Hard Drive Enclosures

[AtomicFire]

Heres what i'm planning to do:

Theres an old PII-300 Compaq Proliant serveri my basement being the router\file server.

What I plan on doing is putting in 4 Firewire 400 cards, and getting 8 hard disks (2 per card).
Then i'll get 8 external firewire enclosures and put 120gb hard disks in each, yielding 960 gb of storage.They will be in a RAID 5 array, software, under linux. Speed isn't important, reliability is. I want to be able to hot-swap and rebuild in case any hard disk takes a shit and goes down without rebooting the server or losing data. Backup images are going on this server. I figured this would be cheaper than going hot-SCSI\hot-IDE or SATA all the way.

I've had 3 hard disks die on me in external enclosures because of their crappy cooling. Can anyone recommend a good external enclosure from experience that has the following qualities?

1. Good cooling capacity. I like 3.5inch enclosures, but if need be to cool better, 5.25 is fine.
2. Stackable OR can be placed vertically in a stable position.
This is stable
This is not
3. Activity lights on the front where it is easily viewable.
4. USB or IDE is fine, i'll be going with whichever has better cases.

Thanks for the help

 

[defakto]

If you want stability and reliability, avoid going with externals. Too many chance for the drive to get bump, disconnect, shifted, dropped or pushed around. You would be far better off picking up a couple of cheap ide or sata controllers, and installing all of the drives in a system and running your software raid 5 like that.

 

[AtomicFire]

If you want stability and reliability, avoid going with externals. Too many chance for the drive to get bump, disconnect, shifted, dropped or pushed around. You would be far better off picking up a couple of cheap ide or sata controllers, and installing all of the drives in a system and running your software raid 5 like that.

I would but there is no room in the case for 8 drives, and I doubt the power supply would be able to handle it. Compaq power supplies are perpritory

 

[defakto]

Pick up some cheap, older AT style power supplies with push switches on them , ground it out, and mod the case a touch to hold the drives and add some fans. It will be alot cheaper than going with firewire and, personally, alot more reliable in the long run.

 

[AtomicFire]

Pick up some cheap, older AT style power supplies with push switches on them , ground it out, and mod the case a touch to hold the drives and add some fans. It will be alot cheaper than going with firewire and, personally, alot more reliable in the long run.

You're still missing the point that I want to find a good external enclosure, not debate how to set up the array.

 

[silent]

you want something like this (page is in german) but images speak a thousand words
mind you, it will be more expensive than picking up a good case and quality psu

secondly 8 hdd's over 1 firewire link? have fun, that will slow as hell, esp. in raid5 setup

if you really want this - two options are much cheaper and better
-) get a second cheapo case with only 1 psu and room for 8+ hdd's with decent cooling covering them. make a hole in the side of this and your case, route ide/sata cables through it to the second case which holds your normal pc. a bitch to move but for a server setup very cheap and efficient

-) buy some old scsi external case off ebay (similar to the one linked above) and mod the connectors on the outside for extrenal links - ide or sata. psu is generally allready in the enclosure and is powerfull enough.


another options:
-) buy a proper case - coolermaster stacker or thermaltake armor is your best bet. 12+ harddrives in thoses cases are no problem - this is what I'm going with to replace my case
-) something like this http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/esata.htm

but external cases unless they are properly cooled are crap for continuous use, most 1-2 hdd cases have very bad cooling, the bigger versions are $$$

edit: what the hell you need hotswap for? 1337ness? you can't afford 5-15 minutes downtime for the hdd swap?