RE: Re: Media Servers - Big Hard Drives

["James Hoye" <yahoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I'm just waiting for some "spare funds" (if such things
exist) to
> order up a
> couple of these for myself (I need to re-house 16 x 160Gb drives
> in a server
> reshuffle which I *MUST* get done soon) . I have been wondering
> about using
> multiple (two or four) separate firewire interfaces in the PC to
> get better
> throughput from these enclosures and also to tidy up cabling a
> bit, however
> I think the multiple port PCI cards are effectively one firewire
interface
> and an integrated firewire hub so I need to find a firewire card that
has
> multiple firewire interfaces rather than a single hubbed interface.
The
> short firewire cables that would be used ideally to loop between
> interfaces
> on the enclosure seem to be exhorbitantly expensive - about twice
> the price
> of a 2m cable! (Little demand for them I suppose.)

You could also look at
http://www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29_1308&products_id=1073
if you want to "roll your own".

We've (Mark and me) been trying to work out how to build a rackmount
enclosure with "quite a few" 300GB drives in connected to a
server via
firewire (without paying the earth).  So far using these firewire/IDE
bridges to serve a pair of drives, and with one of these
http://www.imashape.com/4858.htm
we reckon on being able to get 2.4TB into
4U.  Can't seem to find a UK supplier of the enclosure though :(

James