As one's storage needs increase, eventually even large 4U server cases need to pack higher hard drive densities in order to fit all of the devices needed. In the test server's Norco 4U case I quickly realized that the standard drive bays would not be sufficient. I purchased three iStartUSA 5-in-3 SAS/SATA backplanes, one for the main system and...
As high-performance hard drives move to the 2.5” form factor, a form factor that has been common in the SSD and notebook space, mounting these drives in traditional cases can be somewhat difficult. Purchasing 2.5” to 3.5” adapters allow system builders to mount a single drive to a space meant for a 3.5” drive, but that can be a...
The ICY DOCK 3 in 2 SATA/SAS Hard Drive enclosure allows for higher storage densities and hot swapping drives.
After recommending WHS to a friend I got a note saying it was running really slow for pulling data off the server, even though writing data was fine. As this friend is not so technically apt, I decided to setup quick test machines, one running Vista 64 the other WHS. Both were using a Dell Perc 5/i raid card...
Just to check some additional 15k rpm SAS numbers, I used three Seagate Cheetah 15k.5 300GB drives in Raid 5 to see what the numbers would look like. The drives are 3.5" form factor units so they run quite a bit warmer than the 15k.1 2.5" Savvios that are also in this machine. First the chart:
Interesting note here is that...
Did some testing this weekend with the new Adaptec 5805. Since I wanted to see what this card could do, I decided to try it with some cheap Seagate Savvio 15k.1 36.7GB SAS drives. Overall performance is fine, however there was a consistently interesting note in ATTO's benchmark at 64k. I tried every stripe size imaginable, and there was...
Although more will follow, here's a quick glimpse of what a cheap, but quality hardware raid solution can do with cheap, and large SATA drives in Raid 5. Keep in mind that the Perc 5/i uses the old IOP333 CPU clocked at 500MHz. Many current 3 series Adaptec products, for example, utilize the IOP333 at 800MHz. Also, one should...
Two 1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 drives on the ICH10R in raid 1 make a nice setup. The ICH10R is an on-board semi-hardware raid controller making it a very cheap option to use in any home server. The Seagate 1.5TB drives are one of the highest capacity drives readily available in Q1 2009 and have the best price/GB available. Raid 1...
As multiple personal computing devices become more prevalent in people's homes, the need for home servers likewise increases. Today's home users capture multitudes of digital files such as pictures, videos, music files, as well as traditional office format files. Simply put, home users now have the power to collect multitudes of data, and have a need to share this...