Well actually I have two questions:
1) I was wondering how everyone stores and serves up their films and/or music to different computers around the home? I need to build a server for all of my films and music, but I am torn between a fully fledged RAID 5 system using an Areca RAID card or a system like UnRAID. UnRAID is based in linux and I know nothing about linux (and don't have time to learn). However, using UnRAID is much cheaper than the Areca solution. What would people suggest?
2) If I have 4 x 300 GB HD's in RAID 5 and I upgrade one drive to 500 GB I know the RAID system will only use 300 GB of the 500 GB drive. However, if I eventually replace all of the 300 GB drives with 500 GB ones, one after the other as and when I can afford it, after I replace the last 300 GB drive with the 500 GB one, will the RAID system then automatically use the full 500 GB drive space and show 4 x 500 GB's worth of space?
Cheers.
How do you store/serve all your media?
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It depends on your RAID controller. My Adaptec 2810, for instance, can take 4 x 300 + 1 x 500 and turn it into a RAID-5 arraid of 5 x 300 + a single (non-RAID'ed) 1 x 200. Obviously you'll only get 1200 Gb out of the 5 x 300 in a RAID 5 setup, though. But at least the controller makes sure you don't waste any space when you're upgrading disks and each new one is bigger than the previous ones.
Re: How do you store/serve all your media?
The performace will obviously be better with a hardware controller than any form of software RAID. If you aren't going to take the time to at least learn the basics of Linux needed to manage the server then you're better off with the Areca and using Windows. You'll have less grief in the long run.popopot wrote:Well actually I have two questions:
1) I was wondering how everyone stores and serves up their films and/or music to different computers around the home? I need to build a server for all of my films and music, but I am torn between a fully fledged RAID 5 system using an Areca RAID card or a system like UnRAID. UnRAID is based in linux and I know nothing about linux (and don't have time to learn). However, using UnRAID is much cheaper than the Areca solution. What would people suggest?
Yes, but you'll likely have to take the time to rebuild the array once you have all the drives the same size. This could take quite a while for a 2 TB array.2) If I have 4 x 300 GB HD's in RAID 5 and I upgrade one drive to 500 GB I know the RAID system will only use 300 GB of the 500 GB drive. However, if I eventually replace all of the 300 GB drives with 500 GB ones, one after the other as and when I can afford it, after I replace the last 300 GB drive with the 500 GB one, will the RAID system then automatically use the full 500 GB drive space and show 4 x 500 GB's worth of space?
Re: How do you store/serve all your media?
Yes.NyteOwl wrote:Yes, but you'll likely have to take the time to rebuild the array once you have all the drives the same size. This could take quite a while for a 2 TB array.
And?
I don't have RAID and I have just regular 100Mbps ethernet.
A single modern hard drive can read up to about 70MB/s. Playing good quality mp3 needs transmission bandwidth of about 256kb/s which is 16kB/s. Even playing an uncompressed CD needs just 172kB/s. Playing a DVD needs 1.3MB/s or less. And basically it's extremely rare that two different DVDs would even be played at the same time. HDTV would require less than 7MB/s. The speed of 100Mbps ethernet is a bit less than 12MB/s.
I'm running linux everywhere and data is shared in my home network with nfs (network file system).
A single modern hard drive can read up to about 70MB/s. Playing good quality mp3 needs transmission bandwidth of about 256kb/s which is 16kB/s. Even playing an uncompressed CD needs just 172kB/s. Playing a DVD needs 1.3MB/s or less. And basically it's extremely rare that two different DVDs would even be played at the same time. HDTV would require less than 7MB/s. The speed of 100Mbps ethernet is a bit less than 12MB/s.
I'm running linux everywhere and data is shared in my home network with nfs (network file system).
Thanks for the info. Please keep it coming.
I do plan to use windows as the OS, which means I will probably use a RAID card. My plan was to build a low power server using a pentium m CPU, but the PCI-E slot appears to be explicitly for a graphics card on all of the MBs. I have found a MSI MB that is based on a server platform (MSI 915GM Speedster-FA4), but I am having trouble finding out whether the PCI-E can be used for non-graphics cards and if it is compatible with the Areca RAID card.
The option I am reserching at the minute is to use a skt939 SLi MB that is known to work with the Areca card and undervolt an Athlon64. However, I don't know how low you can reduce the TDP by undervolting and using SLi will mean adding a graphics card, which will increase the power bill of the machine.
Another option would be to use software RAID (windows 2003), which increases my options and reduces price.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
I do plan to use windows as the OS, which means I will probably use a RAID card. My plan was to build a low power server using a pentium m CPU, but the PCI-E slot appears to be explicitly for a graphics card on all of the MBs. I have found a MSI MB that is based on a server platform (MSI 915GM Speedster-FA4), but I am having trouble finding out whether the PCI-E can be used for non-graphics cards and if it is compatible with the Areca RAID card.
The option I am reserching at the minute is to use a skt939 SLi MB that is known to work with the Areca card and undervolt an Athlon64. However, I don't know how low you can reduce the TDP by undervolting and using SLi will mean adding a graphics card, which will increase the power bill of the machine.
Another option would be to use software RAID (windows 2003), which increases my options and reduces price.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.