Need help thinking through additional storage options for home network

[Ken]

I have a home network with 4 computers, 3 desktops and one laptop, as
well as two ReplayTVs. The main computer is mine; I have an Asus p4pe
mb with two SATA drives connected to the onboard controller (Promise).
I have a Plextor DVD burner attached to the IDE connector. In addition
to the storage needs below, I am thinking about purchasing a 2nd DVD
burner capable of burning dual layer DVD's and that would probably be a
SATA connection, although I could probably add one with an IDE connector
to the second connector of my present DVD burner.

I am running out of hard drive space and rather than upgrade my hdd's
from 120 GB main drive with a removable 250 GB that serves as storage
and backup for my other family members, I have a great price on 2 SATA
Maxtor Diamondmax 10 hdds that I would like to add for extra storage.
Presently I back up each computer nightly with TrueImage 8, with a full
backup every Sun AM and incremental backups nightly, rewritten each Sunday.

I am thinking about three possible solutions:

1. Add two 300 GB hdd SATA hdd's to my desktop for storage of movies,
music, and for backup. Since my computer only has 2 SATA receptacles, I
would need to add a SATA controller card.

2. Add a remote NAS storage in the networking closet in my home, such
as a Linksys NSLU2. It would allow for "remote" storage in the event
that someone steals my computer, as it would be unlikely, since the
house is alarmed, that they would be able to find the NAS by the time
the police responded. The unit allows for attachment of two external
USB hdd's. I am not sure how slow the data access would be, though. On
the other hand, the unit would be mainly for storage.

3. Now that my daughter is off to college and left her desktop, I have
a spare computer running XP and could set up the new drives as shared
drives, essentially adding attached storage. Her motherboard is an older
ASUS motherboard, CUSL2, and I would have to purchase a card to allow
for adding the new SATA drives.

If adding a SATA controller card is an option (and I say IF only because
I do not know how buggy they are), then I would appreciate suggestions
as to which cards I should consider.

I would also appreciate if someone who has the experience and
understanding could comment about how much option #2 would slow down
data transmission compared to having a hdd directly attached to a system
internally. Would a setup in #2 work over a network to, at some time in
the future, stream video to a home theater

Thanks
Ken K
Ken K

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a home network with 4 computers, 3 desktops and one laptop, as
well as two ReplayTVs. The main computer is mine; I have an Asus p4pe
mb with two SATA drives connected to the onboard controller (Promise).
I have a Plextor DVD burner attached to the IDE connector. In addition
to the storage needs below, I am thinking about purchasing a 2nd DVD
burner capable of burning dual layer DVD's and that would probably be
a SATA connection, although I could probably add one with an IDE
connector to the second connector of my present DVD burner.

I am running out of hard drive space and rather than upgrade my hdd's
from 120 GB main drive with a removable 250 GB that serves as storage
and backup for my other family members, I have a great price on 2 SATA
Maxtor Diamondmax 10 hdds that I would like to add for extra storage.
Presently I back up each computer nightly with TrueImage 8, with a
full backup every Sun AM and incremental backups nightly, rewritten
each Sunday.

I am thinking about three possible solutions:

1. Add two 300 GB hdd SATA hdd's to my desktop for storage of movies, music,
and for backup. Since my computer only has 2 SATA receptacles, I would need
to add a SATA controller card.

2. Add a remote NAS storage in the networking closet in my home, such as a
Linksys NSLU2.

I woudnt go that route myself, I'd use a real PC instead.

Basically gives you a lot more flexibility, with
the main downside that the box is a bit bigger.

It would allow for "remote" storage in the event that someone steals my
computer, as it would be unlikely, since the house is alarmed, that they would
be able to find the NAS by the time the police responded.

And you can secure that well enough to stop
any thief getting it before the cops show up.

Not so good with a house fire etc tho.

The unit allows for attachment of two external USB hdd's. I am not sure how
slow the data access would be, though. On the other hand, the unit would be
mainly for storage.

3. Now that my daughter is off to college and left her desktop, I have a
spare computer running XP and could set up the new drives as shared drives,
essentially adding attached storage. Her motherboard is an older ASUS
motherboard, CUSL2, and I would have to purchase a card to allow for adding
the new SATA drives.

