[Kimper]

I am finally getting around to building a nice DVD library. I would like at least a Terabyte of storage and was wondering about you guy's opinions/solutions. I am toying with 3 ideas and would love any input!


1. Traditional server Just build another PC from spare parts around the house, buy 4 hard drives and toss 2 on either IDE channel. I can easily drop a CAT5 cable to most locations in my house, or use one that I have already wired up.

The drawback is its one more PC to leave on 24/7 sucking power and possibly crashing.


2. This Lacie Bigger Disk http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10118

Only drawback I see is price and possibly noise/heat issues.


3. This Mass Storage Case http://www.atechfabrication.com/prod...ss_storage.htm

I would be curious if anyone uses this? It looks pretty neat. I am a tad worried about heat and noise with this, as well as cabeling distances for sata drives... Anyone know the maximum sata cable run length?


4. Some kind of Raid array or hot-swappable mass storage solution? I don't really know anything about traditional coorperation/web-server style mass storage solutions.


Anyway, let me know what you guys like for big-time storage!!


--Kimper

 

[webdad]

I just put up a Network Attached Storage box using www.serverelements.com 's NASLite-SMB. This is a very lightweight OS that fits on a diskette and lets you take any PC too old to run anything else and turn it into a big box if disk. I took a Pentium II - 400 and have two 120GB drives in it. The whole thing boots from the diskette. Each disk is mountable from Windows and the whole thing works like a charm. The OS is basically a stripped down Linux kernal with Samba. You can maintain the box remotely via telnet and it has a small webserver that lets you look at the status of the box.


With one of these setups and 4 x 250GB drives you are all set for a Terrabyte. That's where I'm heading.


Ray.

 

[Kimper]

Hmm, NASLite looks cool.


I also found the Lacie Bigger Disk for $829


Decisions, decisions..

 

[def&dum]

CPU magazine(I think) had an article on Seagate's new 400 gig barracuda HDD coming out soon. It said they come in EIDE and SATA versions. 7200rpm 16 meg cash. I can't wait.

 

[krassyg]

I am using Windows MCE 2005 with a software RAID5. All of the regular RAID cards can handle up to 8 hard drives only and I needed to accommodate 26 drives for a 6Tb array. The biggest problems were the case and the power supply. I had to use three 550W power supplies and this monster case:

Lian-Li