Re: [cobalt-users] RaQ4

[Kris Dahl <krislists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 7/17/00 9:06 AM, Brian Curtis at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> 
> 
>> A press release on the RaQ4:
> http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000717/ca_cobalt_.html
>> 
>> It's configured with RAID1 and has the Interbase DB, PHP and Chilisoft ASP
>> pre-installed so I can't wait to see the pricing.
> 
> http://www.cobalt.com/products/raq/howmuch.html
> 
> Cobalt RaQ 4r (256MB DRAM, Dual 20.4GB HD RAID 1)  $3,999.00
> Cobalt RaQ 4r (512MB DRAM, Dual 30.4GB HD RAID 1)  $4,799.00
> 
> Kind of steep IMO since it's software raid, still IDE internal drives, and
> only supports 512mb PC100 RAM.

It is very steep for software raid.  They are trying to add value with the
Chilisoft ASP, etc.  I've been saying all along that you need Raid when you
are using a single server to host web sites.  I assumed everyone thought I
was talking about 'hardware' RAID--I guess not.

For a comparison, we are getting some new servers probably around the end of
the Month.

VA Linux
Pentium III 700 (Dual Capable)
3 18.2 GB 10K RPM UW SCSI Hard drives (Raid 5, Hotswap)
512M RAM
~$6200-6400

> Only says '450Mhz Intel Compatible Processor'....

Read: AMD K6-2.  A crap chip in my opinion.  Also, if the board only
supports up to 512m, it is not in the class of 'server' motherboards, IMHO.

512M isn't that much these days.

Cobalt should have made it $5300 for Hardware Raid with SCSI disks.  $4700
for two IDE disks and a desktop-class (or worse?) chip is not at all cost
effective.

Also bundling it with Chilisoft ASP adds little value, as far as I am
concerned.  Its nice that they are finally supporting PHP officially.
Honestly I don't understand why they went with Interbase.  With MySQL being
GPL'd it seems like it would be between PostgreSQL.

AFAIK Interbase is fast on low loads but doesn't scale well under high
loads.  Also I guess its SQL-92 compliant... but still.  PostgreSQL is much
more popular and has been open-sourced a lot longer.  Hell PHP.net doesn't
really even have documentation on interbase support.  Interbase just doesn't
seem to me to have any advantages over PostgreSQL.

Well, whatever.  I'm not planning on buying one of these units.

-k