posted
Ok I'm looking into sorting my data out at home - I've got multiple backups of my photos, music and so on across 3 machines and to be honest its a bit difficult to manage, so I'm looking at setting up a RAID NAS - about 1 terabyte should do for starters (believe me I need it - I can use 8Gb on a day out with the camera)
Now you can buy off the shelf units which do the job like this Buffalo Terastation for 400 quid, which is nice, but why do replacement drives cost over 200 quid for a 250Gb unit when I can buy a 500Gb Seagate Barracudafor just 67 quid?
I've looked into building them myself, but its a little daunting and the information on the net seems to be somewhat confusing. I know you can use more or less any old cheapie processor, but I'm getting lost trying to find a low cost case/mb which will suit the job, and that's before I even start looking into the software (though there do seem to be some good solutions out there)
Also, should I go RAID1/5? Yeah RAID5 is pretty sweet, but is it overkill for what I need - basically a disk on a network for a few PC's to access?
posted
One of the two things I'd do if I were you is this:
Either get 3 of these and plop them into this with this mobo and this processor and this to make it all wifi then slap some small *nix distro with RAID capability or Novell and your sorted for £430.31. Which is a few quid over what you are looking at for that Buffalo one but 500gb more space and a proper computer with cheap SATA replacements.
Or, if I didn't want the hassle of making a mini fileserver like that, I'd buy 4 of these and plug them into my existing machine and just turn them on when I need to access them... Not RAID but 4x500gb drives should sort you out.
I'm currently using the 2nd option now... My machine has 4 hdds in it, wife's has 3, kid's has 2 which are all accessible to me via the network and then I have 5 external drive stacked on my desk all plugged in and ready to go as soon as I turn them on and since they are shared when I turn them on, I can access them throughout the network.
All in, I have around access to around 5tb and no 'special' box made for it.
[ 14.06.2007, 06:59: Message edited by: sabian ]
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posted
I fucking love you Sabian - that's exactly the spec I was looking for (I'll not worry about the wireless - I'll save the money and buy a faster switch and run Gigabit speed data transfer).
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posted
Not an ideal solution but if you want to front me the cash, I'll buy it all here and ship it over...
Don't know if that works for you or not... But, the offer is there. (that goes for all you ex-brits... I don't know what I'd do without my family in the states sending me stuff for 1/4th the price here! )
[ 14.06.2007, 09:43: Message edited by: sabian ]
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posted
you may remember that I asked this question a month or so back. And you recommended an AV box. Anyway, from that thread: LaCie do a 1tb gigabit ethernet disk for around £250. It's not RAID or anything, but it looks alright. UPnP as well.
[ 15.06.2007, 05:41: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
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I'd be hesitant to put so many of my eggs in one basket. Lacie are not exactly known for their robustness, design yes... And if I had a TB of info go tits up, I think I'd do a little cry.
My motto is more is better... spread the shit out, RAID it up... If something dies, you have something to fall over too.
Just my $.02 though.
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posted
Ok thanks again Sab - I've found a place that sells the drives, case and have found a similar micro ATX board with gigabit LAN, and the price was pretty much as ebuyer - and they'll assemble it as well for 20 quid, so none too shabby.
A 1.5 Terabye raid 5 array - I just worked out that is 3000 times the size of my hard drive on my first PC I bought back in '95!
quote:Originally posted by Waynster: A 1.5 Terabye raid 5 array - I just worked out that is 3000 times the size of my hard drive on my first PC I bought back in '95!
I hear you mate... I remember old computer adverts advertising HDD's at $1 per MB! Only $320 for the newest HDD out there!!
Or the fact I paid $250 for a 4mb memory upgrade for my 486DX2 which I paid $2000.
And, as I type this on my 5200+ Dualcore 64bit processor with 4gb of ram and TB's of HDD on a 19" tft that I paid £500 for... Seems to put things into perspective.
Now, it's just a matter of me getting over to the 'Dam somehow so I can marvel at all your toys and buy D a pint for missing his b-day, life would be good!
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