- Joined
- Oct 16, 2006
I am (have) built a machine that contains 13 Hard drives to date, and one that has the capacity of fitting up to 27 drives, all in one case. This leads to some very interesting and hard to find power solutions that will survive the initial spin up. Allot of the higher cost Hardware Raid Card controllers have scattered spin up to help reduce the initial slam of power consumption that is required when you turn on your machine or it wakes from its slumber.
My machine is a Home Server, storing video, music and other files if need be. LOW cost, Low power and high reliability is the most important aspects of this project.
I guess people will ask me why I don't buy pre-made NAS systems. Well first they are expensive... REALLY expensive when compared to a custom machine. Second they rely on special controllers that may not be found in 5 years! The drives will continue to fail, but replacement is a phone call and a $7 USPS fee away. They have also been reported to be unstable. 1 year warranties, and constant complaints of failures scare me away.
After looking into my options I decided to build a box with a small amount of memory, cheap cpu, and a Gigabyte either net connection. I started with software based raid arrays with inexpensive Hardware based Hard Drive RAId controllers running JBOD. At first I decided to run Linux's amazing software raid arrays that support expandable arrays. That means in the future when I need more space, I can buy another drive array, add it to the raid array and expand the array to include the drive. In the end (and 2 months later) I finally figured out that Linux storage solutions are not easy to create, and that Linux software is very hard to setup when you combine so much different hardware. I had problems left and right.
I then moved to Windows 2003, and with minimum issues I had it up and running. The problem? No support for software RAID arrays that can expand.
I also started to consider the consequences of extremely large raid arrays that contain huge numbers of drives. These drive arrays are highly dependent on the hardware and software not failing. and loss of such an array would lead to a complete loss in data. Raid-5 has a cushion of 1 drives being lost, and RAID-6 (which has 2 copies of data on every drive and thus you loose 2 drives worth of space on the array) is a bit more reliable. This is a very large and complex discussion that leads to the question of drive failure rate verse drive raid size. In the end, I decided to build RAID-5 arrays in 5 drive clusters. This is nice because I can use the raid arrays that only are in use. I dont have to power all 27 drives, and my power bill (and the environment) will thank me!
I'm then faced with my biggest problem, and the reason this post is located in this forum. POWER! Well first of all, most PSU's have only a few SATA-2 compliant connections. This means they have a 3 volt wire on them. I have learned that the 4-pin -> SATA does not have this wire. (actually I learned that SATA power has a 3 this wire on it). Thus for true SATA future compliance you must have multiple SATA connectors with 3 volts on them. For me, I need dozens of these!
The other issue is the RAILS! Multiple rails, generally means multiple sources of power. Balancing this power out on a PSU can be a difficult issue that requires a call to the power supply companies, or a few guesses.
Almost all PSU's of higher power are built for PC 3D video cards. They designate RAILS to the Video Card connections, and they build large support for 12 volts. I have an on board video card that doesn't require a separate power cord. I simply don't need or want high amounts of 3D processing power or video power consumption, on this machine.
So I need a very large and balanced amount of 3v, 5v, and 12v... unfortunately nothing like this exists (as far as I have found). I have to find a PSU with a ton of power, and then virtually throw a very large portion of this power capacity away. Looking at 3 rail 1Kwatt PSU's you quickly find these things to be true. Luckily I also staggered onto the issue of PSU size. These units are HUGE! In fact some of them are so long, that they wont fit in my Case
So, Im stuck... that is until I started looking into the PC-Power and cooling company. By luck (and a few phone calls) I found out that they offer custom wiring solutions, and their single rail design provides an environment that I can pull power without having to worry about how many drives are on each rail. Lastly what really pushed me to PCPower and cooling is there no compromising attitude.
I said I would never buy another non module power supply again. I guess I lied PCPower and cooling doesn't offer module power supplies due to the additional risk and associated problems with another connection. I can respect this attitude. Still, PC Power and cooling power supplies were built for single or duel video cards... NOT 20+ Hard drives
The end result of this, is that I am at least a few years above my time. Large 1TB drives are extremely expensive, and video files (especially HD video files) take up large amount of space. The best value for space is in the 500MB drives. As Time goes on, my need for more volume will grow, and I may move to larger drives as they move into this value spot. I may also continue to buy the 500mb drives that will ultimately drop in price.
If you want video on demand, Movies in HD, and multiple room music and video access you will be faced with these issues. Custom NAS boxes are not an easy solution to build.
Backup for me is not a viable option. A complete loss of data would result in a simple restore of this data from their original sources. A tape type backup solution has a media value of around 1/3 the cost of the drives your backing up. Not a very viable value solution for my application.
In the end, I will have instant access to my large and growing DVD collection. I can store my originals in a safe and un-obtrusive location, and I dont need to search through hundreds of DVD's find one, put it in the DVD player, then play the movie HOPING that it wont skip or stop due to something as stupid as a finger print. I can play movies all over my house, and music can be accessed through inexpensive tablet PC's hooked up to any stereo system in the house.
