Large external storage array? How to build?
- Thread starter etc6849
- Start date
I haven't had any issue with my Samsung drives in the past year, but I too primarily use WD drives when I can. I used to use Seagate, but they went downhill fast.
I used to use a hardware RAID card from Areca. It worked very well while I had it all set up and the speed of hardware RAID compared to software (which most solutions out there are) is much faster. I actually just decommissioned one of my servers that was using an Areca 1220 RAID card in a Norco rack mountable chassis with 6 hot-swappable bays and just posted the case and RAID card on craigslist if you are interested in either. Maybe I should post them in the classified here...
pete_c
Guru
I'm in the process of building a new NAS. I have an old one NAS (8 drives) - core duo/4Gb currently configured with FreeNAS and just purchased an IBM M1015 8 port SATA3 PCIe 8X card for it. These cards are being offered as new / used pulls on Ebay right now. Purchased one a few days ago for $60.
Trying something different with new box purchasing a low powered AMD dual core 8Gb miniITX board with 6 SATA2 ports on it.
Trying something different with new box purchasing a low powered AMD dual core 8Gb miniITX board with 6 SATA2 ports on it.
Thanks everyone. I'm still going to build a large storage array, but I'm still waiting for large enough hard drives to make things fit in a single HTPC chassis. It seems 4TB drives are coming out this quarter, but no 5TB? I know that Hitachi can put 1TB on a single platter, and that there are drives with 5 platters so where are the 5TB drives?
The drive I am currently looking at:
http://www.hitachigs...deskstar-7k4000
I hate to buy 5-6 of these and then have a 5TB version come out a few months later. That said, I know in the PC world my new media server will be obsolete in a year or so and I'm ok with that. I'd just like an easy way to distribute Blu-Ray quality content throughout my home without any compromise to audio and video. HDMI matrix switchers are expensive. Although I have never used one, reading online I get the sense they are slow to switch and handshakes may not work correctly on all equipment.
Since a main use for the new media server will be storing all of my hd movies (Blu-ray and HD-DVD), I'm also waiting on the generation 3 chips from Intel that will fix the 24 fps bug currently present on Intel's gen 2 chips. The new processor I'm looking at is due 4/2012: http://www.cpu-world...%20i7-3770.html
I'm hoping by April Intel will release a new chipset to go with their new processor too, although I was looking at this board as it would support a large number of drives:
http://ark.intel.com...op-Board-DZ68BC
I still plan to use flexRAID. It looks like they've posted a public beta version of their software that adds many new features.
http://www.flexraid.com/
Set-up looks even easier than previous versions:
http://wiki.flexraid...-configuration/
I still like the idea of a non-traditional raid solution since even if I lose two hard drives and my sata controller, the data on the remaining drives could still be accessed on a per drive basis and I wouldn't have to re-rip 300 HD-DVDs and Blu-Rays. I'm not against setting up a separate NAS running unraid as suggested here if flexraid proves buggy, but I'd like to initially try things using my existing HTPC case to eliminate clutter.
In addition to the HTPC hooked to a projector, other TV's would have their own mini-ITX PC running Media Center and My Movies. These would be based on the Intel's slim mini-ITX form factor (http://ark.intel.com...op-Board-DH61AG) and would use a low power 35 watt CPU (http://www.slashgear...leaks-20203598/). Since I'd also use small mSata drives hooked directly to the DH61AG (no cables), I think one could make a very slim case out of Plexiglas and easily squeeze the PC behind a wall mounted TV. Since tuner sharing is not a feature of Windows 7, I plan to use this network based 3-tuner box with a cablecard: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16815345006.
The drive I am currently looking at:
http://www.hitachigs...deskstar-7k4000
I hate to buy 5-6 of these and then have a 5TB version come out a few months later. That said, I know in the PC world my new media server will be obsolete in a year or so and I'm ok with that. I'd just like an easy way to distribute Blu-Ray quality content throughout my home without any compromise to audio and video. HDMI matrix switchers are expensive. Although I have never used one, reading online I get the sense they are slow to switch and handshakes may not work correctly on all equipment.
Since a main use for the new media server will be storing all of my hd movies (Blu-ray and HD-DVD), I'm also waiting on the generation 3 chips from Intel that will fix the 24 fps bug currently present on Intel's gen 2 chips. The new processor I'm looking at is due 4/2012: http://www.cpu-world...%20i7-3770.html
I'm hoping by April Intel will release a new chipset to go with their new processor too, although I was looking at this board as it would support a large number of drives:
http://ark.intel.com...op-Board-DZ68BC
I still plan to use flexRAID. It looks like they've posted a public beta version of their software that adds many new features.
http://www.flexraid.com/
Set-up looks even easier than previous versions:
http://wiki.flexraid...-configuration/
I still like the idea of a non-traditional raid solution since even if I lose two hard drives and my sata controller, the data on the remaining drives could still be accessed on a per drive basis and I wouldn't have to re-rip 300 HD-DVDs and Blu-Rays. I'm not against setting up a separate NAS running unraid as suggested here if flexraid proves buggy, but I'd like to initially try things using my existing HTPC case to eliminate clutter.
