I have a conundrum about the form factor I'm going to use for my Myth BE. I'd like to hear people's opinions. <br><br>My BE is going to be a headless server sitting in my basement. It will not be connected to a display device. <br>
<br>It will be serving content to 3 to 5 FEs, most in 1080i, and transcoding might be involved (DLNA requirement of TVs), so I'm thinking of using an i3 or i5 for the BE machine.<br><br>I want the BE to have a RAID array, so nothing ever gets lost. I'd like to run RAID 5 with 4 drives and 6 to 10 GB of usable storage.<br>
<br>I am considering 2 form factors.<br><br>1) Shuttle SH67H3 + Mediasonic 4 bay ProRAID enclosure<br><br><a href="http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101117">http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101117</a><br>
<br><a href="http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816322004">http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816322004</a><br><br>Cost is $460 + shipping<br><br>2) Obsidian 650D + Asus H67 motherboard with 6 channel SATA and built in RAID + Obsidian 600 Watt Power supply<br>
<br><a href="http://www.corsair.com/pc-cases/obsidian-series-pc-case/obsidian-series-650d.html">http://www.corsair.com/pc-cases/obsidian-series-pc-case/obsidian-series-650d.html</a><br><br>Cost is $340ish for the setup , bought locally<br>
<br>Put another way, the Shuttle is $120 more, setup for setup, assuming the same HD, processor and RAM is used.<br><br>The 650D case is nice, but big and clumsy. Its actually hard to lift because it doesn't have a handle, the case is slippery and its big. Really big. I might even put it on rollers.<br>
<br>It does have a SATA hot plug port on the front, which is really nice.<br><br>The Shuttle is small and easily moved. The external Proraid is hot plug and the two would fit really nicely on my rack shelves. <br><br>I don't plan on moving my BE to work on it, nor moving the RAID around, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. <br>
<br>Which of these two or others would you buy ? Or do you have something better ?<br><br>Thanks<br><br>