recommendations for RAID 6

[mmannarelli]

I'm interested in building an external raid for my media center and I need some advice/suggestions.

I'm thinking of a 10 disk system configured for RAID6 so i can get about 6-8TB depending on the drives i decide to use (750GB or 1TB).

I've seen some cards on newegg that can do RAID6 but my questions are...

- The cards are PCI-Express x4. My motherboard (MSI P35 Platinum LGA 775 Intel P35) has 2 PCI-Express x16 for sli (one at 1x16 and the other at 1x4 operation) and 2 PCI-Express x1. Can I use the 2nd PCI-Express x16 (I only have one video card) to operate the RAID controller?

- The RAID cards that support alot of drives have these wierd SAS external connectors. How do I connect 10 SATA drives to these 2 connectors?

- Any other thoughts recomendations on hardware/enclosures/etc?

Just fyi the array will be used for storing media (ripped music and ripped dvds), no dvr-ing so the write speed of RAID6 should not be an issue.

more info...
my htpc already has a 4 disc RAID5 that is almost full. I'm looking to build a stand alone box with hot-swapable-enclosures. I would like to avoid using a raid controller with internal connectors because 10 sata cables to an outside enclosure would be too hard to manage. I need some advise on what hardware would be required to connect 10 drives.

A card like this, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816103042, supports SATA drives but it has 2 x external connectors (SFF-8088). What do i need to buy/install in the external closer to combine 10 drives into 2 connections?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[gufz]

well, you need an encolosure an a pair of cables to connect the controller to it.
take a look at http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_enclosures/

I'm building an storage system for a macpro w/ an atto r-380 w/ 2 x SFF-8088, the enclosure have 2 x SFF-8470 so I bought a pair of SFF-8088 to SFF-8470 cable - check: http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/

there are two kind of sas conectors, the miniSAS 8088 and the 8470, they are the same cable, only change the conectors, and you conect 4 drives to each cable. there are backplates for to make 4 sata ports a SFF-8088 or 8470, and the same to make your SFF-8088 4 sata ports to conect your HDs, so you can use any enclosure, like and old ATX case check it at http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/ too

hope it helps, ask for any doubt you have
and... sorry bout my english man