[Discuss] I need a recommendation for a Linux-compatible high-end PC builder

[Alan W. Irwin]

I am debating about whether to add an SSD to the large HDD I intend to
order for my "dream machine". Of course, the big positive for SSD's
versus HDD's is the former has reduced latency and typically higher
throughput, but my thought is those advantages don't matter so much if
you have lots of memory (64GB on my dream machine) where Linux already
caches the heavily used files.  And, of course, the SSD advantages
would be completely wasted for overnight testing.

So right now I am leaning toward not adding an SSD since there appear
to be some negatives with regard to SSD's such as

* SSD's are roughly 8 times the cost per unit storage compared to
enterprise class (e.g., 5-yr warranty) HD's.  For example, for roughly
the same cost I could add an additional 4TB enterprise class HDD to my
hardware package for the cost of a 0.5TB SSD.

* Special configuration measures are needed to keep SSD's from wearing out quickly from too many
writes.

* Deciding which part of your files you put on the SSD adds some
partitioning and mounting complexity as well as some on-going
complexity for users if the SSD is used for user-generated files. For
example, if I configure both a fast (SSD) and a slow (HDD) partition
which are write-accessible by ordinary user accounts, then the user
has to decide which of those to use for a given workload.  For
example, I would choose fast for a test where I wanted quick results.
But my tests tend to generate ~5GB of files each time so I guess there
is some potential of wearing out the SSD unless I am careful to only
use it when needed, and, for example, use the slow partition instead
for automatic tests done every night.

Is the issue that I am not keeping up with Linux capabilities?  For
example, I have heard of a Linux kernel capability that uses the
combination of SSD and HDD capabilities wisely (much like a combined
SSD + HDD disk), but I have forgotten the name of this capability, and
I don't know how easy that is to configure or how transparent it is
for the user.  And if that works really well, maybe I could get away
with a much smaller SSD?

Thoughts?

Alan
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Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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