Benefits of Raid

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muell
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Benefits of Raid

Post by muell »

Im planning a rebuild of my families main computer. This computer sits in our family room and its the computer that we all sync our tablets and ipods to. It also is used as a gaming computer when our Htpc is being used for something else. Its main function though is to store our media files. Right now it has and old intel badaxe2 board with a e6600. It also has I believe 5 drives hooked to it. One for the OS and the rest for media. Most of our media is in itunes. Lots of Mp3 & Mp4's that get streamed to Apple TV's and a HTPC. My planned rebuild is to go to a new haswell board and a I7. I was also considering a raid arry but the more I think about it I think its an unnecessary complication. Here are my reasons against going raid.

1. I have existing hd and any new hd I by wont be the same size I hope to go larger as large drives get cheaper. So raid 5 would not work for me.
2. I have alot of data that I dont care about redundancy on. The drives I do care about like family pictures and movies I would just use win 7 drive mirroring. I would feel safer with this than using raid. If I would have hardware failure I would be able to take that mirrored drive out and read it with any computer not so with raid.
3. I dont need one large volume. Im fine with having my movies spread across two 2tb drives instead of one location most software can see media from more than one drive even itunes.

The only reason I can think to go with a raid setup is to get more storage space for the money vs straight mirroring of drives and speed but speed hasnt been a issue up to this point. So I guess Im looking for someone to agree with me or convince me that I should go with a raid setup.
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KnightRid
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Re: Benefits of Raid

Post by KnightRid »

Honestly, I dont think you need RAID at all. Just doesnt seem like you have enough data to justify it. You could go with a RAID 1 setup to have a total backup of a drive but like you said, you can just use drive mirroring.

So, no, you don't need RAID IMO. Now go and get some big hard drives and have some fun.

This was hard to write because you said that 'i' word - WORST program EVER. Ugh, ok, got it out of my system LOL
Remember, I am opinionated and nothing I say or do reflects on anyone or anything else but me :finga:
muell
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Re: Benefits of Raid

Post by muell »

KnightRid wrote:Honestly, I dont think you need RAID at all. Just doesnt seem like you have enough data to justify it. You could go with a RAID 1 setup to have a total backup of a drive but like you said, you can just use drive mirroring.

So, no, you don't need RAID IMO. Now go and get some big hard drives and have some fun.

This was hard to write because you said that 'i' word - WORST program EVER. Ugh, ok, got it out of my system LOL
Good. Glad someone else shares my view on the raid. I've had to deal with a puncture on our raid 5 file server at work and I don't want that kind of hassle at home.

my family loves the Apple tv interface. I've learned to live with it. Also one benefit of mp4's over mkv's is that you can embed the cover art and have it display as the icon in windows. I just wish itunes didnt have to be running on the server computer.
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bubba
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Re: Benefits of Raid

Post by bubba »

Instead of building a power sucking monster to act as a server, might look at a NAS. Most now even have security camera software and built in iTunes servers.

For my family I run a 5 drive NAS box with five 1TB drives in RAID5. Serves as a central media storage and desktop backup for the house.

For a backup routine, when I rip/convert my movies I burn the converted mp4 off to a DVD when I get enough to fill it. Usually 3 or 4 movies. Then add that to a spindle that sits in the corner for rebuilding if for some reason the NAS eats its own head. More sensitive/non replaceable stuff like the taxes and family photos, have an external drive that I mirror the data to regularly that gets stored in a safe.

Best part, most NAS boxes under heavy load pull less wattage than a 60w light bulb, and is the size of a shoe box.


I have used Buffalo, Thecus, Qnap, and WD NAS boxes. Qnap hands down is the best interface I have used, also very nice,quiet, well built units. I currently run a Thecus unit at home, but think my Christmas gift to myself will be a Qnap TS-569L link
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muell
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Re: Benefits of Raid

Post by muell »

Ive thought of that but even with a NAS that runs as a itunes server you still have to go through a pc to do home sharing for the apple tv. This is a stupid requirement of itunes for the appletv. The other thing is Im going to have this computer regardless and it is on most of the time anyway. I had thought about adding a smaller low power computer like a mac mini or a mini-itx computer and using that in the basement with a pci e card for the additional sata ports and use that as the server running running itunes. but like I said the other computer is on most of the time anyway so this would just be adding more power consumption. I guess I could try to go with a lower power build for the main computer but we do use it for gaming, video conversion from bluray and dvd to mp4 and the big one I occasionally do cad work from home.
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bubba
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Re: Benefits of Raid

Post by bubba »

Ah.

My kids have a AMD A6 based PC they share, and each have tablets & mp3 players, they boy has an Xbox (also what I use to stream vids to main TV). Kids go no where near my PC :lol:

I do CAD/CAM work at home as well (Inventor mainly), and all my video conversion with it, Its only on when I'm using it.
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
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muell
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Re: Benefits of Raid

Post by muell »

What type of cad/Cam software do you use? I work for a millwork company. We use Autocad and MasterCAM for our CNC machines.
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bubba
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Re: Benefits of Raid

Post by bubba »

Inventor for the 3DCAD side, Autocad for the 2Dside, and Meshcam on the CAM side.

Meshcam is not a refined as Mastercam, but gets me close enough for hobby projects. I have used Mastercam, UGNX, Surfcam, BobCAD, Nicam... many things over the years, miss the finer control. Meshcam is more like a sawed off shotgun in comparison, gets the job done, but no finesse.


Working on a hilt at the moment for my son's Links Master Sword build.
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"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
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