What to use for SATA RAID setup

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guitarfly

Limp Gawd
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Apr 27, 2007
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I am interested in expanding the storage on my Dell Dimension E510 desktop. I use it as a small web/storage server. I am thinking that I want to get a SATA PCI express SATA controller and then some western digital or seagate SATA drives. I am also thinking of going for raid 5, but i'm not sure if it would be better or worse than raid 10. I won't be hitting too hard on the drives, but I want to be able to store a lot of data and back up my my others computers to this computer. Would it be better for my to go SCSI instead of SATA? What controller and what drives should I get? I'd like to have at least another 500 GB to 1 TB of storage. Any sugessions? I'd like to try to spend $500 or less on the controller and under $200 for each drive. However, if there is a better solution for more, then I'd like to hear that too. I'm running windows xp on the computer.

Thanks!
 
get a highpoint rocket raid PCIe 4 SATA card like this

and get 3 750gb drives and use RAID 5

1TB RAID5

this is a very popular card around here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115029 $109.99
it does raid 5 and 10

with 4 ports you could do either....

3 750s RAID5
or
4 500s RAID10

= 1TB

either would be good

500gb drives $134.99*4= $536
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148136

750s $249.99*3= $750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148134

cheaper to do RAID10 with 4 500s
 
Adidas4275 said:
get a highpoint rocket raid PCIe 4 SATA card like this

and get 3 750gb drives and use RAID 5

1TB RAID5

this is a very popular card around here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115029 $109.99
it does raid 5 and 10

with 4 ports you could do either....

3 750s RAID5
or
4 500s RAID10

= 1TB

either would be good

500gb drives $134.99*4= $536
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148136

750s $249.99*3= $750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148134

cheaper to do RAID10 with 4 500s
Click to expand...

Sweet - thanks. The rocket raid sounds like it is a great deal. Just curious - does it allow for future expansion? ie - how many drives can I hook up to it? Also, if I have a raid 5 or raid 10 setup with that card, and one of the drives has an error - does that card automatically rebuild the drive?

Thanks!
 
Anybody know whether this card will handle expanding to more drives? Is there a higher performance card that costs a little more that I should consider?

Thanks again!
 
most cards do not support expanding volumes... you have to migrate the data off the array, create a new array of larger or more drives and then migrate your data back to the array.


it does allow for a hot spare or a cold spare to be created.
 
I see - thanks alot.

What exactly is a cold spare? I know from wikipedia what a "hot spare" means, but I don't see anywhere mentioned what a "cold spare" means. :-\

So if I wanted to make the array larger, I guess it would be easier to start out with more disks? With the Highpoint RR2300, is it possible to create two seperate RAID 5 configurations, so that I get twice the storage?

Thanks alot!
 
guitarfly said:
I see - thanks alot.

What exactly is a cold spare? I know from wikipedia what a "hot spare" means, but I don't see anywhere mentioned what a "cold spare" means. :-\
Click to expand...
A cold spare is a drive that is not powered up. Usually that'd mean that you have a replacement drive sitting on the shelf.
guitarfly said:
So if I wanted to make the array larger, I guess it would be easier to start out with more disks?
Click to expand...
No, it would not. Assuming you are getting the four-port RR2300, if you started with 3x500GB disks, you could add a fourth and make a larger array. If you started with 4x320GB disks, you'd need to replace all four to expand your array.

Surely I do not know about your financial situation or your timeline, but I would likely start with 2x750GB in R-1 and then expand to three or four 750GB drives in R-5. R-10 is likely faster than R-5

guitarfly said:
With the Highpoint RR2300, is it possible to create two seperate RAID 5 configurations, so that I get twice the storage?
Click to expand...
The RR2300 only has four ports. Since R-5 requires at least three disks, you will not be able to create more than a single R-5 array.
 
i just found this also

HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 PCI Express
http://www.xpcgear.com/rocketraid2320.html

it as 8 SATA3.0 ports.

online data expansion.. allows you to add more drives with more space

also you can have multiple arrays on the same card...

2 of these cards will interface together to act as 1 16port controller...

and it supports hotspare

looks like my next card...
 
Adidas4275 said:
i just found this also

HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 PCI Express
http://www.xpcgear.com/rocketraid2320.html

it as 8 SATA3.0 ports.

online data expansion.. allows you to add more drives with more space

also you can have multiple arrays on the same card...

2 of these cards will interface together to act as 1 16port controller...

and it supports hotspare

looks like my next card...
Click to expand...

Sweet, thanks Adidas4275. I'll definitely check that one out.
 
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