Most reliable Hard drives and PSU for 24/7 use? Which RAID?

[HTC]

The PSU doesn't use a 3-pin for it's fan, it is seperated from case fans. Connected to the controller board on the PSU.


http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...odular_Power_Supply_-_80Plus_GoldLZG-550.html

Yes, i know. Isn't it possible to hook it up there via an adapter or something?

The reviews aren't the greatest though. And the drive is helluva expensive.



idk

So RAID 10 is obviously better than RAID 01 for me. Now to investigate RAID 50 and 51.... Too high minimum disks so RAID 10 it is!

Recommend you look for a dedicated RAID card: it helps allot but it also tends to be expensive.

 

[n-ster]

Yes, i know. Isn't it possible to hook it up there via an adapter or something?

Recommend you look for a dedicated RAID card: it helps allot but it also tends to be expensive.

RAID 10 isn't complex so the ICH10R should do fine. Now to find HDDs that are a good value while still being reliable... SAS are too expensive

 

[John Doe]

The platinum is better than the Gold by enough for me to prefer that over the fan lol

Yeah but, there isn't much difference between Gold and Platinum. You're looking at saving a few dollars here and there. However fanless operation could affect the life of the unit (capacitors).

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8417

Yes, i know. Isn't it possible to hook it up there via an adapter or something?

To my knowledge, nope. Unless you cut the cable.

 

[n-ster]

Well, my favorite PSU was always the XFX XPS Black Edition... I didn't remember the exact numbers though... Well check this: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=184

WOW... now I know why I was screaming on the top of my lungs that I love it. Could this be the PSU?

 

[John Doe]

Yep, it's a solid PSU. Built on a tweaked SeaSonic platform like the PCP&C Silencer. You can get it. If possible, make sure you get a lower watt version. Yeah, don't go overkill, no point in wasting money. There is also a passive version of the Kingwin LZP which came out a while ago:

KINGWIN STR-500 500W ATX 12V v2.2, EPS 12V v2.91 a...

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=253

 

[n-ster]

Yep, it's a solid PSU. Built on a tweaked SeaSonic platform like the PCP&C Silencer. You can get it. If possible, make sure you get a lower watt version. Yeah, don't go overkill, no point in wasting money. There is also a passive version of the Kingwin LZP which came out a while ago:

KINGWIN STR-500 500W ATX 12V v2.2, EPS 12V v2.91 a...

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=253

Yes but only the higher watt model offer the quality I'm looking for, unless I go towards the KingWin Platinum, which is much more expensive route!

My ideal wattage would have been 600~650W I guess, but $/perf, the XFX seems like a good buy at 114$ - 30$ MIR

 

[John Doe]

Sure, I would go for it then. These units would all do what you want, no need to worry much at all.

 

[IlluminAce]

Seconded, the XFX BE is a solid unit, essentially identical to the HX750W. But, again, 750W... you're running this system 24/7 but are not going to pull enough power to hit the maximum efficiency bracket, hence wasting power/$.

RAID10 is right, just be aware that the CPU will be working 24x7 doing the job that a dedicated h/w RAID controller would usually do. That's probably fine, since the system will only have one other task - processing incoming video streams - just be aware you'll have a pretty constant, unrelenting load from the get-go. I was so surprised how much CPU R10 was taking on my 2600 under Linux that I ditched it straightaway, but this may have just been a Linux driver issue.

Might not be a bad idea to buy a spare drive too if you go down the RAID10 route, and practice the swapover on fail with your Uncle, so he knows what to do.

 

[n-ster]

Seconded, the XFX BE is a solid unit, essentially identical to the HX750W. But, again, 750W... you're running this system 24/7 but are not going to pull enough power to hit the maximum efficiency bracket, hence wasting power/$.

RAID10 is right, just be aware that the CPU will be working 24x7 doing the job that a dedicated h/w RAID controller would usually do. That's probably fine, since the system will only have one other task - processing incoming video streams - just be aware you'll have a pretty constant, unrelenting load from the get-go. I was so surprised how much CPU R10 was taking on my 2600 under Linux that I ditched it straightaway, but this may have just been a Linux driver issue.

Might not be a bad idea to buy a spare drive too if you go down the RAID10 route, and practice the swapover on fail with your Uncle, so he knows what to do.

I just noticed the CAG9 (XFX BE) is not sold anymore and only the NALG9 (XFX PRO XXX edition) is sold now. People say it is the same or about... After some research it does look similar enough but what do you think?

