Adding a drive to a RAID setup

[theeldest]

I've got a box cobbled together to run as my NAS.

Athlon64 3200+
1GB ECC Memory
ATI x1300pro video card
3x 640GB AAKS WD hard drives in RAID5 (SATA drives)
1x 15GB drive for OS (IDE drive; OS is Gentoo using md for RAID management)


But it's getting pretty full. (only have 150GB free space). The drives are $70 on ZipZoom and $75 on NewEgg.

Here's the question. I'm sure that sometime after adding a 4th drive to the array (md lets you just add a drive to expand the array) I'll want more space, and at that time, the only answer will be to use larger drives, replacing all 4.

Would I be better off getting a 640GB drive now, or installing something larger so that I only need to upgrade 3 drives down the road?


A third option, I guess, would be to add a controller/RAID card so that I can go past 4 drives in the array.

 

[Deleted member 3]

You have 1.2 TB now, just buy a larger drive, sell the current drives. You'd probably even make some money that way. Investing in more 640GB drives really isn't that efficient with the prices of larger drives the way they are.

 

[theeldest]

Ok, I guess there is a 5th option as well (if we take Dan's as the 4th option).

My desktop has one of these drives for the OS. I can replace that drive with something and put it into the server.

I'd probably pick the 640GB Black if I did this ....

 

[theeldest]

I just added another 640GB drive. May not have been the most economical choice, but it was the easiest.

Now I've got 700GB free again!

The 'growing' phase *only* took 16 hours (sheesh!). But it was very simple.

Hopefully this holds me off until I find 1.5TB or 2TB drive to be cost effective (either by an increase in income (I wish) or a drop in price). At which point, I'll replace all 4 drives.