Recent content by mikehunt114

RPC 4224 seems to be at a very good price right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219038&cm_re=rpc_4224-_-11-219-038-_-Product. I believe I've read that they are now coming standard with newer backplanes and a 120mm fan bracket. I bought one about 3 years ago and...

Useful summary of benefits and drawbacks: http://www.snapraid.it/compare.html

Might be worth clarifying what transcoding is and when it is going to happen. I'll speak to Plex because that is what I'm most familiar with, but other media serving software usually exhibit similar behavior. Your client device (iPhone, iPad, smart TV, etc) will have a list of compatible...

Take that China.

You can also check Chenbro for additional SAS expanders. I would have chosen the Chenbro CK23601 if I hadn't gotten an HP expander for a great price. Edit: They also have a kit for a JBOD that includes a power switch board and can be mounted kinda like a motherboard. Part number UEK23601.

Yeah I don't know either, but if it's able to be read, I'd assume it's correct. It also gets the correct number for my Seagates @ 5900rpm. My WDs don't show any rotational speed.

If I'm not mistaken Dell Percs can be flashed to a non-RAID mode (IT or IR) just like any other LSI SAS2008 based cards. You can read more about flashing in the thread I linked. Rebranded cards are usually found to be much cheaper than their LSI counterparts.

Get a rebranded LSI card like the IBM ServeRAID's or the Dell Perc's. Check here for any of the SAS2008-based or newer models.

The Coolspins are 5700rpm, so they're not 5400rpm either. It's possible they are not producing them anymore, I've seen the Jan 2013 manufacturing time frame before but nothing more recent. However, I see the prices of them continuing to drop and that leads me to believe they still are. These...

I think the Norco 4224 (or XCase I think the other version is called) or SuperMicro SC846 are in order for that many HDDs. If you can pick up a used SuperMicro it would be close to the cost of the Norco and probably a slightly better unit, but there's really nothing wrong with the Norco either...

I believe all six of mine were manufactured in January 2013. Edit: I purchased them in August 2013.

I have an SSD in the same location as above, just buy a bracket and drill a couple holes. It would be nice if the case came from the factory with mounting holes/hardware, but oh well. There are lots of places to mount extra 2.5" drive(s), or even 3.5" drive(s).

I've heard mostly good things about the Hitachis, so I recently bought 6. Didn't have any bad sectors on the 6 after a full format, so I put them into production. I haven't used them very long so my only personal experience so far is that they run hotter than a number of the other WD and...

I like the WD Reds and Hitachi 5K3000/5K4000 drives. I would also look into the Toshibas mentioned as I believe they are rebranded Hitachi's.