Advise - File Server

hi,

I'm looking to set up a RAID 5/6 array and i'm looking for some advice.

Currently i'm looking at getting the Areca 1220 PCI-E raid controller and 8 Seagate 7200.10 barracuda 320GB drives. Are there any alternatives i can be looking at? Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

thanks

Hi Nerji,

I've recently been doing a lot of research into this myself lately as I'm trying to convince my boss that he should fund one for me to build

The controller card you've picked out is one of the best, if not the best performing RAID 5/6 SATA II controller. Not long ago it used to cost around £500 in the UK which I thought was a bit too much so I decided on getting the Promise SATA-300 RAID Controller SuperTrak EX8350 PCI-Express-4x, 8xSATA300, RAID 0/1/5/6/10, 128mbCache instead, but now that the Areca is down to under £375, it has become my first choice again.

The card supports live expansion I believe so I would personally not get 8 drives right away. I will probably start with 3 x Seagate 7200.10 500GB or 750GB drives and add more as required.

The one thing I haven't really looked into much is SAS - but thats because the controller prices are scary.

Thanks for the response Imy

The setup is for personal use and will be backend storage for media center recorded progs and whatnot.

Looking at it again you're right. I read up and it does support expansion so I'm just looking at the drives/costing at the mo i'll probably go with 3 seagate 500GB drives though.

I've delt with some SAS stuff at work but you're right its pretty pricey

You might also want to check out the Seagate Barracuda ES line of drives which are 24x7 server versions of the 7200.10 desktop series.

Looks cool, but since the normal seagates come with a 5 year warranty I think that will be enough. I did a bit more searching and I'll now be getting 3 750GB drives (found a good price). I'll post an update when I've gotten all the stuff up and running.

Thanks again