If adding a SATA controller card is an option (and I say IF only because I do
not know how buggy they are), then I would appreciate suggestions as to which
cards I should consider.

I would also appreciate if someone who has the experience and understanding
could comment about how much option #2 would slow down data transmission
compared to having a hdd directly attached to a system internally.

Yes, its noticeably slower than with the drive internal unless you
go for a gigabit lan. gigabit lans are quite affordable now tho.

Would a setup in #2 work over a network to, at some time in the future, stream
video to a home theater

Yes, I do that now with captured digital TV which produces
2-3GB/hour/channel files, over 54Mb wireless to a wireless
laptop, works fine.

 

[Ken]

I woudnt go that route myself, I'd use a real PC instead.

Basically gives you a lot more flexibility, with
the main downside that the box is a bit bigger.




And you can secure that well enough to stop
any thief getting it before the cops show up.

Not so good with a house fire etc tho.




Yes, its noticeably slower than with the drive internal unless you
go for a gigabit lan. gigabit lans are quite affordable now tho.




Yes, I do that now with captured digital TV which produces
2-3GB/hour/channel files, over 54Mb wireless to a wireless
laptop, works fine.

Thanks. I have considered the fire issue and have a swapable hdd
enclosure that I do not exchange often enough... ;-)

Re: gigabit network. I have CAT5e throughout my house. Is that good
enough for gigabit or does gigabit require a different wire?

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote
Thanks. I have considered the fire issue and have a swapable hdd
enclosure that I do not exchange often enough... ;-)

Re: gigabit network. I have CAT5e throughout my house. Is that good enough
for gigabit or does gigabit require a different wire?

Should be fine, just change the NICs and switch etc.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I have a home network with 4 computers, 3 desktops and one laptop, as
well as two ReplayTVs. The main computer is mine; I have an Asus p4pe
mb with two SATA drives connected to the onboard controller (Promise).
I have a Plextor DVD burner attached to the IDE connector. In addition
to the storage needs below, I am thinking about purchasing a 2nd DVD
burner capable of burning dual layer DVD's and that would probably be a
SATA connection, although I could probably add one with an IDE connector
to the second connector of my present DVD burner.

I am running out of hard drive space and rather than upgrade my hdd's
from 120 GB main drive with a removable 250 GB that serves as storage
and backup for my other family members, I have a great price on 2 SATA
Maxtor Diamondmax 10 hdds that I would like to add for extra storage.

Personally I think that Maxtor is just adequate and that Seagate or
Samsung is preferrable in terms of noise, heat generation and reliability.

Presently I back up each computer nightly with TrueImage 8, with a full
backup every Sun AM and incremental backups nightly, rewritten each Sunday.

I am thinking about three possible solutions:

1. Add two 300 GB hdd SATA hdd's to my desktop for storage of movies,
music, and for backup. Since my computer only has 2 SATA receptacles, I
would need to add a SATA controller card.

Unless you need these disks to be very fast, this should not be a
problem. Get an SATA II controller if you can. I have a Promise
SATAII 150 TX4. Seems to run fine, under Linux as well.

2. Add a remote NAS storage in the networking closet in my home, such
as a Linksys NSLU2. It would allow for "remote" storage in the event
that someone steals my computer, as it would be unlikely, since the
house is alarmed, that they would be able to find the NAS by the time
the police responded. The unit allows for attachment of two external
USB hdd's. I am not sure how slow the data access would be, though. On
the other hand, the unit would be mainly for storage.

Here you should think about things like network security and cooling.
Personally I would rather use a Linux Box I maintain and secure myself
than an appliance where I do not know how well maintained the software
is (the NSLU2 is a small Linux box I believe). But I am comfortable
with maintaining a Linux installation, so probably a NSLU2 would be a good
choice if you are not. Just make sure it is not visible to the outside
of your home network by filtering all external traffic to it in
your firewall. That should give reasonable protection.

3. Now that my daughter is off to college and left her desktop, I have
a spare computer running XP and could set up the new drives as shared
drives, essentially adding attached storage. Her motherboard is an older
ASUS motherboard, CUSL2, and I would have to purchase a card to allow
for adding the new SATA drives.

If adding a SATA controller card is an option (and I say IF only because
I do not know how buggy they are), then I would appreciate suggestions
as to which cards I should consider.

