Setting up a RAID: Which HD?

[satandole666]

I was thinking about the 7200.11 32mb drives that are available now but I don't know if I need their speed.

All I'm trying to do is setup a large RAID for storing my media files. I have around 300-400 DVDs I'd like to backup with 1:1 copies so I'm looking into have a few terabytes (not sure how much I'll need) of space available.

Should I just go for the best gb per dollar ratio or is there a better criteria I should be looking for?

Specific recommendations are welcome. Thanks.

EDIT: This is somewhat important as well. These drives will be going in my HTPC. They need to be quiet enough to not bother the hell out of me while I'm watching TV.

 

[tuskenraider]

Since it's for storage speed isn't a priority like you mentioned, these would probably fit the bill very well. They aren't slow by no means, quiet and save on power demands. WD's info.

 

[Kai_Force]

+1 for One terabyte drives. Seagates IMO, they got 16mb more cache over WD's, and they are currently 10 dollars cheaper.

 

[leftheaded]

seagate also has 5 a year warranty (vs 3 year for WD and samsung 1TB drives). i don't know what to tell you to get though... since I'm trying to answer this for myself after about 6 months lol

 

[satandole666]

Hmm... A single DVD is either 4.7gb or 9.4gb, right? At 9.4gb per and 2 1tb drives that would give me space for 217 movies, roughly. Looks like I might need three of them.

Do these things run fairly cool/quiet? The cooling in my HTPC is more than adequate to handle it but it still is a purchasing factor.

EDIT: I can get 3TB for $520 if I use 750gb Seagates. It'll cost me $690 to use 3 1TB Seagates. Any reason to go with the 1TB drives still?

 

[leftheaded]

EDIT: I can get 3TB for $520 if I use 750gb Seagates. It'll cost me $690 to use 3 1TB Seagates. Any reason to go with the 1TB drives still?

tough call. would like to know what people think about that one...

 

[tuskenraider]

Hmm... A single DVD is either 4.7gb or 9.4gb, right? At 9.4gb per and 2 1tb drives that would give me space for 217 movies, roughly. Looks like I might need three of them.

Do these things run fairly cool/quiet? The cooling in my HTPC is more than adequate to handle it but it still is a purchasing factor.

EDIT: I can get 3TB for $520 if I use 750gb Seagates. It'll cost me $690 to use 3 1TB Seagates. Any reason to go with the 1TB drives still?

Less power and space demands, noise and heat. And as far as 32MB cache being a benefit, for your use, not a chance. This would be a useful read for you.

 

[MadMan007]

The WD GPs should have enough STR to serve up even HD video, I looked in to that last time I was pondering large storage drives although that's going by HD Tach STR rating. 750GB drives are a much better price/capacity the downside are what tuskenraider said and that there could be more maximum storage for a given number of SATA ports.

 

[satandole666]

This is more difficult than I thought it would be.

I need to figure out how many drives my P5B-Express will support in RAID setup. I think there are 6 SATA ports, but I think they are split between 2 different controllers.

 

[MadMan007]

P5B southbridge can do four drives in one RAID I believe, and the other two are off the JMicron controller.

 

[satandole666]

P5B southbridge can do four drives in one RAID I believe, and the other two are off the JMicron controller.

Nice...now I need to figure out which drive I'm going to get.

And sorry Tusken...I read through that article and had no clue what is going on. If there is any component in my system I know nothing about it is hard drives and RAID setup. :/

 

[tuskenraider]

The article basically says the WD's trade a some speed for lower noise, heat and power demands which is typically what a HTPC user would desire. If speed is your #1 priority, consider another drive.

 

[MadMan007]

It ended up taking a total of 6.5 hours to complete the wipe on all four drives simultaneously. The throughput slowed down quite a bit after about 2 hours but for a secure multi-pass wipe that's not really too bad.