Raid Card + eSata tower

[TheStapler]

First off, not sure if this is the right spot for this question, but here goes anyways...

 

 

I am looking at building another tower for my parents, and wondering if anyone has tried this, or know if this would work...

 

(basic setup)

* case with a 5in3 drive tray/cage (easier than removing the case to replace a harddrive), mother board with 6 sata onboard

 

 

Now, when I am looking to expand from the 2+1 drives, I have 2 more in the case to add on too...  when those are full, I was looking at doing this:

(addon/advanced)

* SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 raid card

* sff8087-> 4 sata cables

* 2 Port Low Profile SATA to eSATA Plate Adapter (convert the sata cable, to esata)

* Sans Digital 4 Bay eSATA Port Multiplier JBOD Tower Storage Enclosure (no eSATA Card bundle) TR4M+BNC

 

I could add on towers (4 drives at a time) via the esata... but what I want to know, is that would putting 1 sata off the supermicro card, converting it to esata, and connecting that sansdigital tower to it, actually work?

 

just looking at changing things up, and different upgrade paths for when they are ready, instead of going all out on an antec twelve hundred case and 5in3 drive bays... when they may not need the expansion for some time.  Would also require a smaller footprint, not as massive power supply, and maybe not as much power?  i dunno... just thinking.

 

 

 

[WeeboTech]

It could work, but what you save in initial outlay, will cost you in performance later on.

 

See here.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6590.0

 

My experience with the port multipliers is that the Silicon image controllers provide the smoothest multi-drive access experience.

 

Single drive access via various controllers is near native drive speed.

Accessing more then one drive simultaneously on the same PMP cable, is filled with question.

Over the past few years, various chipsets performed at different levels.

Some would have very blocky or intermittant performance.

The silicon image controllers and drivers would provide the smoothese access patterns.

I.E. when accessing all 4 drives, you would drop to around 20-25MB/s for each drive.

With some of the other controllers it could drop down to 5-10MB/s.

I do not have the answer why. Could be controller chipset, driver software or how it communicates with the eSATA PMP chassis.

 

As far as saving power, In the end you could have up to 4-5 of these lil external boxes, plus the CPU.

With that many PSU's converting power, I'm sure there's more loss then if you had one big efficient PSU.

 

How many drives do you expect to max out at?

With one of my cases, I used the single trayless SATA units with no fans.

I set up good airflow in the case with good exhaust.

 

With 12 slots available in the antec case and drive sizes always increasing, how many spindles do you think you will really nead?

 

Don't get me wrong. I like the lil boxes. I have 2 of my own.

I would not engineer a system to run with 4-5 of these boxes for someone else.

Too much can go wrong.

Cable comes out, One of the power switches is off, PSU dies.

 

Besides that, the drives run a lil hot in those boxes.

 

 

[TheStapler]

so are you saying that you're still better off buying 2 or 3 of those supermicro raid cards, and keeping it all in 1 case?

 

currently, my unraid is 14 drives, my buddy has 21...

 

the 4 bay ones still heat up?  thought the airflow was pretty decent, would it be better off having a better cfm fan in the case?

 

i dunno, having a big case, seems off putting for some people, and if you only need 10 drives, you don't need a case for 20...  but if you still want 20 later, you can put 20 in...

 

maybe use the antec 300 case, that has 6  5 1/4 bays, so space for 10 hotswap cages (even still, those heat up a little too).

 

heat sucks

[WeeboTech]

heat sucks [img alt=]http://lime-technology.com/forum/Smileys/default/sad.gif[/img]

 

Actually it blows! 

 

Funny thought.

When I had my dual core XEONs (Gallatin, Conroe), they actually supplemented the heat in my aparment so much, that I could lower the thermostat.

 

so are you saying that you're still better off buying 2 or 3 of those supermicro raid cards, and keeping it all in 1 case?

 

currently, my unraid is 14 drives, my buddy has 21...

 

Depends on your expected maximum array spindle size.

How fast do you think you would outgrow the maximum current drive size?

 

the 4 bay ones still heat up?  thought the airflow was pretty decent, would it be better off having a better cfm fan in the case?

 

Depends on the drives. I have 4 7200rpm 750s in one box, it's quite warm.

The other had 4 2TB 5400's and wasn't all that bad.

 

i dunno, having a big case, seems off putting for some people, and if you only need 10 drives, you don't need a case for 20...  but if you still want 20 later, you can put 20 in...

 

Engineer according to the expected growth rate.

Gary has engineered a nice low drive count system.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=29670.msg266348#msg266348

 

small, affordable, unobtrusive.

maybe use the antec 300 case, that has 6  5 1/4 bays, so space for 10 hotswap cages (even still, those heat up a little too).

 

heat sucks

 

[00b5]

how much storage are you trying to make for this "box for your parents?"

 

I think that for someone who ISN'T going to learn unraid, and not going to tinker, the plus liscence with a "smallish" case and 5/6 drives should be plenty? 5 3TB drives (+ cache, or a sixth) not enough space (make it 4TB drives and even better!).

 

But now i'm telling you want you want, instead of trying to help answer your questions, so its your call.

[TheStapler]

it was more of a "they want this now", but down the road, they may want more...  and with putting the least amount out now, and have a decently configurable 'upgrade path', is what I was looking for.

 

 

looks like I have found a different path to go down, for not a lot more money... so... yeah.