An i7 920 D0 at 3.15 Ghz will be able to handle RAID10 with ease. It's been said to add 3~5% CPU usage max The incoming stream was handle with ease by an old Pentium 4.

Right now I am searching 1.5TB or 2TB drives that are good

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Id go with Samsung F3's either the 500GB or 1TB depending on your needs.
WD black edition hard drives are fast. but they are also noisey.

And dont touch seagate. their drives have a high failure rate and thats not something you want in a RAID array.

 

[n-ster]

Source

According to this, the EcoGreen F3 are great. This study was done 6 months ago. Perhaps the F4 is as good? The RE4-GP is great, but out of my price range, and I'm looking for under ~2% max failure rate. (I read the source in the original language as I speak french)

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Ecogreen F3's and F4's are 1.5TB-2TB hard drives that run at 5400RPM not 7200.

All my recommendations are based off word of mouth. I wouldnt trust any study at all.

 

[AsRock]

If i was going do a raid with 4+ drives again i would go for the WD drives again as i had no issue what so ever using the Intel chipset.

I found that every second drive would give a better boost. All so you might want to think about buying 5 or even 6 and just raiding 4 and making the other 2 spares so you can lower down time. Might want to label every thing as well so you know what drive to what cable which will help a load when\if it comes to replacing a drive.

Be nice these are old drives. I did do a test using smaller partitions to get better speeds but i guess that goes against what you need.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=982575&postcount=143

 

[n-ster]

If i was going do a raid with 4+ drives again i would go for the WD drives again as i had no issue what so ever using the Intel chipset.

I found that every second drive would give a better boost. All so you might want to think about buying 5 or even 6 and just raiding 4 and making the other 2 spares so you can lower down time. Might want to label every thing as well so you know what drive to what cable which will help a load when\if it comes to replacing a drive.

Be nice these are old drives. I did do a test using smaller partitions to get better speeds but i guess that goes against what you need.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=982575&postcount=143

I think I'm going to do 6x 1TB Samsung F3R (HE103SJ). That's 80$ x6 + 10$ ship + 25$ tax = 515$ (newegg.ca)

Will I have any problems doing this considering the drives are 512B Sectors and this will go on XP 32 bit?

 

[newtekie1]

I'd just like to clear up some misconceptions with hardware vs. software RAID.

Back in the day, software RAID would really kill the CPU, but that was back in the single-core PIII era. With todays CPUs, the load on the CPU with software RAID is next on non-existant. Maybe loading one CPU core to 10-15% during heavy writes.

As for what RAID level to go with, RAID5 all the way. In fact if you are using ICH10R with more than 4 drives, you have to go RAID5. It doesn't support RAID 10 with 6 drives. Even with 4 drives I'd use RAID 5, you can even just use 3 Drives.

Now really the important part, and the part that will probably kill your entire plan(sorry). You are talking about arrays that will equal 4-5GB in size. To use arrays this big you have to use GPT to format the drive. MBR, the traditional partition table used to format drives, only supports disks/arrays up to 2TB. Unfortunately Windows XP 32-bit does not support GPT.

 

[IlluminAce]

Windows XP 32-bit does not support GPT.

Excellent point, I'd completely forgotten! Thankfully my interactions with the Windows world these days are few and far between.

Given that, I'd suggest mirroring 2TBs.

 

[Disparia]

I think I'm going to do 6x 1TB Samsung F3R (HE103SJ). That's 80$ x6 + 10$ ship + 25$ tax = 515$ (newegg.ca)

Will I have any problems doing this considering the drives are 512B Sectors and this will go on XP 32 bit?

What does he have? 32 camera and wants to archive footage for a year? (no, not being snide at all, just wondering about the requirements of this system)

 

[AsRock]

I think I'm going to do 6x 1TB Samsung F3R (HE103SJ). That's 80$ x6 + 10$ ship + 25$ tax = 515$ (newegg.ca)

Will I have any problems doing this considering the drives are 512B Sectors and this will go on XP 32 bit?

As newtekie1 said already.

And when i was using raid 5 i was using XP x64 and Vista x64. I would still keep one of them as a spare then you can tell it to replace the failing\failed one to be replaced with the spare.

I'd just like to clear up some misconceptions with hardware vs. software RAID.

