Date: Tue, 9 Feb 2010 14:09:43 +0000 From: Tom Evans <tevans.uk@googlemail.com> To: Dan Langille <dan@langille.org> Cc: Charles Sprickman <spork@bway.net>, FreeBSD Stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: hardware for home use large storage Message-ID: <2e027be01002090609y28be404dl1bb610d047b15f9b@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <a586d9acd7436f3fdab4f88114309aef.squirrel@nyi.unixathome.org> References: <4B6F9A8D.4050907@langille.org> <alpine.OSX.2.00.1002090103520.982@hotlap.local> <2e027be01002090451w2b4506a0ofb5ab55c647540a@mail.gmail.com> <a586d9acd7436f3fdab4f88114309aef.squirrel@nyi.unixathome.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Dan Langille <dan@langille.org> wrote: > > On Tue, February 9, 2010 7:51 am, Tom Evans wrote: >> On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 6:15 AM, Charles Sprickman <spork@bway.net> wrote= : >>> .... >>> Here's the list: >>> >>> http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber= =3D8441629 >>> >>> Just over $1K, and I've got 4 nice drives, ECC memory, and a server >>> board. >>> Going with the celeron saved a ton of cash with no impact on ZFS that I >>> can >>> discern, and again, going with a cheap tower case slashed the cost as >>> well. >>> =C2=A0That whole combo works great. =C2=A0Now when I use up those 6 SAT= A ports, >>> I >>> don't know how to get more cheaply, but I'll worry about that later... >>> >>> Charles >>> >> >> As long as those SATA ports are AHCI compliant, should work quite >> nicely with a SiI port multiplier. Failing that, a simple 2 port SiI >> PCI-E SATA card (supported by siis(4) driver) + 2 x SiI port >> multiplier would give you 10 extra SATA ports. >> >> My SiI PCI-E card cost =C2=A315, and the PM about =C2=A350, so it is abo= ut >> =C2=A313/port, or ~$20/port. Probably can get the components cheaper in = the >> US actually. I also found some nice simple drive racks for =C2=A320/4 >> drives - not completely hotswappable, but much easier to replace than >> screwed into the case. > > Now there's an idea. Drive racks? =C2=A0Got a URL? > > These aren't the exact racks I bought, they seem to be discontinued (glad I bought 3 at once!), slightly more expensive, but same idea: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Silverstone-SST-CFP51B-Aluminum-Bay-converte= r-3x525-to-4x35-in-Black-with-120mm-Fan-RoHS I got the SiI add-in card and port multiplier from the same place: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lycom-PE-103-x2-Port-SATAII-3Gbps-PCI-E-Cont= roller-Card-with-NCQ-PC-MAC-Linux http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lycom-ST-126RM-SATA-II-3Gbps-1-To-5-Port-Mul= tiplier-bridge-board-(for-Rack-Mount) For fixing the portmultiplier into the case, I recommend No More Nails :) I bought one of those cases that has 5.25" bays all down the front - 10 bays on mine, 1 with a DVD recorder, 9 filled with three of those drive racks, which gives me 12 'easily accessible' drive bays, 2 internal ones. With 6 SATA ports on the motherboard, together with the SiI controller + one portmultiplier, I have 12 bays and 12 SATA ports for not too much. I currently have 6 of them filled with 1.5Tb SATA drives in a raidz pool, and can expand the pool by adding another 6 as I run out of space. Works very nicely for my needs :) One thing to point out about using a PM like this: you won't get fantastic bandwidth out of it. For my needs (home storage server), this really doesn't matter, I just want oodles of online storage, with redundancy and reliability. Cheers Tom
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?2e027be01002090609y28be404dl1bb610d047b15f9b>