[geeks] Powerbook storage options

[Micah R Ledbetter]

I'm typing this on a new Powerbook (well, it's a month old now)... This
thing is better in every way than the machine I am used to.

I'm trying to determine the way to add the fastest external RAID storage to
the thing. The options that I can see are: network storage (what I'm doing
now), firewire RAID boxes, and possibly a Firewire-to-SCSI bridge of some
kind. I have an NFS linux machine right now that feels really, really slow,
especially for moving a lot of smaller files; if I used AFP from the linux
machine would that make things run faster? Also, another thing that I
thought of was installing a firewire card in my linux box and getting
400Mb/sec network connection instead of the PB's 100Mb/sec connection - in
practice, does this work well enough to have a noticeable impact on
performance?

I'm hesitant to pay for firewire RAID boxes, because they're so expensive
and I don't need a terrabyte of storage, just a couple hundred gigs (for
now, heh). I have 3 12-disk sun SCSI arrays, so it'd be really nice to be
able to use one of those - are firewire-to-SCSI bridges any good for that
(I've heard some discussion somewhere that they don't work well for disks
and arrays and things that use a bigger SCSI command set)? Are they fast? If
these work well, I think I'd rather use these than any other options.

Oh, two things about the 12" PBs: no FW800, and no PCMCIA.

 - Micah