Could use some storage advice

M

Monkeypox

Weaksauce
Joined
May 21, 2007
Messages
71
I currently have a WHS 2011 box who's case is maxed out on HDD space. I'm looking for a low-cost alternative to add additional storage, independent of HDD costs. My initial thought was to hang something like this or this and connect it via eSata or USB 3.0 to the WHS box, but the reviews on both products and those similar have really turned me off.

I'm really not interested in buying a separate NAS enclosure as they seem very expensive for what they do. I'd prefer also not to buy a large case and an additional MB/CPU/PSU combo if I can help it. Ideally I want this an extension of the WHS box and not a separate unit.

Whatever the choice is, it has to be a standard case- the wife already overrulde the Norco 24 bay case.

Any thoughts or am I going to be forced to build a separate computer?

Thanks,
 
Why not get a larger case as well as additional storage controller for your current WHS box?
 
I'm already using a 10 bay case. In this case, I'd like at least an additional 8 bays for data drives.
 
You're either going to end up with a bigger single case or a big case and several smaller boxes hanging off of it. I don't think the wife will like the latter any more than the former.

That's just the asthestics, things just generally get cumbersome when you involve too many enclosures and their associated cabling and power supplies.
 
This goes on sale quite often for $80 or so -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111177 Only 4 bays but it uses a port multiplier via esata so it's going to be saturated.

What case are you currently using, and how many bays does it have? If the Norco is a no go, look for a case with 6x 5.25 drives, and put in a pair of 5 in 3 bays which is 10 drives not including internal 3.5's. Also, are you using folder duplication? Maybe consider turning that off, and get something like FlexRAID which only needs a parity drive (or more) instead of 1:1.
 
dustNbone said:
You're either going to end up with a bigger single case or a big case and several smaller boxes hanging off of it. I don't think the wife will like the latter any more than the former.

That's just the asthestics, things just generally get cumbersome when you involve too many enclosures and their associated cabling and power supplies.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, our house doesn't have a basement or anywhere else to store the case/computer other then in the open. The only places near any switch make them very visible. The wife doesn't mind the case per say, but doesn't want a large rack sitting in our living room with it mounted in.

FrostBite said:
This goes on sale quite often for $80 or so -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111177 Only 4 bays but it uses a port multiplier via esata so it's going to be saturated.

What case are you currently using, and how many bays does it have? If the Norco is a no go, look for a case with 6x 5.25 drives, and put in a pair of 5 in 3 bays which is 10 drives not including internal 3.5's. Also, are you using folder duplication? Maybe consider turning that off, and get something like FlexRAID which only needs a parity drive (or more) instead of 1:1.
Click to expand...
No folder duplication. The current WHS box is running a standard Raid 5 setup

Danny Bui said:
What exactly turned you off from the Rosewill and Sans Digital case? That Rosewill appears to be one of the top-selling RAID enclosures on Newegg. The eSATA version of that San Digital case is also like that.

And by bays you mean hot-swap bays correct?
Click to expand...

It appears that both of those enclosures have issues with the included esata card and several issues with varying drive types. I'm not opposed to either if there's enough people who think they are worthwhile.
 
Also, what density hard drives? Upgrading to 3TB from 2TB would be a 50% increase, 4TB if you can afford them would be 100% over 2TB. The problem with the 2 you originally linked were probably due to bandwidth issues. Read/write speeds would probably be terrible via USB 3.0 with 8 drives.

Edit: You are running 10 drives via RAID 5? Are you building another array than?
 
Current case is 2TB drives. Unfortunately adding 9TB isn't a feasible solution. Among other things, I wouldn't have a place to store the data while they new storage solution is being build and I don't want to lose those drives quite yet.
 
Monkeypox said:
Unfortunately, our house doesn't have a basement or anywhere else to store the case/computer other then in the open. The only places near any switch make them very visible. The wife doesn't mind the case per say, but doesn't want a large rack sitting in our living room with it mounted in.
Click to expand...

You don't have to get a rack. You can take off the ears/handles on the side of the Norco cases and stand them up on the side like a regular case.

Also, again, what case are you using now?
 
I really don't think you are going to have much luck than based on your current contraints. If you wanted a computer case, you'd be looking at a full sized tower like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119239 and buy 2x 5 in 3 bays for a total of 15 drives, and that still wouldn't hit your 18. That alone in itself would be muchmore expensive than a 24 bay Norco too, mind you. Your best chance, in my honest opinion, is to just buy a Norco and convince the wife. If she still doesn't like it, rip the front off of a mid sized tower and glue it to the Norco front.
 
That's worth considering. The backplanes make nervous on those racks as well, but I suppose it's something I can look into.

Oh, and it's not the faceplate she's concerned about- it's the noise and depth of the case.
 
You should be able to make it quite a bit quieter too since you're not using 15krpm SAS drives. Green drives and even 7.2krpm drives don't throw off alot of heat.
 
I have two of these:
http://www.addonics.com/products/mst.php

with the Infiniband mutlilane card connected to an PERC H200 (sas 2008 chipset) via 2 CX4 <-> SFF-8087 cables. You could do the same with a IBM M1015. It was the cheapest way I could find to get 8 full speed external ports (didn't want port multipliers, etc - this is full speed to each port).

Either way as you expand it's going to become more expensive than just running something like a norco 4020 - but it's also more "modular".
 
Thanks for the feedback.
I think I'm going to go the Norco route. Now to figure out a build...
 
dustNbone said:
You're either going to end up with a bigger single case or a big case and several smaller boxes hanging off of it. I don't think the wife will like the latter any more than the former.

That's just the asthestics, things just generally get cumbersome when you involve too many enclosures and their associated cabling and power supplies.
Click to expand...
All women are same. :mad:
 
As I pointed out earlier though, 3x of those is the same price of the Norco, which doesn't even factor in the tower case. It just goes to show how insanely cheap the Norco is as long as you are willing to take the plunge all at once.
 
FrostBite said:
As I pointed out earlier though, 3x of those is the same price of the Norco, which doesn't even factor in the tower case. It just goes to show how insanely cheap the Norco is as long as you are willing to take the plunge all at once.
Click to expand...

Agreed. However if the the wife already overruled the Norco 24 bay case, and you wanted to avoid a "large case" -- it's at least an option.

The OP is in a more difficult position than I was though. I started with a single 1x5-in-3 in a cheap freebie case. Buying a second and third as I grew allowed me to add to my setup slowly over 2-3 years as I needed more disk, rather than having to pay the total cost up front.
 
dustNbone said:
You're either going to end up with a bigger single case or a big case and several smaller boxes hanging off of it. I don't think the wife will like the latter any more than the former.

That's just the asthestics, things just generally get cumbersome when you involve too many enclosures and their associated cabling and power supplies.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it, I just added six 4-drives eSATA DAS to my big tower Lian Li V2000+ already packing 16 drives, it's really a mess. But those DAS were very cheap on sale.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top