RE: Large Storage

["Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxx>]

> Looking at large storage for DVD/audio, which would be better, a
> raid setup or a second pc for backup.

How about a RAID setup *ON* a second PC?

> The second PC option seems to me best as only half of the drives
> need to be running.

Yes - a second machine is the best option but I wouldn't spin down the
drives.

> Do others leave their media servers running 24/7, put the disks
> into standby or shut down overnight.

24/7 ... I was always taught that drives generally die on spinning up or
spinning down - so I leave them running and accept that my leccy bill will
be a bit higher. Helps with the winter heating though - the computer room
is
still a nice toasty 27deg while the heating has gone off and so the rest of
the house is settling back to about 14.

> What's the best option for adding more than 4 IDE drives.

I use the Highpoint RocketRAID 404 cards which will take 8 x IDE drives
(ATA133 capable) and will do RAID0/1/0+1 and 5.

> How much noise do 4 plus drives make, is it much more than a
> normal desktop.

It doesn't have to be - I have 8 data drives (all 160Gb and set up as RAID
0 - no redundancy as I can recreate all the data if anything is lost) + 2 x
external 160Gb drives in firewire enclosures + a boot drive and a DVD-ROM
drive all in a Yeong Yang Cube Server case
(http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=1211)
which does the job fine
(this machine is used as my movie server). I have that case with a 550w
Q-Tec PSU (not the quietest in the world) and a full complement of fans and
the noise floor in my "computer room" is below 50db (that's as
low as my SPL
meter will read), there is another server in there too - both are running
24/7 - the other server is my audio / SliMP3 / FTP / HomeVision server and
has 4 x 160Gb drives (again as RAID 0 as I can recreate all the data driven
>from
drive all in a Coolermaster 710 case with 350w PSU.

I used to be really noisy in there (66db at my desk) but I pulled the fans
out of my network switch the other weekend and the noise floor in there has
dropped by >16db - the switch seems not to be suffering at the moment
and
I'll get some quieter fans ordered from CPC before the summer.

I'm planning on moving the servers over to rackmount cases and shifting
them
elsewhere - possibly converting the downstairs crapper into a server room -
before too much longer.

Phil