<br><div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">also condier, anything more than 3 drives in one box is likely to be<br>hotter noisier an not something you want all on one system. it would be
<br>nicer no to have a huge server box in your living room with 5 drives<br>running full balls all the time.</blockquote><div><br>Ha ha, well, I wasn't advocating such a system for a frontend. :) All my storage is in a backend that I keep housed in the basement. Thus, case size, noise, etc, really aren't an issue. I'd expect anyone building a truly scalable system would do the same, but of course, everyone's requirements are different.
<br></div><br>As for the rest, like I say, if you're happy with non-growable storage, RAID-5 is absolutely something to consider (although the initial outlay, in terms of cost, can be a bit daunting).<br><br>It is worth noting, though, that RAID-5 has one danger: silent failure. Unless you use SMART and keep an eye on it, it's possible for the parity stripe to become inconsistent with the array. Something to keep in mind for anyone looking at a RAID-5 solution.
<br><br>Brett.<br></div><br>