cheapest possible 21 Drive setup??

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paradoxblue

Gawd
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I plan to use the norco 4020

Plus an os drive. probably widows server,

So I am trying to find the cheapest way to do 20 drives, if I go single raid card they are like 1 grand :(


so mobo/cpu and raid card(s) combo options? a way to do 3 cards of 8? or two 8 and 1 4. etc..

looking for some advice :) It's a media server, so I'm hoping to have it setups o if i lose a drive I dont loose everything.

Tak.
 
okay so i did some calculating

found if i go with 2 8 port raid cards and a 4 port.

or 3 8's for the extra space, it will be cheaper then a 16 or 24.

the extra 4 could be added to the case if I tried hard enough. im sure :D
 
Would there be any way to get the number of drives down? What size array setup are you going for? I would think you'd want to get the RAID array configuration optimized as much as possible to fit on as few drives as possible to get the costs down. As well as reliability up, as from what I understand, the fewer drives, the lower chance of failure.

Might want to think about the configuration starting from a different view point rather than starting with how to make 21 drives work... Don't you think guys?
 
Some things you'll want to keep in mind:
1. Pay attention to what kind of bus you're using. There are some good, cheap but dumb (ie no hardware raid) 8 port PCI-X cards out there, but they'll eat up your bandwidth very quickly (particularly with more than one) since it's a shared topology. Ideally you want all PCIe cards, since each card will have it's own bandwidth, not sharing with the others.

2. What kind of array(s) are you planning on having, and what performance do you expect? If you're comfortable using software raid, then you don't need to get super high end cards. You can get very good performance out of moderately priced cards, and you can even make use of the onboard SATA ports with no problem. However with this approach it's important to make sure you get PCIe cards, as your bandwidth will be shot in no time.

For a server where you only need reasonable performance (i.e. saturating a GigE link), a motherboard with as many onboard ports as you can find (provided they're supported by linux), and 2 or 3 "dumb" SATA cards would probably be the cheapest option. The biggest challenge will be finding good multiport PCIe SATA cards. They exist, but you've got to be careful with driver support and the like.
 
The Hunter said:
Some things you'll want to keep in mind:
1. Pay attention to what kind of bus you're using. There are some good, cheap but dumb (ie no hardware raid) 8 port PCI-X cards out there, but they'll eat up your bandwidth very quickly (particularly with more than one) since it's a shared topology. Ideally you want all PCIe cards, since each card will have it's own bandwidth, not sharing with the others.

2. What kind of array(s) are you planning on having, and what performance do you expect? If you're comfortable using software raid, then you don't need to get super high end cards. You can get very good performance out of moderately priced cards, and you can even make use of the onboard SATA ports with no problem. However with this approach it's important to make sure you get PCIe cards, as your bandwidth will be shot in no time.

For a server where you only need reasonable performance (i.e. saturating a GigE link), a motherboard with as many onboard ports as you can find (provided they're supported by linux), and 2 or 3 "dumb" SATA cards would probably be the cheapest option. The biggest challenge will be finding good multiport PCIe SATA cards. They exist, but you've got to be careful with driver support and the like.
Click to expand...

That seems fair.
The drives will be for media server, so I am not to concerned about redundancy, as if I loose a drive I can re rip what is lost.

speed is not a big deal, as I will be at most sending out 1x 1080p movie and 2xdivx rips at any given time.
I have taken notice to the new home server, and its availible Drive Pooling option. which is software raid but lets me add as I see fit.

My concern is, If I loose one drive, I would like to loose just that drives data. and not partials from everywhere. and I am unsure how exactly the Drive pooling setup works. so far.

pcie seems best to me also now, from what you have said. and my own research.
 
Buy an older dual socket 604 board, a processor, couple sticks of memory, and three of those 8 port Supermicro cards. You can get the lot for $400 and if you get a board with 3 PCI-X, the performance will be pretty decent.
 
Blue Fox said:
Buy an older dual socket 604 board, a processor, couple sticks of memory, and three of those 8 port Supermicro cards. You can get the lot for $400 and if you get a board with 3 PCI-X, the performance will be pretty decent.
Click to expand...

yeah thats what i'm aiming toward

I'm pricing it out, if I go with the 3x8 I can do 3 seperate raid 5 setups, i would just need to find a way to sneak in 4 more drive :D plus an os drive.

for the os I think a small 2.5" in one of the pci slots would work :D
 
Let me see.

The only goal is 21 drives!?!?!? Not a specified amount of storage space?

21 drives * 1 TB per drive = 21,000 GB of storage :eek:

Perhaps an idea:

Bring the number of drives down to 18
Buy three super energy-efficient cheap systems (AMD X2 4850e based etc.) and give every system 6 drives.

