[mythtv-users] NAS RAID 5 for MythTv

[Steven Adeff]

On 2/7/07, Andrew Close <aclose at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/7/07, Chris Ribe <chrisribe at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I guess that is where our assumption diverge.  When I think of modest
> > hardware, I think of used P2 type boxes that can be found for about $30.
> > My thinking was that nobody buys *new* computers to use as fileservers, they
> > buy used computers, or more likely, use computers they already have.
>
> i would typically agree with that statement.  but i didn't know beasts
> like these existed at this price until about a day ago. :)  thanks
> guys.  i've been thinking about building a file server for multimedia
> and misc backup for a while now.  but using an old pc that holds 4-6
> harddrives seemed inefficient.  i wonder if this equipment is a little
> better at power consumption than an old pc filled with drives?  hot
> swap is a nice feature, but for DIY home admins it isn't a necessity.

this box doesn't have a computer inside it like most NAS's do, so you
could connect it directly to your backend and use that as your "NAS".
It does obviously have to power the drives and the fans, and the
electronics for converting from the IDE interface to firewire, but
those are either previously required or minimal, the upside being not
needing to run even more computers with all the electricity that would
entail.

Of course, there are more traditional cases you can purchase that will
hold 12 3.5 drives, newegg shows a few by Lian Li starting at about
$270, along with the proper interface card and a good power supply
would get you into the same area as the Norco case, but with out the
rack mount form factor. The other option is to go with a 6 drive case,
I have a Norco 6 drive case for my backend, it has a tray for 6 drives
plus 3x5.25 and a floppy slot (where I keep my system drive). My main
frontend also has 6 drive bays, so I just keep my recordings on the
backend and my media (music, archived tv shows, etc) on my frontend. I
run both computers already anyway, so its not a big leap, but boy is
that 12bay Norco a "sexy" option...

-- 
Steve
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