my linux server is running with an old IDE hard drive getting these hdparm results:
eppo@server:~$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/sdf1

/dev/sdf1:
Timing buffered disk reads: 30 MB in 3.13 seconds = 9.60 MB/sec

i also have a raid set up which gets these results:
eppo@server:~$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/md0

/dev/md0:
Timing buffered disk reads: 490 MB in 3.01 seconds = 163.00 MB/sec

i have a WD Raptor drive i'm going to install and put a fresh install of linux on it.
i'm just curious, will using a much faster HD as my main drive increase the speeds of my network transfers from the raid drive?
do transfers only go as fast as the system drive?
thanks

I would think that as long as the system drive is not involved in the data transfer, which it shouldn't be in a network access to the array, it won't limit the speed.

Keep in mind that ethernet only transfers 12MB/s(roughly 9.5MB/s with overhead) swiching to GigE will bump you up to 95MB/s(real throughput). GigE HAS to be GigE from end to end in order to work(nic->cable->switch->cable->nic all HAVE to be GigE in order for it to work).

I have found that transfers are more limited by cpu on older systems. If you have an enterprise level nic you could offload checksum to speed it up. Also you have a backplane issue that can't be fixed either.