Help me build a Raid 5/Media server

[rsd]

Hi,

God help me but I decided I wanted to build a Media Server. So I have 5x 250gb HD's already in my possession. But now I need advice on what PCI ATA Raid 5 card and other components to get.

In theory at least I want to run this on a gigabit network, streaming 1-4 music/video streams at some point. I've been reading up, but there seems to be a lot of options and opinions. Ideally I want this as cheap as possible too. I don't think I can justify spending $400 on the Raid card alone lets say, but I'd like to hear opinions.

Also some questions: what is the minimum needed CPU/hardware specs..I imagine since I want to get a hardware raid card that the cpu shouldn't be a limiting factor. Also what would be the best OS to run it on, or it won't affect performance much?

Currently I've looked at the LSI MegaRaid I4 card which can be gotten on Ebay for $100. I like it except for two things. It is 4 channel but with Master/Slave which I've read is not the best thing--ideally have a card with 6 separate channels. And also it is only PCI 33mhz, while some operate at 66mhz---how much does this affect performance also?

Just any general rig suggestions would be appreciated, as I'm trying to wade through the options.

Thanks.

 

[heartsurgeon]

how about several cheapo computers set up as file servers..

1 ghz box, about $50.00 (should hold al least 2, 250 meg drives)
10/100/1000 network card $15.00
10/100/1000 switch (assuming you don't ahve one) $60.00

stick'em on the switch, either set the boxes as a "software" raid (win2000 pro), or set them up as network shared "folders" (win2000 pro). I suppose XP pro and Linux have similar capability, although i have no personal knowledge about these.

cheap, expandable network file storage/servers...

this would be the cheapo route, in my opinion.
if you want to go "high end", get blade servers..
and then there is everything in between..

 

[rsd]

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
how about several cheapo computers set up as file servers..

1 ghz box, about $50.00 (should hold al least 2, 250 meg drives)
10/100/1000 network card $15.00
10/100/1000 switch (assuming you don't ahve one) $60.00

stick'em on the switch, either set the boxes as a "software" raid (win2000 pro), or set them up as network shared "folders" (win2000 pro). I suppose XP pro and Linux have similar capability, although i have no personal knowledge about these.

cheap, expandable network file storage/servers...

this would be the cheapo route, in my opinion.
if you want to go "high end", get blade servers..
and then there is everything in between..

Thanks for the response. I guess I want a "clean" setup with just one server, and the redundancy/safety of Raid 5. That said, I definately do not want to plunk down $2k or whatever.

 

[rsd]

bump please, I hope others have or are attempting similar projects I would think

 

[dmw16]

I have never seen a gigabit network card for $15...

nevermind, they are all over ebay, forget it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Case: Antec SLK3700 AMB, has a great 5-HD drive cage with a vertical airflow gap between each drive, and you can mount a low-speed 120mm intake fan directly in front of them for cooling. I use a Nexus 120mm fan I got from www.SiliconAcoustics.com.

I'd get a 6th drive (any size) and put the OS on it, plus a second partition for making image backups of the OS (Ghost or Acronis True Image). You can put it in the floppy cage or use a 5.25" adapter.

CPU should not be a huge issue -- a cheap Celeon, or even a P3 Tualatin Celeron like I have for my music server box (it's in a SLK3700 with 4 hard drives). A Duron 1.6 or slow XP (mobile?) would also work great. You don't want a really fast CPU since it will use more power and create more heat.

The SLK's 350 watt PSU had no problem powering my Tualatin 1.3a, gf2mx, and 5 hard drives, but you might want a 400-430 watt supply instead -- but only if it's a good brand, otherwise your CheapCrud brand PSU might offer less usable power and/or explode and fry your drives.

 

[rsd]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Case: Antec SLK3700 AMB, has a great 5-HD drive cage with a vertical airflow gap between each drive, and you can mount a low-speed 120mm intake fan directly in front of them for cooling. I use a Nexus 120mm fan I got from www.SiliconAcoustics.com.

I'd get a 6th drive (any size) and put the OS on it, plus a second partition for making image backups of the OS (Ghost or Acronis True Image). You can put it in the floppy cage or use a 5.25" adapter.

CPU should not be a huge issue -- a cheap Celeon, or even a P3 Tualatin Celeron like I have for my music server box (it's in a SLK3700 with 4 hard drives). A Duron 1.6 or slow XP (mobile?) would also work great. You don't want a really fast CPU since it will use more power and create more heat.

The SLK's 350 watt PSU had no problem powering my Tualatin 1.3a, gf2mx, and 5 hard drives, but you might want a 400-430 watt supply instead -- but only if it's a good brand, otherwise your CheapCrud brand PSU might offer less usable power and/or explode and fry your drives.

Thanks so much Dave, that is exactly what I was looking. I had come to a similar conclusion, getting some Antec server case/psu and a cheapie HD for the OS too.

One major thing I'm worried about now is what ATA Raid card and MB to go for? Is going with a 66mhz PCI card/mb worth it? If I go for the LSI MegaRaid I4 one (cheapest one I've seen), is the whole Master/Slave on one connection really that big of a deal?

Thanks again.

 

[SLCentral]

The Screensavers did the same thing a few days back, Yoshi used a 64-bit single P4 mobo (or something like that), so he had the 64-bit PCI slots, so he used a 64-bit IDE controller, so he could use 8 on one card, then again, I don't know much about RAID. Take a look at their website, maybe if they have something on their site about what he did, it could help you.

 

[beatle]

I don't think you'd have a problem using an inexpensive controller just to stream 4 videos at once. You could probably get away with a spanned volume if you didn't care about redundancy.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Each video stream is at most 10 mbit (DVD max quality, average is half that), so that's only 1 MB /sec of disk transfer.

A "dumb" (software-based) RAID5 card that really just provides drivers and lots of ports should work just fine, and PCI-33 is also fine, unless you expect to be serving something like 40-50 DVD streams (or 100+ divx streams) at once.

You should probably get 512 MB RAM for the server, especially if using a Windows OS, so the swap file isn't used much and more disk buffering is done by the OS.

 

[rsd]

Thanks so much for the replies.

Now, can anyone comment on ATA Raid 5 Cards specifically? The LSI MegaRaid i4 that I liked initially ($100 only) has the one caveat of needing to use master/slave to get more than 4 HD's connected---how bad is this?

Because most of the other raid cards (Escalade etc), are quite pricey ($250++). Thanks again.

 

[rsd]

Bump, anyone know of a good roundup/review of ATA Raid 5 cards? I'm searching google, but can't find much recent stuff. thanks.

 

[DaveSimmons]

In your shoes I'd get a cheap card -- a Promise or the one you mentioned. Yes, 2 drives sharing oen channel might slow them down slightly, but with OS and on-disk caching probably much less than the theorectical maximum slowdown of 20% overall.

Since you'll have tremendously more read throughput than you'll ever use, you'll never see the slowdown except in some benchmark.