Build-Log: 100TB Home Media Server

RS3RS said:
Awesome build, but could you make those pictures any smaller? Sheesh :p
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My originals are in 8 mega pixel (3456 x 2304) and 15 mega pixel (4752 x 3168) format and are WAY to large (between 3 to 6 MB each) to post as is as this would require quite a bit of bandwidth to serve them all. Especially considering that this thread is already well past the 10,000 hits mark!

Besides they are all thumbnails and if you click on any of the images (as per the note at the top of the thread), you will see a larger version (downsized to 1024 x 683).
 
hellosky said:
How did you acquire the firmware in the first place?
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Through a work contact who has asked me NOT to distribute these files and since I value my relationship with my contact, I will only state this here once:

I am not able to provide anyone with these firmware files and I am not going to forward my contacts contact information either.

There isn't that much of a difference anyway. The only reason I upgraded my drives is because I wanted them all at the same revision level and needed the APM support. I think only 4 out of the 52 drives originally supported the APM feature!
 
I had to upgrade my PSU because none of my WD20EADS supported APM! Knowing what I do now I should have purchased 1 RE4GP drive, requested the firmware and then applied the update to all of my WD20EADS.
 
treadstone said:
My originals are in 8 mega pixel (3456 x 2304) and 15 mega pixel (4752 x 3168) format and are WAY to large (between 3 to 6 MB each) to post as is as this would require quite a bit of bandwidth to serve them all. Especially considering that this thread is already well past the 10,000 hits mark!

Besides they are all thumbnails and if you click on any of the images (as per the note at the top of the thread), you will see a larger version (downsized to 1024 x 683).
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I honestly was a bit annoyed with the small images especially when I was reading the thread at work on my 3840x2400 resolution monitor which makes it even smaller. If your worried about bandwidth please feel free to use my server for images on hardforum:

http://hardforum.houkouonchi.net/

Been running it for quite a while now. I don't care about space or bandwidth as this is hosted off my 10 TB 2U server with 1400 megabits of internet connectivity.
 
You're the exception. No one wants a ton of huge images as no one but you has a T221/vp2290b. Horizontal scrolling is bad...
 
Blue Fox said:
You're the exception. No one wants a ton of huge images as no one but you has a T221/vp2290b. Horizontal scrolling is bad...
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No I get that. I have the thumbnails set to 900 pixels wide on my image site so thumbnails wouldn't cause people to scroll (unless they are under 1024x768 which is sad). It would make it so the images are a little better in size. Then you can click the the image and get the full resolution (10 megapixel or what not) which is what I would prefer but that is just me.
 
Blue Fox said:
I thought that's what everyone did? At least I normally do.
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Well if you look at the images the thumbnails are 150x100 or so (very small) when I would have them more at around 800-1000 pixels, and the full size ones are about 1024x768 (vs 10 megapixels).

Did the thumbnails I listed earlier (my areca BBU collection) seem to large to you?
 
Ah, didn't even notice the stuff on the first page. The stuff you posted is about the same size I do.
 
im getting storage envy... my 32tb DAS looks tiny now lol

although honestly I dont think I would put that many eggs in one basket personally...
 
houkouonchi said:
I honestly was a bit annoyed with the small images especially when I was reading the thread at work on my 3840x2400 resolution monitor which makes it even smaller. If your worried about bandwidth please feel free to use my server for images on hardforum:

http://hardforum.houkouonchi.net/

Been running it for quite a while now. I don't care about space or bandwidth as this is hosted off my 10 TB 2U server with 1400 megabits of internet connectivity.
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Can't please everybody I guess :(

ciscokid454 said:
Very nice build
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Thanks!

Blue Fox said:
You're the exception. No one wants a ton of huge images as no one but you has a T221/vp2290b. Horizontal scrolling is bad...
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I'm with Blue Fox on this one...

I think the majority of the people are on the 1280+ horizontal resolution side.

houkouonchi said:
Well if you look at the images the thumbnails are 150x100 or so (very small) when I would have them more at around 800-1000 pixels, and the full size ones are about 1024x768 (vs 10 megapixels).

Did the thumbnails I listed earlier (my areca BBU collection) seem to large to you?
Click to expand...

Considering that so far I have 106+ images on in the first few posts on page one and I am not done, If I would put them all at say 1000 pixels each, you'd be scrolling for quite some time. Also for those people with slow connections (less than a megabit or even worse, dial-up), it's easier to get through these posts. If I had posted larger images, I'm sure I would have a ton of people on my back complaining it's too big :)

Mind you, in general I prefer to have larger images too though.

