Thinking of building a new server.I have 10 disks which i want to make into 3 different raid 5 arrays.I dont really want to stuff 10 disks + an op system SSD into a standard case and therefore have been looking at a Mediasonic H82-SU3S2 3.5". This is an 8 bay enclosure with multipiler which can be either eSATA or USB3 so i will have 2 arrays in there and the other array inside the PC case. Has anyone had any experience with these enclosures and in particular ,there performance with Ubuntu? Any tips would be good.
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HDD enclosure with multipliers
- Thread starter hop5uk
- Start date
I have had experience with a similar product. Does this one come with a controller? Not all motherboard esata ports support the esata multiplier capability. Most of these enclosures are sataII which is fine but some of the controllers will up the combined HDs to sataIII. From my understanding that many drives in an enclosure will require 2 eSata cables so just keep that in mind. As far as performance you should have great performance. I do not think you can utilize the USB however. In fact even if you just raided the 8 drives I don't think you could utilize USB unless the raid drive was created in using software.
One other thing you should know is that unless you have a controller with 2 external ports and 2 internal ports you may have to create the raid array using software since I don't think you can create the raid array using 2 different controllers.
My controller only had 2 external esata ports. They where sataIII and like I said even though the drives ran at sataII in the enclosure it upgraded each set to sataIII since 4 drives on a single sataII connection could have some bandwidth issues.
So that may be a feature you want to look for.
One other thing... I do not know your budget but if you are looking for the ultimate performance or are using this as a necessity for some sort of software (Like video editing software) you may want to go with a thunderbolt enclosure. I do live web encoding work for studios and for events like corporate kick-offs so that the employees that are not at the event can see the presentation at work. I do not have any use for a set up like that but many of the people I work with do the video production end of things and for in field work thunderbolt enclosures are the must have for video editing where as in the studio they use a very specialized fiber channel network with extreme performance. The thunderbolt enclosures for a single user are more than enough though.
If that is out of your price range then I think you will be happy with what you are setting up just as long as you are using the right controller. 4 drives on a single SataII connection could get a bit congested and running drives on multiple controllers may be a no go unless you are ok with setting them up in software mode which will work just fine and still be very fast.
One other thing you should know is that unless you have a controller with 2 external ports and 2 internal ports you may have to create the raid array using software since I don't think you can create the raid array using 2 different controllers.
My controller only had 2 external esata ports. They where sataIII and like I said even though the drives ran at sataII in the enclosure it upgraded each set to sataIII since 4 drives on a single sataII connection could have some bandwidth issues.
So that may be a feature you want to look for.
One other thing... I do not know your budget but if you are looking for the ultimate performance or are using this as a necessity for some sort of software (Like video editing software) you may want to go with a thunderbolt enclosure. I do live web encoding work for studios and for events like corporate kick-offs so that the employees that are not at the event can see the presentation at work. I do not have any use for a set up like that but many of the people I work with do the video production end of things and for in field work thunderbolt enclosures are the must have for video editing where as in the studio they use a very specialized fiber channel network with extreme performance. The thunderbolt enclosures for a single user are more than enough though.
If that is out of your price range then I think you will be happy with what you are setting up just as long as you are using the right controller. 4 drives on a single SataII connection could get a bit congested and running drives on multiple controllers may be a no go unless you are ok with setting them up in software mode which will work just fine and still be very fast.
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- Thread Starter
- #3
Thanks for the info.This all started when i decided to build a new server. I managed to get a really good deal on 3tb drives @6GB sata from Amazon. I bought 4 of them but also want to utilise the 2 and 1.5 TB drives from my old server.My first concern was to that i needed room for 9 x 3.5"drives and also an SSD for the OS.The setup will be 3 x RAID 5 arrays set up in software (Ubuntu).The enclosure would actually solve 2 problems of HDD space and also a controller card and thats what attracted me to the idea.Speed is not of paramount importance but i would like to take advantage of the 6GB transfer from my new disks.Whats so special about the thunderbolt enclosures?
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- Feb 17, 2010
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It uses the Thunderbolt interface (basically PCIe crammed into a miniDP connector), which I believe is faster than eSATA.
- Thread Starter
- #5
Think Thunderbolt is a bit unneccessary.Thought about using one of these which allow room for expansion.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115100
I will just be using it for extra ports and not its RAID capabilities.
I will just be using it for extra ports and not its RAID capabilities.
Check this out
This includes the card you would need with the ports facing out like they need to LOL.
I have used that controller and it is very good. I think that you should probably just create a 8 drive array using the controller it would probably be faster than 10 in software mode.
This includes the card you would need with the ports facing out like they need to LOL.
I have used that controller and it is very good. I think that you should probably just create a 8 drive array using the controller it would probably be faster than 10 in software mode.
- Thread Starter
- #7
I notice that you are using the ASUS P8Z68-V .Does that support port multiplying?.I have the ASUS P8Z68-V LX so i assume if yours is,then so is mine.
Also esata has a transfer rate of 3GB so i will lose half of the speed with that enclosure whereas the Mediasonic one has USB 3 which will at least give me 5GB.If i want the full 6GB from the drives ,i will have to go with the card i already mentioned and then find a storage solution for the drives.
Also esata has a transfer rate of 3GB so i will lose half of the speed with that enclosure whereas the Mediasonic one has USB 3 which will at least give me 5GB.If i want the full 6GB from the drives ,i will have to go with the card i already mentioned and then find a storage solution for the drives.
Not sure which would be faster (2) e-sata connections or one usb 3 connection. If e-sata is 3GB then 2 e-sata would be 6GB. At least that would be my guess.
I am not sure if it supports multiplier or not. I got rid of that enclosure and then when I sold my thermaltake dual bay dock I sold the controller with it. For some reason I think it doesn't support the multiplier ability but you need to look up the chipset and see if that is an option.
I am not sure if it supports multiplier or not. I got rid of that enclosure and then when I sold my thermaltake dual bay dock I sold the controller with it. For some reason I think it doesn't support the multiplier ability but you need to look up the chipset and see if that is an option.
