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Disks and Raid

C

Cederstrom

n00b
Joined
Apr 21, 2013
Messages
8
Hi All,

I used to have a windows server running NAS for me - half a year ago i installed FreeNAS on that server, but i honestly miss having a windows server running here at home.

So I want to go back to having windows run as NAS / File Server.

Currently I have 5 2TB disks running Raid5, but honestly I dont use all the space. So I am quite sure I want to change and get two 4TB disks and raid-mirror them.

Now to all the questions:

1. Should I get a raid controller (which one?), Use the one on the Intel motherboard? or setup the raid in windows from the two disks?

2. What disks should I get?

Things to consider:
1. Cost does matter but im ok with paying a little more if its for a good reason
2. If it can be kinda lowpower it be nice, since it have to run 24/7

Looking forward to hearing what u recommend :)
 
Personally i'd suggest software RAID if this is just for a home environment.
You may lose a little in performance but if the controller/motherboard dies you can just drop them in another machine without issues.
 
To answer your questions;

1) I'd say an LSI, Areca, or Adaptec RAID card with HCL approved disks is the way to go.
2) HCL approved disks. Hitachi disks are the least expensive and generally work well, but Western Digital RE, and Seagate Constellation usually have good compatibility with RAID cards.

If you have enough technical experience and background, you could consider virtualizing your NAS and doing FreeNAS on ESXi, then adding a windows instance in front of it. This would let you avoid having a RAID card and utilize the ports on your motherboard.
 
For only two drives in RAID1 the Intel RAID is fine and you will always find another MB able to read it if necessary, although backups are recommended.

For the drives themselves, 4TB are fairly new so it's difficult to know if there are lame ducks out there, I've bought the only ones I could find at a decent price (Seagate 7200.14) and they seem fine, incidentally Seagate doesn't make them anymore only a couple months later or has renamed them, now it's "Desktop HDD.15", I don't know what that means, they seem identical.
 
You can also take the one remaining disk from a failed Intel RAID1 and boot from that. But be aware that this does not scale well. If at some point you need more than 4 TB you can only migrate to larger disks. Using Intel RAID5 is not recommended for various reasons.
 
I would just do windows software Mirroring. It's very simple to implement and won't require any special RAID controller
 
Thanks alot for your replies - i think im going to go with the suggestion of using windows for it, as i do agree that a dedicated raidcard will not give me enough for the need i have :) It even just use more watt's in the 24/7 server without a benefit that is nessary.

This just leaves me with one question which one to pick?:
- Seagate Barracuda HDD.15
- Hitachi Deskstar 7K4000

I think the Hitachi myself, as its 7200 RPM and the Segate is slower... plus its made for 24/7 use which the segate isn't as far as i could google. Sounds like an ok choice?

Thanks :)
 
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