[Discuss] best dual core Linux box

[blu at nedharvey.com (Edward Ned Harvey)]

> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Daniel Feenberg
> 
> In answer to a previous message - an SSD would help, but only a little,
> since the I/O burden is entirely large sequential datasets, which are
> faster in an SSD, but not spectacularly so.

Even though drive specs on SSD's indicate sustainable sequential transfers
that are higher than what HDD's can do sequentially, they should really be
punished for publishing those specs.  They're not quite lying, which is why
they get away with it.  But it's entirely unrealistic.

You should count on HDD's, at present, to be significantly faster than SSD's
for serial IO.

When the SSD is new from box, it will outperform the HDD for serial.  But
after you fill up the SSD a few times, it'll drop to about half or a third.
Call it 40%, which is a 60% loss.