or 0) other than that, as many disks possible on the Mainboard and disk arrays as possible with some more cost-efficient space.

 

[Blain]

RAID 1 only somewhat protects against HD failure.
If data becomes corrupted it will be corrupted across both drives.

One thing you should remember to invest in is a good quality AVR UPS to keep clean power flowing to your expensive components.

 

[dezza]

RAID 1 only somewhat protects against HD failure.
If data becomes corrupted it will be corrupted across both drives.

Doesn't RAID1 check two drives and discard the altered data and/or write error?

One thing you should remember to invest in is a good quality AVR UPS to keep clean power flowing to your expensive components.

Isn't that only if your power outages or cables in the house are faulty? Would it make that big difference ?

 

[Blain]

* no
* no, incoming power fluctuates regardless of your house wiring. blackouts aren't the only enemy of clean power, so are brownouts and surges.
unless you're monitoring your incoming power, you won't know what quality it is.
view an AVR UPS as insurance for your component investment.

 

[mfenn]

Doesn't RAID1 check two drives and discard the altered data and/or write error?

How would it know which data is correct and which isn't? It's all just bits to the HDD and RAID controller. Proper backups are the only way to ensure data integrity.

RAID is for high availability (i.e. uptime), backups are for high integrity.

As for your overall question, any hardware can fail, it doesn't matter what it is, who made it, or where you bought it from. Thus, trying to avoid failures altogether is pointless. It is more important to have a plan for recovering from failures.

The best way to handle that is to get a enterprise-class workstation from a major vendor like Dell or HP. Either will sell you the level of support contract that you need for your operation (next-business day and 4hr are the most common).

 

[dezza]

Then why would anyone build a RAID1 ?

SSDs seems to have more chipset failures than most mechanical harddrives.

Are there any better ways to ensure data integrity ?

Tapes can also alter the checksum of data as far as I know ?

Got any references/documents that address this problem ?

Even the FreeBSD handbook has a chapter called 'Data Integrity' about RAID1-5:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/vinum-data-integrity.html

Lets say you don't use Windows copy, and you make sure to use rsync instead of cp.

Still no data-integrity with RAID1 ?

 

[corkyg]

RAID1 provides redundancy, in that, one drive is the mirror of the other. That provides data integrity should one of the drives fail mechanically. It does no provide integrity from corruption or malware. The mirror function puts that on both drives. The hardware redundancy is reason enough for RAID, but then backing the array up to another drive is as good as the latest backup. I clone my RAID1 array (data only) about once every couple of weeks to an external drive.

 

[mfenn]

Then why would anyone build a RAID1 ?

Because one of the drives can fail and you can still be operational? If you have two drives and want to maintain data integrity, a more effective plan is to use one to back up the other. As long as the drive is not packed, you should easily be able to get a weekly full backup and a weeks worth of nightly incrementals in that space.

 

[dezza]

a more effective plan is to use one to back up the other.

Again this doesn't ensure data integrity.

Firstly, the copying can go wrong, you would have to use for example rsync.

Other than that, you would have to make checksum tables or pack them all into an archive providing checksum tables.

I can see the point that you have the data in a "different location" ..

But what normal being gets data corruption due to malware? Unless you're an unprotected Windows user with IE and ActiveX on top .. This would most unlikely happen on UNIX systems.

Question answered here:
http://superuser.com/questions/112683/does-raid-1-protect-against-corruption

if your data is eaten by a virus or accidentally deleted, the RAID can never distinguish it as good or bad. All the RAID is in charge of is making sure that (in a RAID 1) that both disks are equal. If a sector fails a checksum, the RAID controller compensates to repair it, or triggers a rebuild. In a RAID 5, if a sector fails a parity check, a rebuild is triggered. RAID protects the physical drives from failing, and resulting from data loss. They cannot protect against data lost to program faults or viruses.

 

[Blain]

For better data integrity make sure and use Registed ECC memory.

 

[mfenn]

Again this doesn't ensure data integrity.

I should have been more explicit, but generally when people refer to making backups, they aren't talking about just copying the files from one location to another. A comprehensive backup strategy most certainly does ensure data integrity. Parts of a backup strategy include:
- Use backup software the includes a checksum of each file or block of files
- Keep multiple versions of files (either multiple full or full+incremental) so that you can restore an older version if you don't notice the corruption immediately
- Verify your backups! Backup media can fail just as easily as the primary media. With regular verification, you can reduce the probability of both the primary and backup copies being corrupted to very close to 0.

<---- Backs up about a petabyte of data every night for a major university.

But what normal being gets data corruption due to malware? Unless you're an unprotected Windows user with IE and ActiveX on top .. This would most unlikely happen on UNIX systems.

The UNIX security model is designed to protect the core system and other users from a rogue user or process running under a compromised account. If does nothing to protect you from processes running under your own user. If you hit a Firefox exploit (or simple bug) that tries to delete everything in your home directory, file permissions aren't going to help you much.

 

[dezza]

Lets get back on topic.

Should I wait for Ivy Bridge to make a good deal in the first quarter of 2012 ?

Should I use Xeon's with Linux, if not used for gaming primarily ?

 

[Blain]

Lets get back on topic.

I didn't think the thread got "off topic".
You're main concern is "reliability" isn't it?

 

[dezza]

Yes it is.

I saw a Gigabyte mATX board:
GA-H67MA-USB3-B3


But impossible to find revision. 2.0 with HDMI output.

Although it says it uses "Japanese Capacitors" to extend lifespan ..

 

[videogames101]

Your biggest failure point in a PC today will be your mechanical disk drives. The likelihood of a bad CPU or motherboard is seriously at least an order of magnitude lower. Back up your data across multiple media types if you need data security.

In order for us to make specific product recommendations for a build, we really need a specific budget along with specific tasks you'll be doing. If compiling is your primary concern, how threaded is the compiler your concerned with? Are any of your compiling tasks going to take advantage of GPU-compute resources? How much storage are you looking for? (In terms of actual GB or TB)

 

[mfenn]

Should I wait for Ivy Bridge to make a good deal in the first quarter of 2012 ?

Ivy Bridge is looking like Q2 at this point, so I dunno if you want to wait that long. There won't be huge performance increases from Sandy to Ivy, so you won't be missing out.

Should I use Xeon's with Linux, if not used for gaming primarily ?

Doesn't matter either way. Xeon and Core processors are about the same think, you just have to make sure that the one you get (a) meets your performance requirements (b) has any specific features that you need, and (c) fits your budget.