New HTPC/Server Build - Recommend Changes!

Yamahahahahaha · 3 Jul 2012 at 20:07

jamesfreddie said:
How does this differ from running 2TB drives then?

Rebuild times are going to be 50% longer when the array starts to get full (72 hours, on a good controller), as well as 1.5x more likely to fail rebuilding due to Unrecoverable Bit Error.
I wouldn't want 12TB of any data I cared about even in passing on a RAID5, under any configuration really. There's no reason for it. RAID6 and forget about it.

jamesfreddie · 3 Jul 2012 at 20:27

Yamahahahahaha said:
Rebuild times are going to be 50% longer when the array starts to get full (72 hours, on a good controller), as well as 1.5x more likely to fail rebuilding due to Unrecoverable Bit Error.
I wouldn't want 12TB of any data I cared about even in passing on a RAID5, under any configuration really. There's no reason for it. RAID6 and forget about it.

Would it take less time to rebuild if it was RAID 6?

beavis · 4 Jul 2012 at 21:09

Yamahahahahaha said:
The cashback ran out on the 30th of June.

Good news, it's started again

ecksmen · 4 Jul 2012 at 21:29

Given that your requirements of disk subsystem is minimal - streaming a file of 100GB over 90mins (average length of film) only requires 18.5MB/sec transfer rate. A single 3TB disk would easy handle this, so other than requiring additional ports and disk redundancy is a hardware raid controller really worth the £200 price tag? I'd be looking at something far less £ myself - windows 8 and storage pools may be ideal.

Edited

Yamahahahahaha · 4 Jul 2012 at 22:07

jamesfreddie said:
Would it take less time to rebuild if it was RAID 6?

No, it would take longer (up to 40% longer under high load), but it would mean two disks could fail before the array is in danger.
Writes are expensive in RAID6 (6 IOPs) but reads are cheap (1 IOP), but realistically it's not going to be an issue.
I couldn't bare to lose 1TB of stored music let alone 12TB.

beavis said:
Good news, it's started again

Woot!

@ecksmen, RAID controllers are fast at doing RAID calculations meaning higher performance. If you're not worried about performance then storage pools are fine. Maybe look at Drive Bender?

StevenBullen · 16 Jul 2012 at 13:41

Ok just an update for anyone who may look at this.

@jamesfreddie
I went for the Fractal case in the end.

Thanks for that. It has so much space for Hard Drives and also it's silent as fu...!

@Yamahahahahaha
After all the comments with hassle on the RAID side of things, I have taken a turn for the best and moved over to storage pool, using Drive Bender funnily enough.

Also I have a few more processes running and the machine can handle everything I throw at it. So thanks for all your help and one very happy person here.