OT - 25 hours!

Most of the regulars here know that I use my D9200/XPS510 as an HTPC. I
am always running out of space, so today the UPS man delivered this:

http://www.silverstonetek.com.tw/pro...no=ds351&area=

I installed 5 Seagate 750gb drives in Raid5 configuration. This is one
slick box. Comes with a single channel eSata card that popped right
into the PCI-e x1 slot.

Couldn't be easier to setup. Right now it is building a 3Tb Raid 5
array.

Current estimate in their software is that it will take 25 hours to
build the array. Wow.

My only fear is that XP Pro won't recognize a single array that big. If
so, Vista is supposed to, so this will force me to upgrade on this
server.

This is going to make my life easier, managing a single large drive, and
Raid 5 will ensure more safety.

What triggered this is that I had one 750Gb drive in a Raid0 array fail.
Luckily the Intel software is pretty good and it warned me of the
pending failure and I was able to offload everything first. I'll RMA
the drive with Seagate and have a spare drive for the inevitable
failure.

The Silverstone case is passively cooled, so the noise level in my
office has actually gone down. I didn't realize how loud the D9200 had
gotten with 5 hard drives thrashing 24/7. Much quieter now. It wasn't
offensive before, but is better now.

The Silverstone case does allow for two 80mm fans and I'll see whether I
think I need them. The heatsink is pretty massive.

Thought it might interest a few folks.

Tom

Tom Scales wrote:
Most of the regulars here know that I use my D9200/XPS510 as an HTPC. I
am always running out of space, so today the UPS man delivered this:

http://www.silverstonetek.com.tw/pro...no=ds351&area=

I installed 5 Seagate 750gb drives in Raid5 configuration. This is one
slick box. Comes with a single channel eSata card that popped right
into the PCI-e x1 slot.

Couldn't be easier to setup. Right now it is building a 3Tb Raid 5
array.

Current estimate in their software is that it will take 25 hours to
build the array. Wow.

My only fear is that XP Pro won't recognize a single array that big. If
so, Vista is supposed to, so this will force me to upgrade on this
server.

This is going to make my life easier, managing a single large drive, and
Raid 5 will ensure more safety.

What triggered this is that I had one 750Gb drive in a Raid0 array fail.
Luckily the Intel software is pretty good and it warned me of the
pending failure and I was able to offload everything first. I'll RMA
the drive with Seagate and have a spare drive for the inevitable
failure.

The Silverstone case is passively cooled, so the noise level in my
office has actually gone down. I didn't realize how loud the D9200 had
gotten with 5 hard drives thrashing 24/7. Much quieter now. It wasn't
offensive before, but is better now.

The Silverstone case does allow for two 80mm fans and I'll see whether I
think I need them. The heatsink is pretty massive.

Thought it might interest a few folks.

Tom

Awesome!!! Enjoy......

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold (MVP)

On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:38:03 -0400, "Tom Scales"
wrote:

This is going to make my life easier, managing a single large drive, and
Raid 5 will ensure more safety.

Hi Tom, very cool. I can vouch that having many smaller capacity
drives is a pain. I think I have about 11 250GB drives, which I also
use for saving TV. I need to look into Beyond TV because I think you
said it's good.

I barely know what RAID is. I have 4 hard drives in my XPS 410, I
wonder if I can make them RAID. If I did, would I see the total
capacity as a single drive? What would I need to implement RAID?

Anyway thanks for sharing your experiences.

Save time and order two or three more now....

"Tom Scales" wrote in message
news:1CFC561D111840B4A32C272A53EC5AC1@M2010...
Most of the regulars here know that I use my D9200/XPS510 as an HTPC. I
am always running out of space, so today the UPS man delivered this:

http://www.silverstonetek.com.tw/pro...no=ds351&area=

I installed 5 Seagate 750gb drives in Raid5 configuration. This is one
slick box. Comes with a single channel eSata card that popped right
into the PCI-e x1 slot.

Couldn't be easier to setup. Right now it is building a 3Tb Raid 5
array.

Current estimate in their software is that it will take 25 hours to
build the array. Wow.

My only fear is that XP Pro won't recognize a single array that big. If
so, Vista is supposed to, so this will force me to upgrade on this
server.

This is going to make my life easier, managing a single large drive, and
Raid 5 will ensure more safety.

What triggered this is that I had one 750Gb drive in a Raid0 array fail.
Luckily the Intel software is pretty good and it warned me of the
pending failure and I was able to offload everything first. I'll RMA
the drive with Seagate and have a spare drive for the inevitable
failure.

The Silverstone case is passively cooled, so the noise level in my
office has actually gone down. I didn't realize how loud the D9200 had
gotten with 5 hard drives thrashing 24/7. Much quieter now. It wasn't
offensive before, but is better now.

The Silverstone case does allow for two 80mm fans and I'll see whether I
think I need them. The heatsink is pretty massive.

Thought it might interest a few folks.