That way you will at least have 2/3 of your collection 'online' if one system crashes completely.

But if you wait for the Seagate 1.5TB drive you could the number of drives a little down.

Perhaps use a CF card with a IDE > CF adapter for the OS. Zero ms accestime :)
 
do you plan to run the drives in raid? if so then software or hardware raid? If you don't want hardware raid then just pickup something like 3 supermicro 8 port cards and you're set.
 
Sounds like your not going to use a true Raid Level if you dont want redundancy. Also I beleive you said that you wanted to get a setup where if you lost one drive you just lost the data on that drive.

Sounds like you are the perfect candidate for WHS.
You would still need to get a card for ports, but you could get like the super micro 8 port dumb controllers or you could get an Adaptec 21610sa its a 16 port raid card...its older and not fast for RAID but is plenty fast for Jbod/passthrough and its only about $100

BTW how much space are you looking to get?
I know you said you are getting the Norco 4020 but if your only getting 10tb theres no point in getting 20 500gb drives when 10 1tb drives will do the same, just cause you can hold 20 drives doesnt mean you have to buy 20 drives.
 
Go the WHS Route and pick up a few 1tb drives and a controller for now, and as the collection grows just add more drives. this will save you money since drive prices will drop as larger capacity drives come out. WHS will automatically add any drive to the pool no matter what size / brand.

Buying 20 1tb drive now will be a waste unless you really need all 20tb at this point in time, prices will drop and larger drives will come out.

Buy what you need now and upgrade as you need it.
 
i dont need 20 1tb drives now

WHS and drive pooling for easy expansion. but i want the hardware and controllers in place so i can slap in a drive as i go.

software raid. and drive pooling is what i want! :) not hardware heh
 
sorry to add

i will be using 1tb drives
i do not want redundancy
i NEED the system ready for 20 drives when its done.

so the hardware choice i go with will be ready for 20+ drives..

but expansion is what i'd like :)


Edit:
so where can i find a 3x pcix motherboard for cheap? :)

edit 2:
okay so thinking about it.. i would only need two 8 port cards. just would like a motherboard that offers 4 or hopefully 8 sata ports
 
paradoxblue said:
software raid. and drive pooling is what i want!
Click to expand...


well, which is it? software raid would imply redundancy, which WHS doesn't have in the normal storage pool (you'd need a second storage pool, which would essentially be software raid 1).

Anyways, for new boards you're probably looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131134. Two of the SM cards would leave you with 22 SATA slots. You can get much better deals looking at used equipment though.
 
if your going to be using this for a WHS storage only you dont need a lot of CPU and Ram, Get a Gigabyte board and a AMD 4050e 45w processor with 4 onboard SATA, an Adaptec 21610SA Raid Card and be done with it. plus all that cost you total is $250
 
i have a 4 port pci raid card now. so really I can tie that in with 2x8 and have my 20. plus the onboards :)

I'm jsut trying to find more info on this drive pooling. :D
 
The Hunter said:
Some things you'll want to keep in mind:
1. Pay attention to what kind of bus you're using. There are some good, cheap but dumb (ie no hardware raid) 8 port PCI-X cards out there, but they'll eat up your bandwidth very quickly (particularly with more than one) since it's a shared topology. Ideally you want all PCIe cards, since each card will have it's own bandwidth, not sharing with the others.
Click to expand...

Not always - my Opteron board (GA7A8DW) has two PCI-X slots and each has it's own interconnect to the chipset.
 
i'm having a hard tme finding a sub $100 mobo with 2+ pci-x cards

sub $80 is ideal, or used etc. anyone have some thoughts?

new egg does not workf or me. i am canadian. ncix/tigerdirect are my best options
 
paradoxblue said:
i'm having a hard tme finding a sub $100 mobo with 2+ pci-x cards

sub $80 is ideal, or used etc. anyone have some thoughts?

new egg does not workf or me. i am canadian. ncix/tigerdirect are my best options
Click to expand...
eBay. New boards with PCI-X (775/AM2) aren't cheap. If you want a cheap file server, buy a dual socket 604/940 board off eBay, drop a processor in, and add a couple of sticks of RAM. You should be able to get the entire lot for under $100 (I did a year ago).
 
FWIW I can attest to running my WHS setup with both an older AMD A64/3200+ and now with an E6600 and there is no distinguishable difference. Go for max energy savings.
 
You should search for Galaxy project on the hard forums...

more information than you will ever need.
 
Ockie said:
You should search for Galaxy project on the hard forums...

more information than you will ever need.
Click to expand...


i have read all of those. and the galaxys are far from cheap.

im going for energy effcient (lol i know) and cheap :)
 
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