In addition to the HTPC hooked to a projector, other TV's would have their own mini-ITX PC running Media Center and My Movies. These would be based on the Intel's slim mini-ITX form factor (http://ark.intel.com...op-Board-DH61AG) and would use a low power 35 watt CPU (http://www.slashgear...leaks-20203598/). Since I'd also use small mSata drives hooked directly to the DH61AG (no cables), I think one could make a very slim case out of Plexiglas and easily squeeze the PC behind a wall mounted TV. Since tuner sharing is not a feature of Windows 7, I plan to use this network based 3-tuner box with a cablecard: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16815345006.
Here is another extremely large storage server that may present some ideas on a smaller scale:
http://blog.backblaz...-cloud-storage/
http://blog.backblaz...-cloud-storage/
I know it's been 11 months and no one's probably following this anymore, but here's what I ended up with for my media/file server over BF and Cyber Monday. I've linked to some pictures of the build here. I was surprised all of this stuff could fit into a 21" deep 4U chassis, but it did and seems to stay cool and quiet.
Software
1. Flexraid
2. Windows 7 Media Center
3. My Movies
4. AnyDVD HD
5. Vmccontroller fork called mcecontroller
6. Arcsoft TMT version 5.3.1.146, one of the last versions before Cinavia protection was added
Computer Components
1. Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8, $111, free shipping
2. 10 Hitachi 4TB drives, $189 each, free shipping
3. Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5" SSD / HDD Plastic Mounting Kit for 3.5" Drive Bay (fits two 2.5" ssds into one 3.5" bay) , $5.99, free shipping
4. 3 x Noctua NF-R8 PWM 80mm Case Fan, overpriced, but uses pulse width modultion
5. 2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Case Fan, overpriced, but uses pulse width modultion
6. Rosewill RSV-R4000 Black 1.0mm SECC, 4U Rackmount Server Chassis 8 Internal Bays, $64.98, free shipping
NOTE: this is an awesome case for the price if you catch it on sale.
7. iStarUSA iStorm7 2x5.25" to 3x3.5" Internal Mounting Cooling Kit with Removable Filter, $21.99 plus shipping
NOTE: this was the only affordable way to fit all drives into the case as I wanted 10 internal 3.5" drives plus 2 2.5" SSDs
8. LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-ray Burner, Bare Drive, 3D Play Back (WH14NS40) - OEM, $54.99, free shipping
9. 2 x Monoprice 0.5m 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male w/ Latch to SATA 7pin Female (x4) Forward Breakout Cable - Black, $24.71 with shipping
10. Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K
11. Intel 520 Series Solid-State Drive 120 GB SATA 6 Gb/s 2.5-Inch - SSDSC2CW120A3K5 (Reseller Kit)
12. Corsair XMS3 Memory Modules 32GB Kit (4x8GB) DDR3 1333 1600MHz Unbuffered CL 11 32 (PC3 10600) CMX32GX3M4A1600C11
13. Intel Desktop Motherboard LGA1155 DDR3 1600 ATX - BOXDZ77RE-75K
14. Corsair 750w power supply that I was already using
Software
1. Flexraid
2. Windows 7 Media Center
3. My Movies
4. AnyDVD HD
5. Vmccontroller fork called mcecontroller
6. Arcsoft TMT version 5.3.1.146, one of the last versions before Cinavia protection was added
Computer Components
1. Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8, $111, free shipping
2. 10 Hitachi 4TB drives, $189 each, free shipping
3. Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5" SSD / HDD Plastic Mounting Kit for 3.5" Drive Bay (fits two 2.5" ssds into one 3.5" bay) , $5.99, free shipping
4. 3 x Noctua NF-R8 PWM 80mm Case Fan, overpriced, but uses pulse width modultion
5. 2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Case Fan, overpriced, but uses pulse width modultion
6. Rosewill RSV-R4000 Black 1.0mm SECC, 4U Rackmount Server Chassis 8 Internal Bays, $64.98, free shipping
NOTE: this is an awesome case for the price if you catch it on sale.
7. iStarUSA iStorm7 2x5.25" to 3x3.5" Internal Mounting Cooling Kit with Removable Filter, $21.99 plus shipping
NOTE: this was the only affordable way to fit all drives into the case as I wanted 10 internal 3.5" drives plus 2 2.5" SSDs
8. LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-ray Burner, Bare Drive, 3D Play Back (WH14NS40) - OEM, $54.99, free shipping
9. 2 x Monoprice 0.5m 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male w/ Latch to SATA 7pin Female (x4) Forward Breakout Cable - Black, $24.71 with shipping
10. Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K
11. Intel 520 Series Solid-State Drive 120 GB SATA 6 Gb/s 2.5-Inch - SSDSC2CW120A3K5 (Reseller Kit)
12. Corsair XMS3 Memory Modules 32GB Kit (4x8GB) DDR3 1333 1600MHz Unbuffered CL 11 32 (PC3 10600) CMX32GX3M4A1600C11
13. Intel Desktop Motherboard LGA1155 DDR3 1600 ATX - BOXDZ77RE-75K
14. Corsair 750w power supply that I was already using