Tom

You can make the internal drives a raid array, but not raid 5.

First, they have to be the same size.

You can use Raid 0 and combine them into a larger drive. Up to four
drives totaling 2TB or less.
You can use Raid 1 and mirror them. Everything gets written to two
drives as immediate backup.

Google them and they'll explain it.

If you're running XP Pro you can also use JBOD (Just a bunch of disks)
and turn any combination of any size drives into one big drive.

The risk with JBOD and Raid 0 is if one drive fails you lose everything
from all the drives.

Raid 5 uses a parity drive, which means that if a drive fails, you still
don't lose anything and you can add a new drive back in and it will
rebuild. Basically Raid 5 capacity is (number of drives - 1) * capacity
of one drive. Soe I have 5 750 GB drives, which gives me 4 * 750 = 3TB.

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Journey ]
Posted At: Saturday, July 21, 2007 2:00 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: OT - 25 hours!
Subject: OT - 25 hours!

On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:38:03 -0400, "Tom Scales"
wrote:

This is going to make my life easier, managing a single large drive,
and
Raid 5 will ensure more safety.

Hi Tom, very cool. I can vouch that having many smaller capacity
drives is a pain. I think I have about 11 250GB drives, which I also
use for saving TV. I need to look into Beyond TV because I think you
said it's good.

I barely know what RAID is. I have 4 hard drives in my XPS 410, I
wonder if I can make them RAID. If I did, would I see the total
capacity as a single drive? What would I need to implement RAID?

Anyway thanks for sharing your experiences.

On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:59:34 -0500, Journey wrote:

On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:38:03 -0400, "Tom Scales"
wrote:

This is going to make my life easier, managing a single large drive, and
Raid 5 will ensure more safety.

Hi Tom, very cool. I can vouch that having many smaller capacity
drives is a pain. I think I have about 11 250GB drives, which I also
use for saving TV. I need to look into Beyond TV because I think you
said it's good.

I barely know what RAID is. I have 4 hard drives in my XPS 410, I
wonder if I can make them RAID. If I did, would I see the total
capacity as a single drive? What would I need to implement RAID?

Anyway thanks for sharing your experiences.


Journey, see if this helps.....
http://www.extrememhz.com/ds351-p1.shtml

ps-- this might be of interest to Tom tho a bit late??

"Tom Scales" wrote in message
news:1CFC561D111840B4A32C272A53EC5AC1@M2010...
Most of the regulars here know that I use my D9200/XPS510 as an HTPC. I
am always running out of space, so today the UPS man delivered this:

http://www.silverstonetek.com.tw/pro...no=ds351&area=


snip

Very neat.

I'd be interested to know how loud (2) of those adjustable speed 80mm fans
would be. At 3600rpm they'd probably be detectable, but then again maybe not
too much so.

-----Original Message-----
From: S.Lewis ]
Posted At: Saturday, July 21, 2007 7:05 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: OT - 25 hours!
Subject: OT - 25 hours!


"Tom Scales" wrote in message
news:1CFC561D111840B4A32C272A53EC5AC1@M2010...
Most of the regulars here know that I use my D9200/XPS510 as an
HTPC.
I
am always running out of space, so today the UPS man delivered this:



http://www.silverstonetek.com.tw/pro...pno=ds351&area
=


snip

Very neat.

I'd be interested to know how loud (2) of those adjustable speed 80mm
fans
would be. At 3600rpm they'd probably be detectable, but then again
maybe not
too much so.


I think it depends on the fans. They're optional, so right now I am
running without them. I am planning on doing some homework for the
absolute most quiet fans, so if anyone has a suggestion, it would be
welcome.

Tom

"Tom Scales" wrote in message news:3AB20DDE7C8D4E54A30C1E5A3F4BF94E@M2010...

I think it depends on the fans. They're optional, so right now I am
running without them. I am planning on doing some homework for the
absolute most quiet fans, so if anyone has a suggestion, it would be
welcome.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/section12.html

On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:44:40 -0400, "Tom Scales"
wrote:



-----Original Message-----
From: S.Lewis ]
Posted At: Saturday, July 21, 2007 7:05 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: OT - 25 hours!
Subject: OT - 25 hours!


"Tom Scales" wrote in message
news:1CFC561D111840B4A32C272A53EC5AC1@M2010...
Most of the regulars here know that I use my D9200/XPS510 as an
HTPC.
I
am always running out of space, so today the UPS man delivered this:



http://www.silverstonetek.com.tw/pro...pno=ds351&area
=


snip

Very neat.

I'd be interested to know how loud (2) of those adjustable speed 80mm
fans
would be. At 3600rpm they'd probably be detectable, but then again
maybe not
too much so.


I think it depends on the fans. They're optional, so right now I am
running without them. I am planning on doing some homework for the
absolute most quiet fans, so if anyone has a suggestion, it would be
welcome.

Tom

cotton in both ears... guaranteed to work g.