[mythtv-users] Fastest RAID for HD?

[Graham Mitchell]

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Roger Heflin
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 11:44 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Fastest RAID for HD?

<snippage>


There are some cases out there that have 9 external 5.25" bays, such as the 
Coolermaster Centurian 590 or the Thermoltake M9 (both cost about $70), and
with 
9 external 5.25 bays, you could put in 2 5-into-3 drive mount chassis you
could 
have 10 sata drives in the machine, and still have room for one more 5 into
3 or 
a 3-into-2 drive mount and still have a 5.25" slot, and get all of the
drives in 
a single chassis.     Both cases also have at least 1 more hidden 3.5" drive

mount location, and appear to claim to come with a single 4-into-3 non-hot
swap 
cage.

I don't have either one of these cases yet, but either one looks like a
decent 
reasonably cheap solution for a lot of disks in a single chassis without
going 
to the enterprise class solutions that cost a lot more.

I have gone this route (kinda), with the M9 case.... It's a REALLY nice case
- I've managed to pick up 3 over the last few months from Microcenter for
around the $50 mark After Rebates.

The downside of the M9 case, is that each of the external 5 1/4 slots has a
'lip' (for want of a better word) for the drive to sit on - which is great
if you're sticking a single drive in there. It is however, a PITA when
you're trying to get a 3 into 5 chassis mounted. I'm still working on a nice
way to bend the lip down, but I'm coming to the conclusion that brute force
is going to be the only way.

What I am doing (and I've got it set up and working internally in a case
now) is to use a  SATA bridge to a 4X Infiniband cable, connected to a SATA
bridge in the external M9 case, which then connects to a SATA port
multiplier, which then connects to the drives. I reckon I should be able to
mount 15 drives in an M9 case like this. Not sure what the thruput on the
drives will be, but since it's basically SATA all the way thru, it shouldn't
be too bad.


G