Back in the day, software RAID would really kill the CPU, but that was back in the single-core PIII era. With todays CPUs, the load on the CPU with software RAID is next on non-existant. Maybe loading one CPU core to 10-15% during heavy writes.

As for what RAID level to go with, RAID5 all the way. In fact if you are using ICH10R with more than 4 drives, you have to go RAID5. It doesn't support RAID 10 with 6 drives. Even with 4 drives I'd use RAID 5, you can even just use 3 Drives.

Now really the important part, and the part that will probably kill your entire plan(sorry). You are talking about arrays that will equal 4-5GB in size. To use arrays this big you have to use GPT to format the drive. MBR, the traditional partition table used to format drives, only supports disks/arrays up to 2TB. Unfortunately Windows XP 32-bit does not support GPT.

 

[n-ster]

I'd just like to clear up some misconceptions with hardware vs. software RAID.

Back in the day, software RAID would really kill the CPU, but that was back in the single-core PIII era. With todays CPUs, the load on the CPU with software RAID is next on non-existant. Maybe loading one CPU core to 10-15% during heavy writes.

As for what RAID level to go with, RAID5 all the way. In fact if you are using ICH10R with more than 4 drives, you have to go RAID5. It doesn't support RAID 10 with 6 drives. Even with 4 drives I'd use RAID 5, you can even just use 3 Drives.

Now really the important part, and the part that will probably kill your entire plan(sorry). You are talking about arrays that will equal 4-5GB in size. To use arrays this big you have to use GPT to format the drive. MBR, the traditional partition table used to format drives, only supports disks/arrays up to 2TB. Unfortunately Windows XP 32-bit does not support GPT.

Ahaha, I have good news My friend JrRacinFan warn me about this a few hours ago, and I googled and : http://ca.gigabyte.com/microsite/276/3tb.html http://www.asrock.pl/Feature/3TB/index.asp

Both my mobos will work As long as I partition them into smaller than 2TB partitions each, I am fine!

Bummer about 6 HDD RAID 10. What I don't like about RAID 5 is that if a drive fails, there is down-time right from the start right? All I want is that if any 1 drive fails, the system keeps working like normal, with the same amount of HDD space (albeit a performance hit is OK). Where can I see the limitations of ICH10R?

What does he have? 32 camera and wants to archive footage for a year? (no, not being snide at all, just wondering about the requirements of this system)

ATM only 16 CCTV cameras and 3 months at least, but planning to expand with 720p IP cameras (not sure how many yet). Still trying to keep 1 month minimum, 2 months great, 3 months a tad bit overkill. Later on I think the plan is to have 16 CCTV + 8~16 720p IP, or perhaps a complete switch to 720p IP, which means 24x 720p IP.

 

[AsRock]

Yes there is a performance hit which put mine down to about a single drive.

but how about 2 arrays and if one fails you could switch to the other ?.

 

[n-ster]

Yes there is a performance hit which put mine down to about a single drive.

but how about 2 arrays and if one fails you could switch to the other ?.

You mean RAID 51? That's a bit much in fail-safe My goal is that if any 1 HDD fails, nothing changes in terms of Data and operation (ie: 1 drive fails, the system continues to run and HDD space doesn't change)

 

[newtekie1]

Ahaha, I have good news My friend JrRacinFan warn me about this a few hours ago, and I googled and : http://ca.gigabyte.com/microsite/276/3tb.html http://www.asrock.pl/Feature/3TB/index.asp

Both my mobos will work As long as I partition them into smaller than 2TB partitions each, I am fine!

Bummer about 6 HDD RAID 10. What I don't like about RAID 5 is that if a drive fails, there is down-time right from the start right? All I want is that if any 1 drive fails, the system keeps working like normal, with the same amount of HDD space (albeit a performance hit is OK). Where can I see the limitations of ICH10R?

Motherboard/hardware support is one thing, software support is another. Windows still has to be able to address the Volume, and Windows XP being limitted to MBR means no Volumes larger than 2TB. MBR can only address 2TB Volumes. Partitioning isn't going to help any here, because the partition table is part of the MBR system(or the GPT). So using MBR you can only have Volumes of 2TB, you can partition that 2TB into as many partitions as you want, but the Volume will only be 2TB even if it is really 6TB physically.