Blue Fox said:
Ah, didn't even notice the stuff on the first page. The stuff you posted is about the same size I do.
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For a few images like the post about the BBU, that's ok, I think by the time I'm done with my posts on the first page, there might be in excess of 300 images... Would you want to have to scroll through ALL of them???

FLECOM said:
im getting storage envy... my 32tb DAS looks tiny now lol

although honestly I dont think I would put that many eggs in one basket personally...
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It's all relative I guess ;)
 
Turns out LSI has the firmware file available for download on their website!

http://kb.lsi.com/KnowledgebaseArticle15592.aspx?Keywords=WD+RE4

This is the exact same firmware file I received from my contact at WD that I used to flash upgrade the WD20EADS with. This firmware file will not change the drive from a WD20EADS into a WD2002FYPS RE4 drive, but it will provide the WD20EADS with APM abilities!
 
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I bowed to your mighty build.... the skill to move a SMR and the cleanness of this server is simply amazing.
 
Don't know if you answered this already, but have you tried daisy chaining the sas expanders? IMO you're not done until you have the full 128drives that the areca supports.

but impressive nonetheless.
 
blargsauce said:
Don't know if you answered this already, but have you tried daisy chaining the sas expanders? IMO you're not done until you have the full 128drives that the areca supports.

but impressive nonetheless.
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I've tried it. Works just fine. I had three expanders hooked up with 104 available ports.
 
treadstone said:
Turns out LSI has the firmware file available for download on their website!

http://kb.lsi.com/KnowledgebaseArticle15592.aspx?Keywords=WD+RE4

This is the exact same firmware file I received from my contact at WD that I used to flash upgrade the WD20EADS with. This firmware file will not change the drive from a WD20EADS into a WD2002FYPS RE4 drive, but it will provide the WD20EADS with APM abilities!
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So you then ran the other 2 files to enable TLER and change the idle timeout value correct?
 
Actually, I ran them before the firmware upgrade, but had to re-run the IDLE program again as that setting was cleared or set back to factory default after the firmware upgrade. Since I had made a USB stick with a batch program, I just ran that again and it set both the IDLE and TLER settings to what I wanted/needed.
 
treadstone said:
Actually, I ran them before the firmware upgrade, but had to re-run the IDLE program again as that setting was cleared or set back to factory default after the firmware upgrade. Since I had made a USB stick with a batch program, I just ran that again and it set both the IDLE and TLER settings to what I wanted/needed.
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What settings did you use in IDLE and TLER? :)
 
Not sure if anybody noticed, but WD recently (April 2010) released an updated WDIDLE3 utility with a version number 1.05. This version apparently fixes the disable timer problem. In version 1.03 the disable function would set the timer to 3720 seconds (62.0 minutes). Version 1.05 now actually disables the timer completely!

Here is the link to the latest version of WDILDE3:

WDIDLE3 Ver1.05
 
Did you think about the Sony 400 BD carousel player(s)? You stated that you are only ripping BD's to the storage array. If you only wish to play one BD at the time, the carousel sounds easier/cheaper/lower maintenance/etc. The storage array does permit multiple concurrent BD playback within the constraints of your system/network. Plus each Sony player is only 400 BD's. You might need multiple machines and an HDMI switch...

I know, this doesn't let you play with neat hardware/software.....

But what do I know?

(Sorry, I just couldn't keep from adding my $0.02 to this thread)

I'll go away now.
 
I own 3 Sony 400 disc DVD changers and a 400 disc CD changer. I was about to buy another 400 disc DVD changer since my DVD collection consists of over 1450 DVDs. But those things are DAMN slow and as you mentioned only allow you to play one disc at a time. The server route gives you more flexibility. I even designed a 2000 disc changer myself. It was capable of playing two discs at a time. The unit required a computer as the playback device since it was only a mechanical transport system and had two blu-ray disc drives at the bottom of it. It was quite neat and the kids always enjoyed watching the little arm go up and down to grab a disc and drop it into the drive trays. They played with it so much that it actually broke down :(
Somehow it jammed up and I think one of the motors burned out. Never got around fixing it after that since I had just started to put everything onto HDD anyway. That was back at the beginning of 2008 when I build my HTPC. Shortly after that, there were rumors that Sony might release a blu-ray disc changer, but they didn't 'really' come out with a useful design until just recently. They had a neat design with the 200 disc firewire connected DVD changers and I had considered buying a few of those and modding them by replacing the DVD drive with a blu-ray drive, but by that time, Sony had stopped making them. A shame because those looked neat, although for the size of them, they should have had a higher capacity.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get the server online in the next few days. I did manage to finally getting it moved into the basement a few days back :)
 
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