Build Your Disk Array?

saneproductions

saneproductions

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Hi All,

I am looking to build a 12-16 TB RAID 5 array for editing a feature length doc shot on HVX200 720p 24N (under 50Mbps). It doesn't need to be the fastest array out there (see format). A year or two ago, I built 4TB array with 8x640 WD RE2 drives in a Proavio 8 drive enclosure with a highpoint 3522 and infiniband connections (mini SAS). Are their any better options out there? This is coming out of a very small budget, but would be nice to get the right thing the first time. I noticed that Sonnett and G-Tech are making some arrays in this size in the $3-4k range, but I would like to beat that if possible. If I do build, are there any alternate enclosures that I could use? Please note all data is already backed up and will be copied over to the array for work (around 9.5TB total data).

Thanks!
 
Here is something to consider:

Case: External 8 drive Hotswap SATA: $399.00
http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sata_enclosures/scsat84xt.asp

Raid Card: ATTO R380 SAS/SATA: $830.00
http://www.provantage.com/atto-technology-esas-r380-000~7ATTO03W.htm

HD: 8 Hitachi 7K2000 2TB SATA 3Gb/s 3.5 7200RPM 32MB @ $130.00 = $1,040.00
http://www.buy.com/prod/hitachi-des...7200rpm-32mb-desktop/q/loc/101/211236326.html

The end result: 16TB raid that will smoke for around $2,270.00 + the cables. You can certainly do it a bit cheaper if you use a Highpoint or Areca card, but ATTO has a very good reputation and ATTO supports raid levels 0, 1, 4, 5, 10, 50, JBOD and DVRAID. If you don't need 16 TB and can get by with 8 TB, then you might consider the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB. You can find them for around $70.00 per drive.

Hope that helps.
 
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Look around for Enclosures SonnetTech and G-TECH both sell you the drives.
I've had good luck with Sans Digital (they have mini-SAS) but the question you have to ask is where the raid will be done (also important) either it's done in hardware in the drive box (enclosure)
or on the hardware PCIe card (with buffer ram at least 512MB) - (last which is in software is something I don't think you're considering.)

So if the enclosure is cheap, the interface card may cost a lot etc..
 
Drobo is not really suited to editing. It's designed to be a multi-drive backup & archive system. I've never heard of anyone getting decent (as in 200MB/sec or better) read/write speeds out of a Drobo.

If you're serious about building your own drive array, the heart & soul of it is your RAID controller. Get an Atto or Areca card that uses SAS connectors. Stay away from the Highpoint cards. Atto & Areca cost more, but they're more reliable and perform better.
 
arniepix said:
Drobo is not really suited to editing. It's designed to be a multi-drive backup & archive system. I've never heard of anyone getting decent (as in 200MB/sec or better) read/write speeds out of a Drobo.

If you're serious about building your own drive array, the heart & soul of it is your RAID controller. Get an Atto or Areca card that uses SAS connectors. Stay away from the Highpoint cards. Atto & Areca cost more, but they're more reliable and perform better.
Click to expand...

I second this opinion! :-)
 
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