As for RAID 5 and a drive failure, no there is no down time usually, and if there is downtime it is only the time to replace the drive(though you should be able to hot swap the drive with the ICH10R without even a reboot). The array continues to function without the failed drive, it just functions in a "degraded" state, meaning that if another drive fails you are screwed, and there is very little performance loss and no space loss. Also, you can replace the drive and rebuild the array without any down time.

 

[Disparia]

Ahaha, I have good news My friend JrRacinFan warn me about this a few hours ago, and I googled and : http://ca.gigabyte.com/microsite/276/3tb.html http://www.asrock.pl/Feature/3TB/index.asp

Both my mobos will work As long as I partition them into smaller than 2TB partitions each, I am fine!

Bummer about 6 HDD RAID 10. What I don't like about RAID 5 is that if a drive fails, there is down-time right from the start right? All I want is that if any 1 drive fails, the system keeps working like normal, with the same amount of HDD space (albeit a performance hit is OK). Where can I see the limitations of ICH10R?

ATM only 16 CCTV cameras and 3 months at least, but planning to expand with 720p IP cameras (not sure how many yet). Still trying to keep 1 month minimum, 2 months great, 3 months a tad bit overkill. Later on I think the plan is to have 16 CCTV + 8~16 720p IP, or perhaps a complete switch to 720p IP, which means 24x 720p IP.

Makes sense Having run some 8-12 camera 640x480 @ 15FPS security systems, I was wondering why all the power and storage I/O was wanted.

To put another option out there, you could just do three 2TB RAID-1's and have the camera recordings split off to each (I assume this is an option with your software, most support it). If there are any additional Marvell or Jmicron controllers on board, could add drives and create arrays on them too.

I think ICH10 should suffice (for 6 mechanical hard drives). I can bench both my 2-drive RAID-0 and 4-drive RAID-5 at the same time and the performance is nearly identical to when I bench them separately.

 

[Steevo]

1. you want raid 5. i think it requires 4 drives. you speed, storage space, and redundancy for any one of the drives failing.

2. anything enterprise class, probably require SAS instead of sata. there are sata enterprise drives out there, but if you're going proper raid you'd want a card anyway... so choose SAS if possible.

3. corsair all the way baby!



if you're making this for a store, for fucks sake do not even THINK of screwing around with ramdrives and overclocking. you're just asking for trouble. get it stable at stock speeds and undervolt it where possible to keep the heat down, because it WILL get dusty, it will overheat, and it will not end up being maintained like an end users PC.

Three for RAID 5, and then you can either hot spare the extra drive or increase capacity.

In RAID 5 if any drive fails the rest of the array works fine, you add another drive back in and either it will rebuild the array on its own or you tell it to, and it will do it at a set priority level such as background task, primary task, or offline task.

nster is correct GPT will have to be used, I used it on my 6TB RAID media storage.


I would suggest getting a good controller card, then your array can be moved to other machines with no loss of data. If your board dies and it takes the controller with it you will need to get another just like it usually to maintain your array. If you have a card and the board dies, get whatever you want, it will still work. If you card dies, you can replace it with the same brand of card normally and have no issues, or the same model of card.

 

[n-ster]

Motherboard/hardware support is one thing, software support is another. Windows still has to be able to address the Volume, and Windows XP being limitted to MBR means no Volumes larger than 2TB. MBR can only address 2TB Volumes. Partitioning isn't going to help any here, because the partition table is part of the MBR system(or the GPT). So using MBR you can only have Volumes of 2TB, you can partition that 2TB into as many partitions as you want, but the Volume will only be 2TB even if it is really 6TB physically.

As for RAID 5 and a drive failure, no there is no down time usually, and if there is downtime it is only the time to replace the drive(though you should be able to hot swap the drive with the ICH10R without even a reboot). The array continues to function without the failed drive, it just functions in a "degraded" state, meaning that if another drive fails you are screwed, and there is very little performance loss and no space loss. Also, you can replace the drive and rebuild the array without any down time.

Ohhh, so I guess RAID 5 is good then. Am I right by saying, using 1TB HDDs, that 3 Drives = 2TB, 4 drives = 3TB, 5 drives = 4TB and 6 drives = 5TB? So 10 drives = 9TB? If one drive dies, no data loss or down time at all? I just order a new HDD, hope none die while it arrives, and plug the thing in? (I don't care about a reboot, as long as it doesn't take more than a few hours)

The link states Windows XP 32-bit should support 3TB+ (look at Gigabyte link). What it does is it makes Virtual volumes IIRC