Howdy,
Looking for some advice/help on building a personal media server. I'm moving from a collection of HDDs I would swap into a USB cage to store data I have been using for a few years now. Since I finally have some extra cash and an HD tv, I'd like to have ready access to my media without having to swap disks, etc.
My plan for the moment is to build a Debian Linux rig (I am pretty familiar with Linux) that will boot from and use for OS a CF card and have a mountpoint for storage utilizing an LVM over multiple disks using a mix of RAID 5 and RAID 1. It will spin down the disks when they aren't in use to save power and wear.
Right now, I've got an Antec P180 case on the way with four external 5.25", one external 3.5" and six internal 3.5" bays. I currently have six IDE disks (2x400GB, 4x320GB) to use. I would like to find some sort of SATA backplane to convert the 5.25 external bays into 3.5" bays. The best I've found so far are a number of 5-in-3, that will convert 3x5.25 to 5x3.5 (e.g. Chenbro SK33502-BK). Is that my best option? Or can I find something better to take up all four 5.25 bays?
I realize those IDE disks are kinda crappy compared to SATA, but I figure I already have them and might as well use them until another jump in HDD storage tech comes along and drops the price of larger drives ($380 for a 750GB is still a little steep).
This system will be little more than a data dump, so I was going to repurpose a current system I have, an AMD socket 762 system with VIA mobo with 8x SATA onboard, to be the base. It has an AMD64 3400+ in it right now and 1GB of RAM. It has an onboard IDE controller (2 channels) and 2 PCI slots to handle IDE controllers for the IDE disks (old Promise Fasttrack 100/tx2's I have laying about), so all of the IDE disks will be alone on their own channel to improve performance.
I haven't made a determination on the SATA disks to buy yet, but I was leaning towards the Samsung HD501J 500GB b/c they are very inexpensive.
I also haven't made a determination on PSU yet either, understanding that spinning up a bunch of disks at once can severely load a PSU. Right now I'm looking at getting a 600+ watt model from a quality manufacturer like Enermax, but I haven't really started researching yet. To start, this this 600 watt Enermax model.
Any thoughts on all that?
Looking for some advice/help on building a personal media server. I'm moving from a collection of HDDs I would swap into a USB cage to store data I have been using for a few years now. Since I finally have some extra cash and an HD tv, I'd like to have ready access to my media without having to swap disks, etc.
My plan for the moment is to build a Debian Linux rig (I am pretty familiar with Linux) that will boot from and use for OS a CF card and have a mountpoint for storage utilizing an LVM over multiple disks using a mix of RAID 5 and RAID 1. It will spin down the disks when they aren't in use to save power and wear.
Right now, I've got an Antec P180 case on the way with four external 5.25", one external 3.5" and six internal 3.5" bays. I currently have six IDE disks (2x400GB, 4x320GB) to use. I would like to find some sort of SATA backplane to convert the 5.25 external bays into 3.5" bays. The best I've found so far are a number of 5-in-3, that will convert 3x5.25 to 5x3.5 (e.g. Chenbro SK33502-BK). Is that my best option? Or can I find something better to take up all four 5.25 bays?
I realize those IDE disks are kinda crappy compared to SATA, but I figure I already have them and might as well use them until another jump in HDD storage tech comes along and drops the price of larger drives ($380 for a 750GB is still a little steep).
This system will be little more than a data dump, so I was going to repurpose a current system I have, an AMD socket 762 system with VIA mobo with 8x SATA onboard, to be the base. It has an AMD64 3400+ in it right now and 1GB of RAM. It has an onboard IDE controller (2 channels) and 2 PCI slots to handle IDE controllers for the IDE disks (old Promise Fasttrack 100/tx2's I have laying about), so all of the IDE disks will be alone on their own channel to improve performance.
I haven't made a determination on the SATA disks to buy yet, but I was leaning towards the Samsung HD501J 500GB b/c they are very inexpensive.
I also haven't made a determination on PSU yet either, understanding that spinning up a bunch of disks at once can severely load a PSU. Right now I'm looking at getting a 600+ watt model from a quality manufacturer like Enermax, but I haven't really started researching yet. To start, this this 600 watt Enermax model.
Any thoughts on all that?
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