Norco 4220 build review + question

[nicholasfarmer]

Current system: Windows 7 PC with lots of disk (GA-965P-DQ6 + Intel E6600 + 4GB XMS2 Corsair + Corsair TX750W PS)

Project: Migrate current storage system to Norco with expansion options. Currently has six drives and will grow up to twenty drives.

Current Raid requirements: Hardware Raid 5 with the ability to expand the Raid array with more drives as needed. While raid 6 would provide more redundancy, I do not see the need at this time.

Current Decisions:
- Hardware raid is a must. While software raid could fit my needs, I would rather not deal with software.
- Speed is not an issue as the limit will be the Gbps network links but faster is better than slower.
- While Ebay and used items may be less expensive, I wish to avoid any extra issues with returns of defective items. I'll continue to research prices unless I get the itch.


Research Option 1) Norco 4020 with Areca 1220 (8 SATA2) (upgrade later with ARC-1230 or newer)
Norco 4020 : $302.89
ARC-1220 : $456.97
Total current------ $759.86

Growth Costs :
ARC-1230 : $670.00
Total Overall : $1429.86

Notes:
Areca controller comes with all needed cables.
Smaller Raid size allowed (8 vs 20 in one array)
Low up front cost and has enough room to wait for 1880 Areca release.


Research Option 2) Norco 4220 with Areca 1680i and HP SAS expander.
Norco 4220 : $322.88
ARC-1680i : $553.99
HP SAS expander : $349.00
Cables : $90.63
Controller to Expander port 9 = SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 = $20.68
Expander to Norco Backplane = SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 = $13.99 X 5 = $69.95
PCI video card : $30.00
Total Overall : $1326.50

Notes:
Areca 1680i comes with two SFF-8087 to 4 SATA breakout cables so need six 87-87
ARC-1680i requires SES2 disabled in BIOS when connected to HP SAS expander
HP SAS expander needs to be Green PCB and higher than v1.52 firmware
Expandable up to 32 drives
PCI video card needed because only two PCIE ports exist on current MB.
Possible issues with Controller + SAS Expander + Hard disk compatibility.


Interesting research info:
I see a lot of storage creations are going with WHS and one or two Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards. While I can see this would be less expensive, I'm not sure why this is so popular.

While price surfing on the web for the Areca, a lot of websites state the ARC-1680i has 256MB of DDR2. Areca and Newegg both show 512MB of memory but Newegg does not sell it currently.


Research:
Areca Owner Thread:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1483771

HP SAS expander:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1484614

Norco Builds:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1071162



Side question:
Has anyone tested using the 1680i + HP SAS expander with 20 WD 2TB Green drives (WD20EADS) I read about the issues with the WD20EARS and bumping the spindown time to 1.5 to 2.0 seconds.
The Areca Comp list shows the RE4-GP drives. The difference is $135.00 for the WD20EADS and $290.00 for the RE4-GP drives
http://www.areca.us//support/download/RaidCards/Documents/Hardware/HDDCompatibilityList.zip

Edit:
I have seen SynergyDustin on the forums selling HP SAS expanders and I would be willing to purchase an expander from him with the correct firmware. The last post appeared to show he was currently out of stock. I'll PM him for an update. I also corrected the price of the cables because I did multiply the shipping by mistake. (thanks bexamous)

Comments?

 

[bexamous]

Well my only comments:
The HP SAS from Dustin on Ebay (w/ firmware updated for you) is $100+ less than you priced. I know you said no ebay but I'd much rather order it off ebay and get the rev u want with firmware updated for you, something guarenteed to work, vs buying off some random store and potentially getting old rev of the card or who knows what. Also the SAS cables, you added price+shipping for a single cable off newegg, if you actually put 6 in your cart, you'll see shipping ends up being only $12 total for 6 cables (at least for me).

 

[boylermaker]

This

Well my only comments:
The HP SAS from Dustin on Ebay (w/ firmware updated for you) is $100+ less than you priced.

picked one up last week via pm and a phone call. Received v2.something in two days with cables. Just be sure to specify you would like to purchase cables.

 

[boylermaker]

where are you snagging an areca for 550...everwhere i look is either oos or considerably higher.

Also, I think the main reason people are using whs with the supermicro is the lack of raid "support" or integration issues that whs has with raid hence just using jbod and pooling and getting it done cheaply.

 

[jaypeezee]

I see a lot of storage creations are going with WHS and one or two Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards. While I can see this would be less expensive, I'm not sure why this is so popular.

I can speak for myself, as I am going this route now as we speak... I don't need any type of RAID for the data I will be storying on my WHS box - Blu Ray movies. Any important pictures/documents/etc, will be backed up in multiple locations and stored off-site (i.e. internet storage)

Everyone's needs are different. Personally, I've only used RAID 0 for striping/speed and had never had a problem. Unless I start storing an extensive amount of data sensitive information, I'll consider other RAID options... however, until then - No raid for me.

Which leads me into my question.. what are you storing/backing up ?

 

[nicholasfarmer]

what are you storing/backing up ?

The current space is holding family videos from the HD cam, our DVD/blu-ray collection, music collection, and digital cam pictures. We stream all of this "multimedia" content to TVs and computers in the house. We do have backups that we run to blu-ray discs but I could not imagine restoring 20-40TB of data from one or two readers because one drive dropped itself from the pool.
Unless I'm not understanding the redundancy of WHS, in terms of Terabytes of blu-ray movie content, Selective Data redundancy isn't going to work very well. I guess it's all in terms of risk vs cost.

I'd like to add:
Having a single interface that the kids can use to watch movies and listen to music is beyond wonderful. No more lost, broken, play dough and crayon covered media.