super cheap storage system?

[pxoint]

hi guys im currently running out of space on my pc so i thought of getting some 2nd hard drive only system. so now comes the question what options do i have? a friend of mine told me to set up a extreme cheap system (celeron cpu, ect.) and then fill it up with h-drives and access it over lan.

i cant put another drive in on my current pc because i already have 7 inside...

thx for any suggestions!

 

[dekard]

You could consider filling another box with harddrives and accessing it over the lan, wouldn't be a bad idea at all. If you don't already have them you should look at upgrading the size of your existing harddrives. 300, 400 and 750 gigabyte drives are available nowadays and most people would have a hard time filling 7 300 (huge) much less 7 750 (massive) drives.

 

[Ockie]

Ditch the old drives you have that may be out of warranty and move up to the new 750's...


that's what I'm doing

 

[dekard]

Ditch the old drives you have that may be out of warranty and move up to the new 750's...


that's what I'm doing

ebay is your friend.

 

[unhappy_mage]

My suggestion is a Linux machine with PCI-X and a Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, and software raid through EVMS. A dual p3 board that does this and chips to go in it can be had for ~$100 on eBay, and add memory, psu, case for ~$100 each and throw in as many drives as you want. Throw in a gigE card if you want (it'll likely have 2 10/100 ports onboard already) and hook it up to lan.

 

[dekard]

My suggestion is a Linux machine with PCI-X and a Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, and software raid through EVMS. A dual p3 board that does this and chips to go in it can be had for ~$100 on eBay, and add memory, psu, case for ~$100 each and throw in as many drives as you want. Throw in a gigE card if you want (it'll likely have 2 10/100 ports onboard already) and hook it up to lan.

nice suggestion.. im working on buikding a similiar box right now. just about exactly what you recommended.

 

[Prism123]

how big are your current drives?

 

[[LYL]Homer]

I'm running into a similar issue, I've been seeing NAS boxes now at 1TB in size. I'd rather use my own drives and not spend $500-1000 for drives and the box. Are there any cheap barebone NAS boxes out there that can run RAID 5 and hold 3-5 hdd's?

 

[unhappy_mage]

I'm running into a similar issue, I've been seeing NAS boxes now at 1TB in size. I'd rather use my own drives and not spend $500-1000 for drives and the box. Are there any cheap barebone NAS boxes out there that can run RAID 5 and hold 3-5 hdd's?

Well, they tend to cost at least $(1000 - 4*(cost of 250)). If you're building a terabyte box, it's probably a *lot* better idea to DIY if you're penny pinching. Like I said, $400 for this setup + cost of disks. And a real machine is pretty dang flexible compared to a NAS box. I use mine as an http server, firewall, jabber server, pxe boot server, well, a just-about-anything box.

 

[bexamous]

I was wondering about the AOC-SAT2-MV8... does it work in a regular 32bit/33mhz pci slot? I don't really want to go buy a new mobo for this but eventually might be able to find an old board at work maybe at which time I could 'upgrade' to pcix.

Anyways I never really understood what pcix cards were backwards compatible... I never really see it advertised but there seem to be lots of cards that will work fine. I hate the idea of multiple 4port sil3114 boards but I could deal with 2 of these supermicro cards.

 

[Deleted member 21895]

im building a file server as well and going with a Celeron D processor (the 2.53ghz one)... just a quick question though, they have a 64 bit and a non-64 bit version of the cpu for the same price just a different socket... is it better to go with the 64 bit processor and install a 64 bit version of linux (maybe gentoo 64) or would it actually hurt me more?

this is only to be used as a file server, only a power cord and ethernet cord will be plugged into this machine

 

[unhappy_mage]

I was wondering about the AOC-SAT2-MV8... does it work in a regular 32bit/33mhz pci slot? I don't really want to go buy a new mobo for this but eventually might be able to find an old board at work maybe at which time I could 'upgrade' to pcix.

They will work if they will physically fit. The bit on the end (the difference between normal PCI and PCI-X, IOW) will stick out. There have to be notches in the card wherever the pci slot has dividers. So the Supermicro will work in any pci slot that doesn't have something in the way. Contrast this with the 3ware 9550SX (as an example) - dig up a picture and you'll see it's missing a notch.

im building a file server as well and going with a Celeron D processor (the 2.53ghz one)... just a quick question though, they have a 64 bit and a non-64 bit version of the cpu for the same price just a different socket... is it better to go with the 64 bit processor and install a 64 bit version of linux (maybe gentoo 64) or would it actually hurt me more?

I think it could potentially help a bit with doing raid 5 operations a little faster, but this isn't the limiting factor anyways - with 2*866 p3s I can hypothetically do about 2 GB/s of XOR in software but only get ~50 MB/s in reality. So even if you could do 5 GB/s instead of 4, it wouldn't make any difference. I suggest you run folding@home on this box, it's not doing much else

 

[dekard]

im building a file server as well and going with a Celeron D processor (the 2.53ghz one)... just a quick question though, they have a 64 bit and a non-64 bit version of the cpu for the same price just a different socket... is it better to go with the 64 bit processor and install a 64 bit version of linux (maybe gentoo 64) or would it actually hurt me more?

this is only to be used as a file server, only a power cord and ethernet cord will be plugged into this machine

This would be a complete overkill. For the price of this cpu buy yourself a complete used system off ebay, say a 700 mhz - 1 ghz, with about 256 or more ram. Thats about right and would drain your wallet a lot less every month. Nice savings on the electric bill.

