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Help with a new RAID setup

I

IDversusEGO

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
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I currently have a media file server with a little less than 1.8 TB of advertised space. Problem is it is spread over several small drives and has zero fault tolerance. I want to scrap these drives and start over. I want about the same storage capacity and Raid 5 for FT. My current RAID cards are cheap software cards that do what they do, but not what I want. Money is a concern, but I have no hard budget. I want to have a quality array that does what I need, but bleeding edge performance for this is not a concern. I am thinking about the following setup:

Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000YS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM 4x$240
PROMISE FastTrak TX4310 PCI SATA II Controller Card RAID 0/1/5/10 JBOD $150
iStarUSA BPU-340SATA Aluminum Black 3 to 4 Bay HDD Hot-Swappable SATA Enclosure $115

total $1225 for 1.5TB of advertised space. So, any ideas or suggestions for improved hardware or lowered cost?


If I go to a hardware raid card will I be able to move the card and drives into another PC without rebuilding the array?
 
That RAID card is pretty cheap and probably one of the cheaper ones you will find for a home user quality that is decent.

If you use the hardware RAID card yes you will be able to move it from machine to machine. Depending on the setup some RAID cards even store the information on the drives themselves so as long as you move the drives in the correct order you can move to another card of the same model (be very careful if you ever did this to test first).
 
an alternative config I jsut worked up is a little cheaper, both in initial cost and drive replacement cost.

Seagate 320gb SATA drives 6x$95
HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 PCI Express x4 SATA II RAID Card RAID 0/1/5/10 JBOD $250


1.6 TB of advertised space for $820, no enclosures. that's 1.6 for $820 vs 1.5 for $1110 (minus enclosure cost). Pros: Savings of $290, a little more capacity, lower drive replacement cost. Cons: Adds 2 drives, will increase enclosure cost a little. Will have to find a 3 drive cage and get 2.
 
I might recommend these cages. I have one and it's quite nice. Add that to the Highpoint config, and put the last disk in another place, maybe?

I'd tend to go with the Seagate disks - they run a little cooler IIRC, and they're cheaper. What are you doing about a case, power supply, and cooling for this beast?

 
That enclosure is a nice one, but I want all of the drives accessable from the front. I am thinking 2 of these 2x3 cages for $90 each
that would make the 1.6TB Highpoint solution an even $1000 vs $1225 for the 1.5TB Promise solution.

I have a 430watt Antec trupower that is running in just fine right now with 11 HDD and 3 DVD drives. As for a case, it is temporarily housed in a moded generic fulltower with 80mm fans blowing over the drives. I in the sketching phase of a custom cabinet to hold my 2 servers, UPS, KVM, networking equipment, and a monitor. It is an ambitious project, but should be cool when I am done.
 
sorry for derailing a bit, but how does a Promise EX8350 stack up against the areca?
its a 200 dollar difference (raid 5) but is it worth it?
home file storage only (you guys should know this about me by now :p )
 
yeah, i was following that thread in SR too and was scared stiff of what some of those guys were going through, i was also looking up benchies on tweakers.net and found only 1... by comparison the RocketRAID 2320 seems to be better in many ways (but doesn have cahce or a cpu) and areca is flying high above everyone else...
 
unhappy_mage said:
I'd tend to go with the Seagate disks - they run a little cooler IIRC
Click to expand...
. I doubt, it especially if you look at the capacity advantage of the WD drives.

SR measures 8.6W idle dissipapation for both the five platter WD5000, three platter Barracuda 7200.8, and four platter 7200.9. The four platter NL35.2 guzzles 9.4 watts.

Also, if you go for the Seagates, implement staggered spinup. Seagate drives can suck 2.5A on +12 a pop during spin-up :eek:
 
is it really that difficult to get a descent raid 5 card?
for internal use.
seems like only one manufacturer has a good solution.
 
Megalomaniac said:
is it really that difficult to get a descent raid 5 card?
for internal use.
seems like only one manufacturer has a good solution.
Click to expand...
No, you have the choice between:
Areca 1xx0 cards and highpoint 2xx0 cards :)

Between the two of them, there are > 10 different configurations in terms of ports and interconnect.

There is a thread on SR where someone benched the PCIe Promise card and the results were abysmal at best. I have yet to hear such a thing on either of the other two. Areca would certainly be preferred if you have the money.

I would NOT buy a 4-port controller and plug up all the ports. It's a dead-end street and trust me, it sucks being stuck at that.
 
drizzt81 said:
I would NOT buy a 4-port controller and plug up all the ports. It's a dead-end street and trust me, it sucks being stuck at that.
Click to expand...

exactly what i am trying to avoid :D
 
what motherboard do you have? If I were in the market at this point with sufficient funds, I would spring for the Highpoint 2320 and some disks. With 8 ports and PCI-express, I think that it has quite a bit of longevity and is priced reasonably at ~$250.
 
motherboard is up in the air. i have the option of using a socket 478 P4 or a 775 P4, both of which I already own. I plan on buying hte mobo around this array.

As far as filling a 4 port card, I am not too concerned. I have a TV only server that has nearly a TB, this file server will be 1.5+ TB and my main workstation has 600GB. If I need more than that in the future I can add a second PCI raid card. I have no other use for the PCI slots in the file server. All that said, i am still leaning towards a few more of the lower capacity drives. A 6 disk array will still reduce my HDD count by 4 and will be cheaper than the 4 disk option.
 
965 mobo with dual pci express slots (second one should be 8x)

yeah, looks like the 2320 can actually boast 100+mb/sec write speeds without any problems.

so the only difference between it and the areca 1210 is really the chip itself and the onboard cache...?
 
unless uptime and quick replacement / rebuild time is a critical factor, why spend so much for noisy (imo) hot-swap cages? the fans in those things can get on yer nerves after listening to em for a while; i have to listen to em at times in the server room at work. just get one or 2 of these:

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/Products.aspx?pid=807

great cooling for the drives, fits in any 3-bay space, and only about 50 bucks or so for 2 of em.

not like my home servers need to be up 24/7 or anything; got quite a few drives running in these things. vibration should be kept down also, and i used some rubber fan mounting thingys so the fans are a small fraction of an inch away from the front of the metal cages. replaced fans with ball bearing ones while i had em apart.
 
I've got the iStar cages (well rebranded, the actual company that makes them is German or something). They work well and I've hot swapped with them before, worked fine. They are a bit loud though.
 
I do have mine up and running 24/7. All of my tv viewing is based off of these servers. If a server is down, no tv in the entire house. Front drive access would be very nice. The only thing I have changed in my server the last 3 times is the drives. Witht hese cages I could swap a dirve without cracking the case and messing around with cables. As for noise, the servers are in a closet by themselves. No real worries there.

The coolermaster cages are my budget alternative though.
 
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