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3.52 TB External Enclosure (work in progress)

J

Jackyl

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Messages
174
About halfway done with it so far. Yeah it's not the cleanest job, but it'll get the job done. I'll post some more info on it after class. :D

hdd.jpg
 
what are you powering all those drives with? and what kind of config is it going to be? i am guessing some variation or raid
 
Well.... seeing as how there are (12) 320gb drives, which is 3.84 TB raw. So if he's looking to get this capacity it'll be a JBOD or RAID 0.
 
StorageJoe said:
Well.... seeing as how there are (12) 320gb drives, which is 3.84 TB raw. So if he's looking to get this capacity it'll be a JBOD or RAID 0.
Click to expand...

I'm placing my money on RAID5. 3.84 - .32 = 3.52 RAID5 RAW capacity. Formatted of course would be less.
 
brycejones said:
Yes it is, I have that same case also taken apart in my basement.
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same, with out the basement...
believe it's the hx07 or something along those lines

StorageJoe said:
Well.... seeing as how there are (12) 320gb drives, which is 3.84 TB raw. So if he's looking to get this capacity it'll be a JBOD or RAID 0.
Click to expand...
brycejones said:
I'm placing my money on RAID5. 3.84 - .32 = 3.52 RAID5 RAW capacity. Formatted of course would be less.
Click to expand...
what controller will you be using for it?
also, what's the total $$ on your project so far?
 
As for the powering issue, I'm still trying to find a permanent solution. Initially it was supposed to be 8 drives, which I was going to power with 1 Enlight 250watt AT style power supply. Then due to some ebay asshat sending the raid card I purchased from him 10 days late, I purchased a 12 port version of the card. So that increased the number of drives from 8 to 12. I started a thread in the power supplies section trying to figure out what the best solution would be. Ideally, I would be able to use 1 power supply (either AT or ATX modified so i can turn it on without a motherboard - how do i do this? :confused: ) to power all the drives and the fans.

The setup is going to be Raid 5. The raid card itself is a 3ware 9500s-12 model.

How much have I spent on it.. probably too much. I got the drives for about $140 each. The raid card was $430 shipped (the 8 port version that i now have to get rid of, i got for 360ish). The case and the fans I had lying around so that didn't cost me anything. Spent about $30 on fan screws, grills, dremel discs (to cut those circles). So I guess i'm at about $2140. If I purchase a new/different power supply, I'll probably spend another $50~100 on that.

Once done, it should serve me well for a few years. This is going to replace my current file system which is a few years old itself. The current setup is 100 gig x 8 running in raid5 for 700 gigs - also on a 3ware raid card (PATA).
 
you need to find a 400w + at power supply, that way you can turn it off and on as you desire, or purchase a 400w+ atx power supply and a cable setup, so you can power that on whitout a board
 
Let me reiterate the question that I think most of us are wondering... what are you planning to do with 3+ Terabytes of storage space? I mean, do you really have that much porn? :eek:

Oh, and I love the way that because you bought a bigger card, you just *had* to buy that many more disks. :D

-Nate
 
Nate Finch said:
Let me reiterate the question that I think most of us are wondering... what are you planning to do with 3+ Terabytes of storage space? I mean, do you really have that much porn? :eek:

Oh, and I love the way that because you bought a bigger card, you just *had* to buy that many more disks. :D

-Nate
Click to expand...
lots and lots of porn
 
with $1200 in equipment (plus labor), I'd hope you'd drop more than $50 on a PSU. Do HDs run off of just 12v? If so, I'd run off of a linear 12v supply, otherwise, I'd grab a PC PSU, but make sure that you'll be loading the rails enough, as a lopsided load can fubar a PSU, and thus all your equipment.

Personally, I'd grab a PSU that, if it does fry your shit (which a good one likely won't), has a company behind it ready to cut you a check.
 
What am I going to do with 3 terabytes of space? Download crap to it or course. :D
Call me Doug jr. err... sr? haha..

I've just finished installing all the fans and stuff. Going to run it temporarily with 2 of the 250watt enlight power supplies I initially mentioned. Will have to figure out a 1 power supply unit solution in the future. Can you guys recommend any models that can power 12 of the drives seen plus 12-14 fans? ATX is fine, I figured out how to install a on/off switch on an ATX power supply. Which numers should I be looking at? Amperage? How much am I looking for?
 
pc power and cooling makes the best powersupplies, and they can make a custom power supply specificly for your needs. look at amperage, and get teh highest that you can afford. the wattage on cheap power supplies basically means nothing. the amperage is was you are looking for!
 
