HighPoint RocketRaid 4520 Raid Card SSD Benchmarks and Review

Feb 21, 2013 by Paul White

I took a gamble and decided to try Highpoint's latest flagship Raid Card ( RocketRaid 4520 ) for my new web server.  Naturally when I get a new piece of hardware I like to put it through some benchmarks to see if it really performs the way it should.  When this combined with your Operating System's Buffering and Caching this card is Excellent, but when Direct I/O is tested is falls short.  To make a long story short, the Rocketraid 4520 does not perform well for IOPS at 4K.  I have already contacted HighPoint and they inferred that their engineering team is aware of this, and are working on a new firmware that should fix the issues.

How to Measure your Server's Disk Writes for SSD consideration

Jan 18, 2013 by Paul White

Before anyone considers throwing an SSD into your server, its important to be sure your server is not going to destroy that SSD with writes after a few months. In this guide I will show you how to use Performance monitoring in Windows Server 2008 R2 to determine what kind of write activity your server is currently doing. Then after that we can calculate our daily and annual writes, allowing us to determine how long that shiny new SSD will last in our server.

Which SSD should I use in my Web Server

Dec 30, 2012 by Paul White

I am currently building a new Server for Colocation. This time around I am going to use SSD drives instead of the 15K SAS drives. Even though the 15K SAS drives have been reliable performers, the newest SSD drives simply blow them away in terms of IO. However SSD drives have a few issues you should be aware of. Wear Leveling! But before you decided that SSD drives are too much risk for your server, do the math, and ask yourself, how much writing does your server really do.

Save Money by upgrading from LCD to LED Monitors

Mar 30, 2012 by Paul White

If you read my previous blog post, you know that I was having a little trouble with my Samsung 2493HM Syncmaster LCD monitor. I actually have 2 of them on my work station. I finally gave up on trying to repair it after the repair failed twice. I have upgraded to Dell 24" LED monitors. LED monitors cost a bit more than their LCD counterparts, but the cost savings in energy are worth it. I break out the kill-a-watt meter and put my old monitors against my new ones.

How to Fix a Samsung SyncMaster 2493HM LCD Monitor

Mar 9, 2012 by Paul White

As some of you know I have invested into some serious desktop real estate. I have 3 Samsung Syncmaster LCD Displays. One is a 30" and the other 2 are 24". Everything has been working great for years. Then one of my displays ( Samsung Syncmaster 2493HM ), starting to randomly go out. Then it would make some weird clicking sounds. After a while it would make a loud pop and come back on. Occasionally it would also flicker before going out. Over time it got worse. After some researching, I figured out the problem, and was able to repair it myself for about $20 in Parts.

Super Talent Pico C USB Flash Drive Review and Benchmarks

Nov 18, 2011 by Paul White

I finally decided that my old USB flash drive was taking up a little too much bulk in my pocket.  That and I was close to maxing out its 8GB capacity.  So I upgraded to a Super Talent Pico C USB Flash Drive.  This is by far the smallest USB drive available ( That I know of ).  It also comes in Chrome, Silver, and 24K gold plated finishes.  Bling and Nerd Credit come together.  I know the question many are asking.  Is it all show and no go?  I put both my old drive and my new drive through some benchmarks for comparison. 

Unplugging from Cable and Phone but keeping internet

Sep 20, 2011 by Paul White

After getting our last bill from Comcast, I decided that I really don't need Cable or Phone.  After all both my wife and I have cell phones with unlimited talk, and even though we do occasionally watch TV, the quality of entertainment in my opinion has gone to crap.  I was able to shave $80 off my Comcast Bill, by keeping the internet only and buying my own DOCSIS 3.0 modem to avoid their $7 / month rental fee.

SSD RAID 0 Benchmarks for Intel ICH10R ASUS P6T Deluxe

Nov 19, 2010 by Paul White

So I finally have made the move to SSD.  Unlike many who went with a single SSD drive I went with an SSD raid 0 Array.  Using 3 OCZ Vertex 2 60 GB SSD drives, I setup a RAID 0 array on my ASUS P6T Deluxe Motherboard's built in Intel ICH10R SATA controller.  The benchmarks were outstanding.  Maybe I could have gotten a little better performance from using a dedicated RAID card, but 700 MB/sec read and write is good enough for me.

Windows 7 Backup and Restore Problems

Nov 17, 2010 by Paul White

During my quest to upgrade my computer from my 4 disk SAS raid array to a 3 disk SSD raid array, I had a few learning experiences with the windows 7 backup and restore system.  Hopefully my tips will help others.

SSD vs Hard Drives on your Electric Bill

Apr 12, 2010 by Paul White

I guess SSD drives have finally caught the eye of the joe average consumers, because the other day a client of mine called asking if they should upgrade to an SSD drive.  So I went about explaining to him the difference between traditional platter based storage hard drives and SSD ( Solid State Drives ).  Then I got to think that my explanation might be better suited for a blog entry. So here it is.