So many drives and no where to put them!

[qr7]

I’ve got (8x) 400gb PATA Seagate drives and (3x) 400gb SATA Seagate drives.
I need to find a chip/mobo & addon cards that’ll handle these for cheap ASAP.

I was also looking to build a HTPC, so if possible I’d like to somehow merge these two needs into one box. Perhaps like an x2 3800 for HDTV playback and a big case? (what case can even hold 8 PATA drives without causing a cable nightmare?)

Suggestions would really be appreciated in terms of hardware.

Oh and is there anyway for me to use something like XFS to create a massive raid 5 (or two raid 5’s perhaps) and still access it from windows? I’d like to use nvidia’s purevideo / coreAVC which I believe are only windows apps. Would it be safe using NTFS for this? Thoughts?

[shadowwyvern]

Windows server supports many different levels of software raid. Even XP supports it, but that is shady buisiness :)

Promise makes some decent controllers that may have good compatability with linux, your best bet for software raid. I only have a sata controller from them, but they provide several varients of drives for idfferent distros and (I believe) th source for it if you want to build your own. If youw ant hardware raid though, it may cost you, a lot, and you will most likley have to make 2 arrays due to your mixed interfaces.

Case you want the CoolerMaster Stacker, or soemthign the the Armor from thermaltake. There are likley others, but the key for cable management it to have all 5.25 bays and identical mounting solutions for the drives, so youc an lay all the cables falt against on another. Search for "house of Rage" on this forum for some pics of this.

NTFS is fine, though ext3 (linux) might be better, as it is supposedly extremely robust. Journaling definately helps if you ever have to check and enormous volume (my 700GB (I think) array checked in less than a secodn with ext3.

[Zepher]

The case I am using can be setup to hold 8 drives in the rear and 10 SATA or PATA drives in the front if you use the 5 drive bay that takes up 3 5-1/4 slots.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817121405
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb455.htm

here is a 5 drive PATA enclosure
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb810akf.html

I only have 8 drives in my machine, 4 PATA and 4 SATA.
2 SATA and 2 PATA drives are connected to teh motherboard and the other 4 are connected to a Promise SATA150TX2 card (has 2 SATA and 1 PATA ports)..

http://www.transamws6.com/pics/pc/8-drives-2.jpg

http://www.transamws6.com/pics/pc/8-drives-3.jpg

[qr7]

I think I’m leaning more towards software raid in terms of $$$. I’ve got a HighPoint RocketRaid 464 PCI controller card which i was going to use for the PATA drives. I'd probably need another controller card though as I’m not fond of having 2 drives per channel.

I’m also really interested in some of the software raid 5 reshaping stuff that just went experimental for Linux kernels. It’d be nice to be able to increase the raid size at a later time.

What about a PSU? How big should it be for 12-16 HDD’s?

edit: WOW, thats a cool case...

[Zepher]

What about a PSU? How big should it be for 12-16 HDD’s?

I would go with more than a 550watt, but it is going to depend on the other parts and cards you use. 1000watt would probably be good, or if you get a case that supports dual PSU's, then 2 550's would be good.

[unhappy_mage]

What about a PSU? How big should it be for 12-16 HDD’s?
This (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103437) powers a dual p3, 2 gigs of ram, and 14 drives just fine for under $100. Yes, I tested that the "hard way".

The 5-in-3s are way, way overpriced at Newegg. Look at wiredzone.com or something like that.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072)http://www.hardfolding.com/utag1.php/mem/428/1.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=36&id=428&type=1)