Just wanted to say thanks...

[Chris Downs]

...to the Stablebit team. Recently discovered DrivePool and Scanner, and it's basically solved all my storage problems in one go. I had my disks in RAID arrays (RAID 0+1), which was a costly way of doing things! I have two main PCs - an HTPC and my personal one. I got the DrivePool+Scanner combo for both after testing DrivePool for the trial period on my virtual machine box (a ProxMox 3.3 machine).

I have lots of unused 320GB, 500GB drives that just aren't suitable for RAID (size mismatch, manufacturer, speed etc), and DrivePool is going to make them usable!

 

Now looking to put together a new build using DrivePool to fit more drives in to my media server. Currently got 3x4TB drives in the HTPC (was 2 in RAID mirror), but no room for more so it's got to move as my media collection seems to be growing exponentially, thanks to my GoPro and storing my Blurays as straight copy MKVs at 24-40GB per movie. Looking around at various hardware before committing to a case. But it will be such a money saver being able to slot in any HDD I have going spare when I need a bit more space.

 

So a big thank you for you guys - you've made things so much easier and I can concentrate on the hardware I want rather than worry about how to manage the data security. Already got a friend to buy the combo too, and he's just as pleased after struggling with storage solutions - especially having recently lost a 2TB drive that wasn't duplicated... ouch.

 

 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, I'm glad that StableBit DrivePool and StableBit Scanner are such a great fit for you!

And yeah, it makes the mismatched spec-ed drives very usable!

 

 

As for a new case... it depends on what you want.

If you want just pure storage capacity, look into getting a 4U rackmount case. A lot of them have 16-38 HDD bays. 

Otherwise, get a case that has a lot of 5.25" bays, and get backplanes, so you can fill them up!

 

As for motherboard and CPU, that depends on what you're doing. Though, I would recommend a server/workstation motherboard if this is going to be always on! (Supermicro, or ASRock RACK are good brands for these).

 

 

And I'm glad to hear that you got a friend to buy it as well!

Though, I'm sorry to hear that he lost a drive!

[Chris Downs]

Yeah I've look around at the 5-in-3 backplanes, but they are such a ripoff for what they really are. In the UK now, they've lept from £60 to £160, and even the "cheap" ones are still over £50. No way am I paying that for an empty box with almost zero electronics! You can get an external 5 bay RAID box for less than that! Same goes for the 6-in-1 2.5" backplanes - £80 each.

It's annoying, as I can get a cheap 9-bay tower case (Sharkoon Rebel 9 Pro economy) that could be hidden out of the way and stacked with 15 3.5" drives (or even 54 2.5" drives... hmm), but the cost of the backplanes exceeds the cost of the rest of it.

I have been looking on ebay at second hand rack mount cases. Ordering from outside the UK is a non-starter, with postage costing over £100. That leaves some £200 10-bay cases.

I think I will end up getting the Rebel 9 case, or maybe the Node 804 if I have the cash, and trying to keep the drive count down to 8 or less. That way I can get away with x2 duplication and not have to go to x3, which would immediately demand that I get more drives to make up the usable storage capacity, which would lead to needing x4 dup... it could get very silly very quickly! :-)

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Wow, yeah, that's a significant price increase.

ANd yeah, the postage on large cases can be killer.

 

Though, one thing to look for is classified ads for data centers or IT companies. Sometimes, you can find a good deal if you're willing to pick it up. Though this is definitely not as reliable.

 

Either way, it sounds like you have a couple of fairly decent options at least.

[lee1978]

Hi Chris check out xcase.co.uk i got my cases from there and they have been Brilliant my setup is listed in the my rackmount section on here.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Thanks for posting that!

That looks like some pretty decent pricing for the rackmount cases. At least from what I've seen of the UK pricing.

[Chris Downs]

Hi Chris check out xcase.co.uk i got my cases from there and they have been Brilliant my setup is listed in the my rackmount section on here.

 

Ah! Thank you, I had seen that site once before but forgot its name. Bookmarked now. :-)