Standalone PC for storage or not ?

F

faugusztin

2[H]4U
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Mar 9, 2008
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Hi,

i have a hard time deciding what to do with my hard drives. Currently i have 5 drives in RAID5 (+2 out of RAID) in my main PC, but the problem is that all those drives make some noise even in a such high quality case like my PC-V1110A.

I'm considering how to make it better in terms of noise and these are the alternatives i came up with :
  • leaving the situation as is right now. That means 6xWD6400AAKS + 1x WD1001FALS in my main PC.
  • moving 4 drives to the HTPC. The problem - HTPC already contains a WD10EADS and the Antec Fusion Remote Max is limited to 4 drives, so no RAID5 from 5 drives.
  • selling five WD6400AAKS drives and buying 2 or 3 WD10EADS or WD1001FALS drives, then moving them either to the HTPC (WD10EADS) or to main PC (both type of drives).
  • buying some NAS box for 4 drives at least, probably the FSC Scaleo Home Server with 1 HDD, which i would immediately sell after buy - 468€ at cheapest store here in Slovakia.
  • building a new PC, just to use it as a network storage.

If you think the last option is the best, what do you think about this setup ? Which case would you choose ? Or do you think there are better choices in both terms of temps and noise ?

P5N7A-VM, E5200, Enermax PRO82-385 + 5xWD6400AAKS at Linux software RAID5.
With P180 mini price is around 355-365€. With Antec P182 price is around 390-400€.

I'm open to suggestions but bear in mind that some stuff is not present at European or local Slovak market. Buying from USA is not a option, postage fees kills it.
 
I concur with [LYL]Homer: Just build a new server using either WHS or Linux.

Now for WHS, the parts you listed are almost overkill. Just about any cheap dual-core CPU will be enough for WHS. Hell even a single core CPU would be enough for WHS. The AMD Athlon X2 4850e is a typical choice for a WHS setup here in the states.

Mobo wise, just go for cheapest mobo that has at least 6 SATA ports with onboard audio supported by a reputable company (Asus, Gigabyte, Biostar, etc). You do not need a HTPC class mobo for WHS like that P5N7A-VM.

Case wise, I would go with the P182 due to the fact that it could hold more hard drives than the P180 mini.
 
X2 4850e + M3A78 = 125,50 €
E1400 + P5N7A-VM = 147,06 €
E5200 + P5N7A-VM = 167,94 €

This is one side of the coin. Power requirements in idle are comparable too (due low power usage of GeForce 9300 chipset). The killing factor against AM2 system is the cooler instalation mechanism, installing Ninja2 in my HTPC (M3N78+4850e) was a nightmare, much worse than installing Ninja rev B with Thermalright Bolt-Thru Kit for S775... Not even talking about the fact, that you can install most coolers only in one way (not that big problem in P182 as it have 12cm fans in both directions.

Onboard audio is not important, this should be just a PC somewhere in corner, not a music PC.

Last thing is that i'm considering upgrade in my main PC to quadcore (Q8300 or Q9400), so i will have a spare E5200 anyway. But this is not 100% :D.

And the mini P180 have enough spots for HDD's - 5x3,5" internal + 1x3,5" external is more than enough. And if not, i can still put some HDD's in three 5,25" bays.
 
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At the end, i decided for 3rd option, aka selling 5 WD6400AAKS and buying 3 WD10EADS. My costs should be around 30-70€. Plus the power requirements will be still lower than having 2 PC's running 24/7.
 
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