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nefarious986

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May 6, 2008
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Hey guys,

Building a new system here, with some old hardware and some stuff I need to buy, but looking for any feedback. Its going to store my movie collection (no, not ALL porn) .. so its not exactly "Mission Critical" data but I would hate to lose it.

What I plan to build is my own NAS ( bought some off the self NAS, returned in 2 days. claims gigabit connection but actual transfer speed is 5mb/s so its as useful to me as a brick ).

What I have:

2 x SATA 750GB HD
2 x 36GB Raptor SATA

2 x IDE 300GB HD
3 x IDE 200GB HD
1 x IDE 500GB HD
2 x LSI Logic Megaraid I4 ( PCI Slot )

and a bunch of spare mobo / p4 systems.

Option #1

First LSI Logic Megaraid i4 Controller
3 x IDE 200GB HD in Raid 5 ( 400GB total for Music + Pictures )
5 x IDE 300GB HD in Raid 5 ( 1.2TB total space for porn )

Second LSI Logic Megaraid i4 Controller
8 x IDE 500GB HD in Raid 5 ( 3.5TB total space for movies )

Onboard Mobo Controller
3 x SATA 750GB HD in Raid 1 ( 2.25TB for movies )
1 x 36gb raptor for OS.

I would need 7 more IDE 500GB HD and 2more IDE 300GB HD and a 750GB SATA for this option. I'm estimating about 500 bucks total.

Option #2

First LSI Logic Megaraid i4 Controller
3 x IDE 200GB HD in Raid 5 ( 400GB total for Music + Pictures )
5 x IDE 300GB HD in Raid 5 ( 1.2TB total space for porn )

Second Areca 16 Port Sata2 Raid Controller
16 x SATA 750GB HD in Raid 6 ( 10.5TB total space for movies )

Onboard Controller
1 x 36gb raptor for OS.

I would need 14 750GB SATA drive + the Areca controller for this option so it would be pretty expensive ... roughly 2.5g. But I guess I could spend only 1G first to get the controller and slowly buy 750GB Sata and expand the array.

With option 2, I would have the safety of Raid 6 to protect the movies .. but the price is at least 4X as much as option 1.

What do you think guys ?

Can option 2 be realistically powered by ONE PSU ? Even a 1000w one?

Worth it to go Areca Route ?
 
Id go for Option #2 then. 3,5TB sounds a lot but I promise you that it isnt. My fileserver stands now at 8tb and I have 1,5tb space available... Still dont feel to erase anything.
 
Hows the transfer speed on your file server ? .. Can you play movie smoothly directly off the server ?

Mind sharing your setup with me ?

Thanks.
 
Its based on software raid5 under Windows Server 2003, connected through a gbit- switch. The first array, 10x 500gb is based on the nForce4 controller (dont know the specific model, motherboard is a DFI Lanparty UT with eight sata ports and two ide- ports) and the second is 6x 750gb on two ST-Lab controllercards on the PCI-E bus. The first array is limited by the 133MB/sec ata bus so I dont really know how fast it could perform. However the other one is faster but then I have the problem with nothing that is fast enough to write a datatransfer from it at maximum speed. There's always something... Anyway, I have tried to play up to four 1080p movies over the network without any problems. We are still talking about very small datatransfers, I think even a single harddrive should under normal circumstances, at least in a home- enviroment, be able to do it. I write data at about 45-60MB/sec.

Software based raid (where the controllercard doesnt have its own memory) benefit a lot from low latency memory, even more than from a faster cpu. That is why Im still using my Socket 939 cpu with built in memory controller and uses the older DDR- memory.
 
The low CAS tip is a good tip. I'll remember to use my old 512 stick of Corsair XMS. My IDE raid card only have 16mb of memory ( paltry by today's standard, but according to Tom's Hardware "At 16 MB, this card has the largest memory capacity of all the cards we tested." )
 
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