Specifically the amperage on the 12V line is most important since that will be used almost exclusively by the hard drives and fans. I think 30A on the 12V line should be much more than enough.
 
You should seriously consider using 2 drives for parity with that much space and that many drives. The odds that more than 2 drives will crap out is almost guaranteed.
 
GIGANTOID said:
You should seriously consider using 2 drives for parity with that much space and that many drives. The odds that more than 2 drives will crap out is almost guaranteed.
Click to expand...

But what are the odds 2 drives will crap out within 24 hours of each other? I'm going to buy an extra drive in a couple weeks and just keep it around to use as a spare when a drive fails. Btw, the beast is online now. After realizing the limitations of WinXP I had to install Win2003 to use the full 3.5 terabytes as one drive, but it seems to be working fine now. :D
 
Jackyl said:
But what are the odds 2 drives will crap out within 24 hours of each other? I'm going to buy an extra drive in a couple weeks and just keep it around to use as a spare when a drive fails. Btw, the beast is online now. After realizing the limitations of WinXP I had to install Win2003 to use the full 3.5 terabytes as one drive, but it seems to be working fine now. :D
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With 12 drives, this could be a problem - if one drive dies, you need to add another. So you do, but while it's rebuilding it's still basically an 11-drive raid 0 array. I don't like those odds. Especially considering if there happens to be a bad batch of drives; usually this is why disks crap out, if there's no mechanical abuse going on. If this were the case (not saying it is, but DeathStars looked good on paper) then trying to rebuild the array could be enough to push the whole thing over the edge.

Oh, and post screenies of the drive properties thingy. :drool:

 
unhappy_mage said:
With 12 drives, this could be a problem - if one drive dies, you need to add another. So you do, but while it's rebuilding it's still basically an 11-drive raid 0 array. I don't like those odds. Especially considering if there happens to be a bad batch of drives; usually this is why disks crap out, if there's no mechanical abuse going on. If this were the case (not saying it is, but DeathStars looked good on paper) then trying to rebuild the array could be enough to push the whole thing over the edge.

Oh, and post screenies of the drive properties thingy. :drool:

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As requested. ;)
drives.JPG

properties.JPG
 
That is just stinkin awesome, you could have a lot of movies backedup to that drive and it would make for one heck of a PVR storage drive.

Keetha "That's hot."
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I am glad Paris agrees.... ;)
 
Could go with a CM slacker case and get some 4-in-3 drive chages that would hold 12 hdd's right there plus the case has to spots for PSU's and even comes with the cable to run 2x PSU's see here --->My Case
 
KORI said:
Could go with a CM slacker case and get some 4-in-3 drive chages that would hold 12 hdd's right there plus the case has to spots for PSU's and even comes with the cable to run 2x PSU's see here --->My Case
Click to expand...

That is what i did fior my 996g formated - many sizse HD's

i also used dual 550 Vantec PSU's since the Stacker comes with the adapter to connect 2 PSU's together to act as one.
 
Jackyl said:
As requested. ;)
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte990i/drives.JPG[IMG]
[IMG]http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte990i/properties.JPG[IMG][/QUOTE]
Don't forget to enable 'Compress drive to save disk space' ^_-
Click to expand...
 
Jackyl said:
That wink meant it was a joke right? Heh..
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:D

Still, I think it would get you a few tens of extra GBs, depending on the type of files you put on this array ^_^
 
Well, I'm already taking a hit on performance from the raid 5 setup. Also, for the most part (probably about 90%) the data being stored will be compressed files such as movies or music so I won't benefit too much from the compression ^_^;
 
Jackyl said:
Well, I'm already taking a hit on performance from the raid 5 setup. Also, for the most part (probably about 90%) the data being stored will be compressed files such as movies or music so I won't benefit too much from the compression ^_^;
Click to expand...


i wouldnt advertise that too much, FBI tends to take note of people who have "server's" with over 1terra of storage.
 
MrGuvernment said:
i wouldnt advertise that too much, FBI tends to take note of people who have "server's" with over 1terra of storage.
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I imagine they're getting pretty dang busy "taking note" these days - first, it's awfully hard to tell how much storage a given machine has, and second, there are lots of legal reasons for having huge amounts of disk storage. This reminds me of Mike McHugh's story about the folding farm being mistaken for a grow lab. :p

 
how do you run a file server like that without a motherboard? how would you connect it to your computer, and how would you controll it (im a total newb to this type of storage solution so bear with me)

Nat
 
It's not a standalone solution. The drives are connected to a raid card which is on my file server. The external enclosure just sits right beside my file server and the two boxes are married by 12 sata cables.
 
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