This is something I haven't been able to find any material on, but am wanting to do in the short term (before the new year, at the latest).
Basically, what I want to do is build a large RAID5 array, to be attached to my current PC (it was bleeding edge at the start of 2006 - so dual core, 4 gigs of DDR, etc) as a media dump - to be attached to my new large screen LCD TV. The idea being that I'm lazy and don't like changing DVDs or going through 6 DVDs per season of TV)\, and would much rather be able to play them on my TV without getting off the couch and wading through mounds of DVDs. With the computer attached, I'm hoping I can even use DiVX/XViD to compress my DVDs and fit my whole media library on there. At least, I think a large external drive array unit with a big RAID5 array
I'd like to do this for less than $1500, which is my problem. All the 8+ disk drive arrays I've been able to find online are about $3000 and up (even for SATA, nevermind SCSI), drives sold separately. Clearly aimed at the enterprise segment of the market. The 4 disk arrays aimed at consumers don't look like they'll cut it for me - 4 750GBs in RAID5 costs me 750GB in storage space lost to parity, and means that 2.25TB costs me $800, just for disk space and then I'm *really* limited with expansion options if I outgrow that. Which I get the feeling I might.
Does anyone know of anything out there that might be a fit for what I want to do, that won't cost more than a cheap new car? Obviously, I don't need a high performance solution, because it's just going to be one user streaming large video files, I just need the multiple TB storage with low overhead redundancy.
I bumped into this tempting array, but I don't know if I can make one 12 disk RAID5 array with it, or if the three channels on the back restrict me to three 4 drive arrays or not. Also, I couldn't find an affordable RAID controller card that supported 8 or more SATA drives and didn't suck or only had internal connections, etc. $650 for the drive array is great, but if I need to buy an $800 card, and then four figures worth of drives to put in it, that's a little too expensive.
Any advice, comments or product recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Basically, what I want to do is build a large RAID5 array, to be attached to my current PC (it was bleeding edge at the start of 2006 - so dual core, 4 gigs of DDR, etc) as a media dump - to be attached to my new large screen LCD TV. The idea being that I'm lazy and don't like changing DVDs or going through 6 DVDs per season of TV)\, and would much rather be able to play them on my TV without getting off the couch and wading through mounds of DVDs. With the computer attached, I'm hoping I can even use DiVX/XViD to compress my DVDs and fit my whole media library on there. At least, I think a large external drive array unit with a big RAID5 array
I'd like to do this for less than $1500, which is my problem. All the 8+ disk drive arrays I've been able to find online are about $3000 and up (even for SATA, nevermind SCSI), drives sold separately. Clearly aimed at the enterprise segment of the market. The 4 disk arrays aimed at consumers don't look like they'll cut it for me - 4 750GBs in RAID5 costs me 750GB in storage space lost to parity, and means that 2.25TB costs me $800, just for disk space and then I'm *really* limited with expansion options if I outgrow that. Which I get the feeling I might.
Does anyone know of anything out there that might be a fit for what I want to do, that won't cost more than a cheap new car? Obviously, I don't need a high performance solution, because it's just going to be one user streaming large video files, I just need the multiple TB storage with low overhead redundancy.
I bumped into this tempting array, but I don't know if I can make one 12 disk RAID5 array with it, or if the three channels on the back restrict me to three 4 drive arrays or not. Also, I couldn't find an affordable RAID controller card that supported 8 or more SATA drives and didn't suck or only had internal connections, etc. $650 for the drive array is great, but if I need to buy an $800 card, and then four figures worth of drives to put in it, that's a little too expensive.
Any advice, comments or product recommendations would be greatly appreciated.