Questions about Storage Drives

[p8ntballfreak]

Ok so ive read various forums, various posts, searched the internet high and low to no avail.

I think i found the answer to how long an ssd will last on average, someone said about 18 years if setup the correct way, does this sound true. if this is true what is all the fuss about life time of SSD's

Now for the hard part, i would like to build a 4 Disk RAID 5 array of 2 TB drives, my main question is how or is it possible to expand this array if i wanted to add another drive later down the road, i currently have a Gigabyte GA-Z68-UD3 motherboard, i do not think that this board supports expandability but a dedicated RAID card might. Any and all help would be appreciated

 

[mwroobel]

The ability to modify your array (expand, shrink or change RAID level) is dependent on the software you choose to use to create and run your array. Whether that software is in the firmware on your controller(s) (ICH, Areca, LSI, etc) or the operating system and related utilities (Windows DM, Linux mdadm, Solaris ZFS, etc) will make the determination. In this particular case with your Z68 chipset board, you have 8 SATA ports. 2 are provided by a MARVELL controller and only support RAID0/1. 6 (2 SATA3 and 4 SATA2) are supported by the chipset and support 0/1/5 & 10. Gigabytes notes in their specs "* When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected. " so I would build the RAID across the 4 intel SATA2 ports. RAID5 requires a minimum of 3 drives to build the array, so your expansion options in this configuration are going to be extremely limited. That said, you can add a 4th drive and extend the array. Intel onboard RAID5 is going to give you lackluster performance at best, horrible performance at worst. You would be better served (both performance-wise and future-proofing-wise by purchasing an add-in card with hardware RAID if you plan on sticking with windows, or if you decided to go the *nix route you can utilize cheaper SATA controllers and build up your array.

 

[dustNbone]

I personally don't think a RAID5 of 2TB drives is very safe either. Especially something that's going to have painfully long rebuild times like an onboard fakeraid.

 

[Dangman]

I think i found the answer to how long an ssd will last on average, someone said about 18 years if setup the correct way, does this sound true. if this is true what is all the fuss about life time of SSD's

Doesn't sound right. The deal is that SSDs haven't been out long enough to definitively say that they can last that long. With that said, there's a probability that they may last that long.

Anyway, mwroobel pretty much summed it best: It largely depends on what OS and what hardware you're using.

The Intel ICH10R that comes with all Intel Z68 mobos does support Online Capacity Expansion. As such, you can start off with four drives and expand later on using the two SATA 6.0Gb/s ports. But as mwroobel noted, performance is gonna be pretty bad.

With that said, a true hardware RAID card would cost you somewhere around $300 to $500 new for an 8 Port card. If you're willing to buy used, older true hardware RAID cards that doesn't support 3TB drives and some 2TB drives, the cost comes down to around $200.

If using a Linux + MDADM software RAID setp, you can create and expand the RAID array using all 8 of the SATA ports while getting significantly higher performance.

 

[p8ntballfreak]

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=683156

thats where i read the SSD info from,

just read about mdadm and linux today will probably go that route as it sounds the easiest to expand, also read a little about DROBO though, how are those performance wise?

Last question, i found an old computer in the dumpster where i work, has a gig of memory and an old P4 i think, if i were to add a sata card in there would i be able to run a media server, backup server and storage server for 2 to 5 home computers?

Thank you for the information given it has answered most of the questions i have left.

 

[mwroobel]

Last question, i found an old computer in the dumpster where i work, has a gig of memory and an old P4 i think, if i were to add a sata card in there would i be able to run a media server, backup server and storage server for 2 to 5 home computers?

Possibly. You must keep in mind that those old P4s weren't all that fast (One of the reasons Intel gave up on the netburst architecture,) were not at all energy-efficient in a power/performance ratio and some of them could double as space heaters for the coming cold.

 

[Dangman]

also read a little about DROBO though, how are those performance wise?

Slow.

Last question, i found an old computer in the dumpster where i work, has a gig of memory and an old P4 i think, if i were to add a sata card in there would i be able to run a media server, backup server and storage server for 2 to 5 home computers?

Maybe.

If that P4 doesn't have a single PCI-E port, doesn't have more than 4 SATA ports (or any SATA ports actually), and if you're planning on using RAID (even Linux RAID), I don't recommend reusing it as a media server since you would have to get PCI SATA cards which means that you'll see lower performance with newer hard drives. Combine that with RAID and you're gonna see even lower performance. This all due to the fact that PCI bandwidth is shared among all PCI ports. And that's not much to begin with, 133MB/s give or take. You'll more than likely have to install a 3rd party NIC like an Intel PCI NIC for better LAN performance but this will also take a cut of that PCI bandwidth.

Then there's the relatively high power use and heat generation of those old P4s.

 

[p8ntballfreak]

it does have a PCI-E port, im looking to do this as a learning curve as it shouldnt cost me much and will serve its purpose for a year or two maybe until i have the money to actually build a rack mounted server,

im pretty sure im gonna go with mdadm as the raid solution for now, with a cheap but decent pce-e sata card to support 4 drives. i think i can run linux off of a flash drive if im not mistaken or would a small SSD or HDD be a better solution?

if that will work all i would need is 3 2tb drives a sata card and a small ssd, this will be when HDD come back down to a normal price tag as i bought a 2tb drive in august for 69 dollars shipped, same drive is now 190 on newegg

 

[xxEIEIOxx]

P4s sucked so bad I never personally owned one. Those were AMD years here. And as stated RAID 5 sucks without a hardware controller card. I still wouldn't do it. I would do RAID 10 over 5 any day.

 

[xxEIEIOxx]

...i think i can run linux off of a flash drive if im not mistaken or would a small SSD or HDD be a better solution?

You can but I would not expect a really long lifespan from the flash drive.

 

[Dangman]

it does have a PCI-E port,

Does the mobo have onboard video?
If not, do you have PCI video card?
If yes, then it's a start.

im pretty sure im gonna go with mdadm as the raid solution for now, with a cheap but decent pce-e sata card to support 4 drives. i think i can run linux off of a flash drive if im not mistaken or would a small SSD or HDD be a better solution?

Depends on a few factors:
- Whether or not the mobo can boot from a USB drive
- How big the flash drive is
- What Linux distro you would be using.

Though for simplicities sake, go for a cheap SSD or hard drive.

As for cheap PCI-E SATA card, watch ebay like a hawk for the IBM M1015 card:
http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-m1015-part-1-started-lsi-92208i/#more-4030