Eventually life will be good, for now I wait for my power supply!
My machine is a Home Server, storing video, music and other files if need be. LOW cost, Low power and high reliability is the most important aspects of this project.
I guess people will ask me why I don't buy pre-made NAS systems. Well first they are expensive... REALLY expensive when compared to a custom machine. Second they rely on special controllers that may not be found in 5 years! The drives will continue to fail, but replacement is a phone call and a $7 USPS fee away. They have also been reported to be unstable. 1 year warranties, and constant complaints of failures scare me away.
After looking into my options I decided to build a box with a small amount of memory, cheap cpu, and a Gigabyte either net connection. I started with software based raid arrays with inexpensive Hardware based Hard Drive RAId controllers running JBOD. At first I decided to run Linux's amazing software raid arrays that support expandable arrays. That means in the future when I need more space, I can buy another drive array, add it to the raid array and expand the array to include the drive. In the end (and 2 months later) I finally figured out that Linux storage solutions are not easy to create, and that Linux software is very hard to setup when you combine so much different hardware. I had problems left and right.
I then moved to Windows 2003, and with minimum issues I had it up and running. The problem? No support for software RAID arrays that can expand.
I also started to consider the consequences of extremely large raid arrays that contain huge numbers of drives. These drive arrays are highly dependent on the hardware and software not failing. and loss of such an array would lead to a complete loss in data. Raid-5 has a cushion of 1 drives being lost, and RAID-6 (which has 2 copies of data on every drive and thus you loose 2 drives worth of space on the array) is a bit more reliable. This is a very large and complex discussion that leads to the question of drive failure rate verse drive raid size. In the end, I decided to build RAID-5 arrays in 5 drive clusters. This is nice because I can use the raid arrays that only are in use. I dont have to power all 27 drives, and my power bill (and the environment) will thank me!
I'm then faced with my biggest problem, and the reason this post is located in this forum. POWER! Well first of all, most PSU's have only a few SATA-2 compliant connections. This means they have a 3 volt wire on them. I have learned that the 4-pin -> SATA does not have this wire. (actually I learned that SATA power has a 3 this wire on it). Thus for true SATA future compliance you must have multiple SATA connectors with 3 volts on them. For me, I need dozens of these!
The other issue is the RAILS! Multiple rails, generally means multiple sources of power. Balancing this power out on a PSU can be a difficult issue that requires a call to the power supply companies, or a few guesses.
Almost all PSU's of higher power are built for PC 3D video cards. They designate RAILS to the Video Card connections, and they build large support for 12 volts. I have an on board video card that doesn't require a separate power cord. I simply don't need or want high amounts of 3D processing power or video power consumption, on this machine.
So I need a very large and balanced amount of 3v, 5v, and 12v... unfortunately nothing like this exists (as far as I have found). I have to find a PSU with a ton of power, and then virtually throw a very large portion of this power capacity away. Looking at 3 rail 1Kwatt PSU's you quickly find these things to be true. Luckily I also staggered onto the issue of PSU size. These units are HUGE! In fact some of them are so long, that they wont fit in my Case
So, Im stuck... that is until I started looking into the PC-Power and cooling company. By luck (and a few phone calls) I found out that they offer custom wiring solutions, and their single rail design provides an environment that I can pull power without having to worry about how many drives are on each rail. Lastly what really pushed me to PCPower and cooling is there no compromising attitude.
I said I would never buy another non module power supply again. I guess I lied
PCPower and cooling doesn't offer module power supplies due to the additional risk and associated problems with another connection. I can respect this attitude. Still, PC Power and cooling power supplies were built for single or duel video cards... NOT 20+ Hard drivesThe end result of this, is that I am at least a few years above my time. Large 1TB drives are extremely expensive, and video files (especially HD video files) take up large amount of space. The best value for space is in the 500MB drives. As Time goes on, my need for more volume will grow, and I may move to larger drives as they move into this value spot. I may also continue to buy the 500mb drives that will ultimately drop in price.
If you want video on demand, Movies in HD, and multiple room music and video access you will be faced with these issues. Custom NAS boxes are not an easy solution to build.
Backup for me is not a viable option. A complete loss of data would result in a simple restore of this data from their original sources. A tape type backup solution has a media value of around 1/3 the cost of the drives your backing up. Not a very viable value solution for my application.
In the end, I will have instant access to my large and growing DVD collection. I can store my originals in a safe and un-obtrusive location, and I dont need to search through hundreds of DVD's find one, put it in the DVD player, then play the movie HOPING that it wont skip or stop due to something as stupid as a finger print. I can play movies all over my house, and music can be accessed through inexpensive tablet PC's hooked up to any stereo system in the house.
Eventually life will be good, for now I wait for my power supply!
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