 

[Deleted member 21895]

This would be a complete overkill. For the price of this cpu buy yourself a complete used system off ebay, say a 700 mhz - 1 ghz, with about 256 or more ram. Thats about right and would drain your wallet a lot less every month. Nice savings on the electric bill.

the processor is $52.... im building the entire file server for about $200 (not counting hard drives) 512mb of ddr2, celeron d @ 2.53ghz, mobo, case, external display (to show hard drive temperatures since its just ethernet and power hooked up to the computer) as well as some cooling... i've got a power supply and the hard drives to fill it.. no raid 5 right now it'd be nice but too expensive..

and unhappy mage you'll be happy to know that I am an avid f@h enthusiast with current production of about 3600ppd.. you better believe this file server will be folding I just dont display my points on the forum..

 

[dekard]

the processor is $52.... im building the entire file server for about $200 (not counting hard drives) 512mb of ddr2, celeron d @ 2.53ghz, mobo, case, external display (to show hard drive temperatures since its just ethernet and power hooked up to the computer) as well as some cooling... i've got a power supply and the hard drives to fill it.. no raid 5 right now it'd be nice but too expensive..

If it were me, I'd buy a low cost used system for the cost of the processor. And use the rest of the money to buy a decent raid card. You really don't need anymore power than that. And folding is a good use, but consider that your estimate cost to run this pc per year is $132.98. Unless you don't care about the environment or aren't paying the bill, that should make you reconsider putting a 2.53 ghz proc in a box that needs 500 mhz. Remember, folding will make that proc 100% all day...

 

[bexamous]

external display (to show hard drive temperatures since its just ethernet and power hooked up to the computer)

You mentioned gentoo...

bexus bexamous # for drive in a b c d e f g ; do hddtemp /dev/sd${drive} ; done
/dev/sda: SAMSUNG SP1614C: 37 C
/dev/sdb: SAMSUNG SP1614C: 41 C
/dev/sdc: ST3200822A: 42 C
/dev/sdd: SAMSUNG SP2504C: 36 C
/dev/sde: SAMSUNG SP2504C: 37 C
/dev/sdf: SAMSUNG SP2504C: 33 C
/dev/sdg: SAMSUNG SP2504C: 34 C
bexus bexamous # for drive in a b c d e f g ; do echo -ne "/dev/sd${drive}  " ; smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sd${drive} | egrep \(No\ Errors\|ATA\ Error\) ; done
/dev/sda  No Errors Logged
/dev/sdb  No Errors Logged
/dev/sdc  ATA Error Count: 34 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
/dev/sdd  No Errors Logged
/dev/sde  No Errors Logged
/dev/sdf  No Errors Logged
/dev/sdg  No Errors Logged
bexus bexamous #

hddtemp will print out temps of drives, smartctl spams out tons and tons of info about a drive, inlcuding temps.. usually too much info. I just have a script somewhere that emails me if a drive temp goes over 40... which as you can see one drive is hitting, damn cali summers. Gotta get the window ac going soon.

 

[Deleted member 21895]

hddtemp will print out temps of drives, smartctl spams out tons and tons of info about a drive, inlcuding temps.. usually too much info. I just have a script somewhere that emails me if a drive temp goes over 40... which as you can see one drive is hitting, damn cali summers. Gotta get the window ac going soon.

thanks, that'll definitely come in handy

If it were me, I'd buy a low cost used system for the cost of the processor. And use the rest of the money to buy a decent raid card. You really don't need anymore power than that. And folding is a good use, but consider that your estimate cost to run this pc per year is $132.98. Unless you don't care about the environment or aren't paying the bill, that should make you reconsider putting a 2.53 ghz proc in a box that needs 500 mhz. Remember, folding will make that proc 100% all day...

now you've got me thinking I thought i'd figured out what I wanted and you throw the idea of getting a Raid card instead... I'll have to give this some thought, thanks for the advice

 

[dekard]

thanks, that'll definitely come in handy



now you've got me thinking I thought i'd figured out what I wanted and you throw the idea of getting a Raid card instead... I'll have to give this some thought, thanks for the advice

Anytime man, just do the same for me if you think I have another option! Best of luck and post back here with your results, if you want too.

 

[Farva]

i know im a bit behind the postings here, but is there really anything as a "cheap" storage system? especially if u decide to go raid5

 

[dekard]

i know im a bit behind the postings here, but is there really anything as a "cheap" storage system? especially if u decide to go raid5

Its entirely possible to do a 600 gb raid 5 array for $300. Use Software raid and 3 x 100g disks for $100 each.

I'm buiding a 1.11 terabyte array for about $490 total.