See above. Hovwever I have not really used the Promise under Windows.
Under Linux I have a disk with several partitions in RAID1 with another
disk. Absolutely no problems so far.

I would also appreciate if someone who has the experience and
understanding could comment about how much option #2 would slow down
data transmission compared to having a hdd directly attached to a system
internally. Would a setup in #2 work over a network to, at some time in
the future, stream video to a home theater

2.: 100Mbps, i.e. a realistic upper transmission speed of 10MB/s,
if your network is not otherwise loaded. You gain a bit in access
time from additional bufferinf in the machine and you may lose
a bit because of protocol overhead.

Direct attached you can expect something like 3-6 times this
throughput, depending on disk and disk zone. Access time will
be comparable, maybe a bit faster.

Arno

 

[Ken]

I have a home network with 4 computers, 3 desktops and one laptop, as
well as two ReplayTVs. The main computer is mine; I have an Asus p4pe
mb with two SATA drives connected to the onboard controller (Promise). I
have a Plextor DVD burner attached to the IDE connector. In addition to
the storage needs below, I am thinking about purchasing a 2nd DVD burner
capable of burning dual layer DVD's and that would probably be a SATA
connection, although I could probably add one with an IDE connector to
the second connector of my present DVD burner.

I am running out of hard drive space and rather than upgrade my hdd's
from 120 GB main drive with a removable 250 GB that serves as storage
and backup for my other family members, I have a great price on 2 SATA
Maxtor Diamondmax 10 hdds that I would like to add for extra storage.
Presently I back up each computer nightly with TrueImage 8, with a full
backup every Sun AM and incremental backups nightly, rewritten each Sunday.

I am thinking about three possible solutions:

1. Add two 300 GB hdd SATA hdd's to my desktop for storage of movies,
music, and for backup. Since my computer only has 2 SATA receptacles, I
would need to add a SATA controller card.

2. Add a remote NAS storage in the networking closet in my home, such
as a Linksys NSLU2. It would allow for "remote" storage in the event
that someone steals my computer, as it would be unlikely, since the
house is alarmed, that they would be able to find the NAS by the time
the police responded. The unit allows for attachment of two external
USB hdd's. I am not sure how slow the data access would be, though. On
the other hand, the unit would be mainly for storage.

3. Now that my daughter is off to college and left her desktop, I have
a spare computer running XP and could set up the new drives as shared
drives, essentially adding attached storage. Her motherboard is an older
ASUS motherboard, CUSL2, and I would have to purchase a card to allow
for adding the new SATA drives.

If adding a SATA controller card is an option (and I say IF only because
I do not know how buggy they are), then I would appreciate suggestions
as to which cards I should consider.

I would also appreciate if someone who has the experience and
understanding could comment about how much option #2 would slow down
data transmission compared to having a hdd directly attached to a system
internally. Would a setup in #2 work over a network to, at some time in
the future, stream video to a home theater

Thanks
Ken K
Ken K

Thanks to all for the input

Ken

 

[jtpryan]

Ken,

Why not use a Promise Raid controller configured for RAID 5, and
attach 3 300 Gb drives to it to get the 600 Gb you want? That way you
would have the redundancy of the extra drive. If it were me, I don't
even think I would bother with the backup in this scenerio, but I guess
that depends on just how critical the data is.

-Jim

 

[Ken]

Ken,

Why not use a Promise Raid controller configured for RAID 5, and
attach 3 300 Gb drives to it to get the 600 Gb you want? That way you
would have the redundancy of the extra drive. If it were me, I don't
even think I would bother with the backup in this scenerio, but I guess
that depends on just how critical the data is.

-Jim

Jim,

Thanks for your suggestion. Your setup would certainly be reasonable
and affordable. I had not considered it because I am not familiar with
RAID beyond the "RAID" 0 (striping) which I had done in NT4 and RAID1
that comes with my mb. I assume that RAID 5 is not difficult to set up
and I think that it is very clever mathematics with being able to
restore data because of the parity bits.

Here are a few simple questions:

1.What is the least/most number of drives that can be used in a RAID 5
array?

2.How does one determine the amount of capacity that one will derive
from the drives? I assume it is the size of an individual drive.

3. Do all the drives have to be the same manufacturer/model or just the
same capacity?

4. Do you have a recommendation for which Promise Controller works
reliably?


Thanks
Ken K