Thanks to Intel we installed two Quad Core Xeon 5355 clocked at 2.66GHz in a Mac Pro (
see previous article). In our new article, we run different tests to illustrate the performance gain linked to 8 cores-based architecture, and demonstrated why only specific applications can benefit from 8 cores, while most of current software as well as the system do not get accelerated.
The new article is available here:
http://www.hardmac.com/articles/72/
geekstuff4u offers an interesting product.
This is a 2.5" enclosure designed to receive 4 SD flash memory cards to create a NAND IDE HD. The maximal capacity is reported to be 8GB (4x2GB), even though 4GB SD modules are commercially available. The price of the enclosure is 199€
It could also be interesting to get a 1.8" enclosure, as one could then build in advance the rumored flash memory-based iPod.
Google, with all its current and future services, needs a large amount of HDs not only when installing new servers, but also when replacing defective HDs in existing servers. Based on collected data, Google published the result of its investigation concerning HD lifetime. Unfortunately, Google did not provide further details concerning either on HD models or HD manufacturers.
Main results:
- The defective rate for the first year was only 1.7%, but it jumper to 8% the second year, and remain stable with 8.6% the third year.
- A HD displaying a SMART alarm has a 10-fold higher risk to fail.
- Temperature does not seem to be a negative factor for HD lifetime.
- As expected, the more the HD is working or accessed the more the risk of a HD failure is high.
It also demonstrates that among our readers, hundreds of them will have a problem with their HD in 2007, so remember to back up your data regularly!
To read the entire article:
disk_failures.pdf
