Im looking for a bit of a wierd thing, dont know what exactly to google for so im coming up with nothing.
Theres remote storage devices intended for rack mount servers. What im looking for is the same, only one that I can build into a mATX case and have by the side of my main pc.
Ideally im thinking of doing this as itll cost less dosh than a full computer, and allow me to chuck a shedload of cooling in it to cool the hard drives down as they cook in my main machine and as its seperate even with my main computer on, it means I can turn it off or rather turn the cooling down at night when its not being accessed.
Any suggestions?
How about NAS (http://swik.net/NAS+FreeBSD) run it with an old PII MB and a good HDD :)
The thing is I have 5 hard drives already, plus a 6th that contains the operating systems and some storage.
I want to shove 5 of those hard drives in a small NAS basically, but most NASs you can buy are single hard drive affairs or stackable hard drive affairs which only take 1 hard drive per enclosure and rely on daisychaining.
I just want a box, about the size of a readers digest condensed book collection, that I can shove 5 hard drives in, and access them over a network.
I havnt tried freebsd NAS but a friend has and u can have more than one HDD (he uses two) If u have HDDs which are of the same kind u can raid them.
http://www.freenas.org/
Something like this? (http://www.originstorage.com/detail.asp?id=7387)
Never said it was cheap :P
LoL, freebsdNAS would be quite a bit cheaper it has support for many types of disks and controllers I do not have the list but I believe it supports SATA controllers so an old MB+CPU, good controller and disks and you should have a much cheaper system.
Quote from: NorphySomething like this?
Never said it was cheap :P
Now thats more like it! :) If only I could find a case just like that. Then could build in a cheapy motherboard or something and just use it :D
I forgot to tell that the freebsdNAS has noise reduction features like lowering HDD rpm or shut down when not in use.
that freenas software is dynamite, superb stuff. I have got it running in no time. load 3mins, configuration 5 mins and thats it. You have to set workgroups but then you have to do that with Windows... setting mount points and that is fairly stright forward.
I am very impressed, I use an NSLU2 Linksys box with 2 external USB drives but this is very good too. You can format it in a number of FS types.
bloody brilliant. Get a cheapo system sling hard drives in it and it can even do software raid 5.
Cheers
Tongy
Id consider that freenas software if I could find a case similar to that one holding the bloody expensive one :)
Thats the kinda thing im looking for. a nice small mATX case that is meant for storing hard drives or just has a bunch of 5.25inch bays to store caddies :) Then pair it up with an mATX mobo and power supply.
OK, I reckon this would do.
A Micro ATX chassis, 3 x 3.5" drives 2 with rails for 5.25" bays (providing you wont need a CD/DVD drive in there)
You would have onboard GFX, pop a little ram in there 256mb would do and if you are lucky and could find one a mini atx board with raid 5, or use an addon card.
Really you are looking at about the same price as that all in one brick. After youve bought a processor, ram, hdds, motherboard, chassis and raid card.
I would perhaps suggest a little more flexibility as the cost would go down and you could really see what the best for your situation is.
Cheers
Tongy
Kinds of like this?
Tidy little mATX case (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=664835&Sku=P456-5004&SRCCODE=PRICEGRABBER&CMP=OTC-PRICEGRABBER&ci_srccode=cii_5784816&cpncode=10-24181899-2)
Obsiously the retailer isnt suitable but its a pretty tidy little case. Only 4 bays but could probably be modified with some rails somewhere.
sorry to ask, but what can an external 5.25" drive bay be used for??
whoops, ive just realised, i must have been smokin sumthing funny :-). disregard question.
Its a CD/DVD drive bay, where you would put in a CD drive.
5.25" external = CD/DVD drive
3.5" external = Floppy drive
3.5" internal = Hard drive
In this case M3ta7h3ad will probably want to use all of the drive bays for harddrives, you can get converters for 5.25" bays for this purpose.
i realised just as i posted, doh! All this hard drive stuff just made me think about the 3.5" bays only.
Quote from: sexytwKinds of like this?
Tidy little mATX case
Obsiously the retailer isnt suitable but its a pretty tidy little case. Only 4 bays but could probably be modified with some rails somewhere.
Thats a damn sweet case there. :) I wants it!!! I wants it!!! :D
Pity that you cant buy server 2003 storage server OS
lol if its possibly inside this trial pack here (waves 2003 server trial thing), or I can get it with an ActionPack then maybe I will :D
I *think* its an OEM only OS that comes preinstalled on various devices
:(