Looking for a mass storage solution

Post by **B4UTRUST** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:28 pm

Alright, coming to the point where I have officially ran out of open SATA ports on my desktop and I need more storage capacity. I'm also here shortly going to be building up an HTPC for my media storage/streaming needs. However, knowing how I download and what I download, I realize that the amount of drives most of the cases I'm looking at is going to be unacceptable for long-term applications. Thus this leads me to my next design need.

I need a rack or enclosure of some variety capable of holding say between 5 and 10 high-capacity SATA drives that would be able to plugged in directly to a single computer through one connection.

Is this possible and what would I need to do it if it is?

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:41 pm

For all your Computing Needs, ThinkGeek has all the answers.

Like this little beauty, an External USB SATA Drive, which can hold two SATA units.

Merry Xmas, B4

Post by **B4UTRUST** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 9:49 pm

Similar to what I'm looking for, but I need a few more drives than just 2. *laughs* I'm looking to drop somewhere between 10-15 terabytes worth of drives into it...

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:09 pm

Do you mind running them off of USB? And I'm assuming you've checked into a traditional server rack already.

Post by **B4UTRUST** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:28 am

A rack would be a good solution but considering most of the rack-based solutions I've seen recently are 1.5k+ right now that's more than I'm wanting to dump just to get the hardware to put the drives in.

But USB, Firewire, even eSATA would be acceptable definately.

Destructionator XV · Post by **Destructionator XV** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:04 am

Try searching for NAS devices - network attached storage. My boss is always talking about how he loves his, which holds like 10 hard drives and transfers the data over by gigabit ethernet.

I'll ask him for a specific recommendation next time I talk to him.

Post by **B4UTRUST** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:11 am

I've looked at NAS and that might be an option but I'm trying to cut down on networked streaming simply due to lag issues when streaming larges amount of video data over a network, even hooked directly up to the LAN. Now if that box hppened to have USB or esata our on the other hand, that would be perfect since it's most likely just going to sit behind my HTPC anyway on a shelf

Destructionator XV · Post by **Destructionator XV** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 2:43 pm

Boss said if you have any free PCIe slots, you could get another SATA controller to put inside your computer and attach more disks that way.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 2:56 pm

Then he'll run into power problems. Generally a bad idea to take a normal PC enclosure and try to turn it into a NAS. They're generally not stable enough.

ArsTechnica Forums is one starting point.

Article again from Arstechnica, on home usable NAS enclosures.

YAAFAT, Yet Another Article From Ars Technica[/url]

Post by **B4UTRUST** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 3:12 pm

Nope, both PCIe ports are tied up with vid cards at the moment. Though that is an option I was considering off of one of my free regular PCI slots. But then I run into the issue of actual drive space inside my case itself. I think I have room for maybe one more drive to shove in there somewhere, but beyond that I'm full. So internal options aren't really an option at this point. Thats why I was trying to find like a large enclosure that I could do multiple drives in.

Thanks for the links, Ace. I'll read them here in a bit.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 7:53 am

If you want to have some serious fun with a side-order of making people stare at your system in awe and dismay, get a high-capacity SATA controller and a second case with a shitton of drive bays in it. Drill a hole in the side of both cases and run some 3ft sata cables from the add-in controller in your system to a buttload of drives mounted in the other case. Either run long power supply wiring from one case to the other as well, or use a separate power supply with a power supply tester wired up to it so it'll deliver power without a motherboard connected.

Storage by Goldberg. :)

Post by **B4UTRUST** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:17 am

Errr, most people stare at my system in awe and dismay to begin with... I have over 4TB of drive space and it's full... That alone makes people go "Whaaaa? Holy shit!"

But yes, that might be a possible solution though I'm not sure I'd want to drill holes in my expensive HTPC case ><. And with the amount of bays I would need, I would need the second PSU just to power them. Like I said, I'm talking 5-10 hard drives and if I have room to expand past that, the more the better...

And for those questioning why I need possibly up to 20TB of drive space, I can estimate that that amount of space would last me maybe a year or so at my current rate of storage usage...

LibriumArcana.Games

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