>This one will be a hugely INSERT thing, very low on UPDATEs. The
>INSERTS will have many TEXT fields as they are free form data. So the
>database will grow very fast. Size will grow pretty fast too.
>> You should use a hardware raid controller with battery backup write cache
>> (write cache should be greater than 256 MB).
Take a hardware raid controller with battery backup write cache (512 - 1024
MB).
>I'll have a raid controller in both scenarios, but which RAID should
>be better: RAID1 or RAID10?
RAID1 is ok (mirroring)
RAID10 is (maybe) better
Normally I would use SAS Disks (instead of SATA2). How about RAI10 with SAS
?
> 4GB to begin with..
It is ok. Is your OS linux ? RAM should be easily expandable to 8 or 12 GB.
Do you use an 64 Bit OS ?
>While we are at it, would postgres be any different in performance
>across a single-CPU Quad Core Xeon with a dual CPU dual-core AMD
>Opteron? Or should the hard disk and RAM be the major considerations
>as usually proposed?
Both are ok. The AMD is maybe cheaper, but hard disks, RAID controller, RAM
and a good database design/import scripts are more important.
Do you have an server for testing ?
Greetings,
-Franz