Best budget build DAS

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Joe_86

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Nov 16, 2015
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I've recently acquired 24x 2Tb SATA Hard Drives that I'm looking to fill with movies, backups etc.
Obviously I don't need the full 48Tb, but I'd like to maximise my capacity. My PC motherboard only has 2 SATA connections, so I'm limited by what I can put inside my tower. Can I perhaps use an older motherboard (with 6x SATA ports) in a RAID5 config? Or is there any other simple solution I could go for?
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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24x2?? You do realize you need 24 SATA ports to connect them all?? And if your motherboard doesn't support RAID then that is out of the question unless you have the Pro Version of windows then you can so a software RAID 5 which you will get a BIG perfomance hit. Even the built in RAID isn't true hardware RAID. IF you REALLY want uptime and reliablity you need to get some kind of Rack server to fit all of that or you plan on just having them sit there? Also with RAID you can't just add another hard drive when it fills up. You have to break the RAID and make a new one which will wipe all the files on there so if you need one big RAID make it as BIG as you can.

Do you have any extra money for building a small NAS PC at all? You can find Barebone enclosures that you can by. Me personally I have been eyeballing this for when i have to expand next

http://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B00IAELTAI

Similar items

http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17617&cat=249&page=1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219038 (Buy a nice RAID card and just toss your whole PC in here)

OR one of these guys

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007583%20600006304%20600030556

and then just get host swap bays if you want full access to them or this guy with 12 internal bays

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007583%20600006304%20600030567

Just note if you put more than 6 hard drives in ANY system you better make sure you have a HIGH END HIGH WATTAGE Power Supply! You do NOT want to kill those hard drive or have them drop and because there isn't enough power to power them all. Hard drive take up a LOT of amps on start up to get them start and running.

Also what drive did you get? Some drives are better than others in RAID and some drives are a BIG BIG NO NO for using in RAID.

 
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J

Joe_86

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Nov 16, 2015
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Thanks for the reply. I don't intend on using all 24 drives in one machine, so one of the barebone enclosure looks like the most sensible option. Rules out power issues and the sort.
The drives themselves are Seagate Constellation and are from an old Netapp enclosure. (shame I can't just use that.)

 
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T

techster-b

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May 15, 2007
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Are these 3.5" or 2.5" drives?

There are older RAID boards available pretty cheap, the Adaptec 52445 comes to mind and there is one available for just over $100 right now on Ebay. You could use each drive as a simple volume on the controller to avoid dealing with RAID. I used to run long fanout cables with the 51645 to power 16 2.5" drives in an external enclosure as well as with 4 4bay internal enclosures for testing.

Since you stated that you don't need all of the drives available at the same time, how many drives are you looking to have access to? Would you be willing to run some of the drives inside of your current computer and some in an external JBOD enclosure?

If these are 3.5" drives your options internally are going to be very limited, 2.5" opens up the possibilities. Let us know what case you are using, how many open 5.25 bays, etc.
 
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