Raid Advice

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Hi,

I am thinking of implementing RAID 5 on a file server I have at home for my
MP3's etc. As it's a file server, I reckon my old P933 256Ram should do the
trick. I intend to buy a raid card of some sort and 3 new large discs.

I have my eyes on this card -
http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=16924 and 3 of
these discs http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MAX-PS160 .

My question is will it work, have I choosen the right combination, how can I
confirm my motherboard is suitable, just by it having a PCI slot.

Thanks for you help

Paul
 
Not Known said:
Hi,

I am thinking of implementing RAID 5 on a file server I have at home for my
MP3's etc. As it's a file server, I reckon my old P933 256Ram should do the
trick. I intend to buy a raid card of some sort and 3 new large discs.

I have my eyes on this card -
http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=16924 and 3 of
these discs http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MAX-PS160 .

My question is will it work, have I choosen the right combination, how can I
confirm my motherboard is suitable, just by it having a PCI slot.

Thanks for you help

Paul
Click to expand...

My humble thoughts:

Highpoint cards are fine, but almost ALL low-end RAID-5
implimentations are software RAID - and your above-mentioned system
might not be up to it. I don't know for sure with this particular
card, but the PATA version of it has had several complaints about the
high CPU utilization in RAID 5..... It'll be a slug, anyways - RAID 5
is slow.

You could pick up a cheaper regular SATA RAID card and an extra drive;
then you could do 0+1 - fast, light on the CPU, and still very safe.
From what I'm seeing on the links you gave, it'd be about GBP25 more
for the Highpoint RocketRAID 1520 and a fourth drive, compared to what
you've proposed. There are other manufacturerers, too - Khoutech makes
a cheap card that I've heard works well; here in the US it runs $20.

Anyways, good luck whatever you decide.
Peace!
ECM
 
Not said:
Hi,

I am thinking of implementing RAID 5 on a file server I have at home for my
MP3's etc. As it's a file server, I reckon my old P933 256Ram should do the
trick. I intend to buy a raid card of some sort and 3 new large discs.

I have my eyes on this card -
http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=16924 and 3 of
these discs http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MAX-PS160 .

My question is will it work, have I choosen the right combination, how can I
confirm my motherboard is suitable, just by it having a PCI slot.

Thanks for you help

Paul
Click to expand...
Is the card supported by your Operating System?

But I wonder whether you really need the redundancy/performance of Raid
5? I'd think a DVD burner for backup and one large HD would make more
sense for serving up MP3's.
 
Is the card supported by your Operating System?

But I wonder whether you really need the redundancy/performance of Raid
5? I'd think a DVD burner for backup and one large HD would make more
sense for serving up MP3's.
Click to expand...

Agreed...

MP3 server "needs" about Pentium 1, 133MHz, 16-64MB memory, one
hard drive and a 10Mb nic. Due to large HDD support, the
motherboard would need be newer or any IDE card-with-bios for
48bit LBA support.

On the other hand, there are ways to overcome this too, like
NasLite, http://www.serverelements.com/naslite.php

Backing up to OP's question, his PCI slot is probably v 2.1,
IIRC, a busmastering slot that should support typical RAID cards.
However, no indication of this MP3 service being critical has
been made, so RAID is in general uncalled for, it would be better
to just have a 2nd drive attached for periodic backup which is
then unplugged, not running nor able to be accessed.
 
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