Motherboard with SATA RAID01

[Rondog]

Just a quicky hopefully, I need a motherboard which is preferable C2D, 4xDDR2, capable of 8gb. Needs at least 4x SATA2 points capable of RAID01.

IE:

4x1.5tb HDD.

1.5tb-1.5tb : striped and then mirrored with the other 1.5tb-1.5tb.

Any thoughts ladies and gentlemen?

Or is it worth spending the extrafor a SCSI setup?

Just a bit of background info, am building a new server to use for image storage. Part of my business is system recoveries, and I always take images before I recover, just in case. And I need somewhere to store them all. NAS is not an option because network backbone is not fast enough for what I need.

[Daniel ~]

Gizmo knows hardrives and all their uses...

I'll drop him a line.":O}

[Gizmo]

Unless you are planning on some type of multiuser environment where you are going to be serving data to multiple users/applications at the same time, I'd expect decent SATA2 drives to be more than adequate. Any more, SCSI is really only called for in heavy-duty big-iron server environments or hardcore workstation-type stuff.

That being said, I'd recommend getting a dedicated SATA2 RAID controller, rather than using on-board mobo-based RAID, ESPECIALLY if you are planning on doing a RAID 10 configuration.

3Ware makes some pretty nice SATA RAID controllers, as does LSI. I've not played with Adaptec's offerings, but if their SCSI controllers are anything to go by, I'd not spend the money it'd take to shoot one much less actually own it.

[Rondog]

Getting a SATA RAID card, what sort of system would I need to back it up. Mid range new, or would an old P4 3ghz w/ 1gb ram handle it ok?

[Gizmo]

An old P4 board would be running a PCI bus, which means that you'd be limiting the transfer rate to about 100 MB/S, tops, which would rather defeat the purpose of building a RAID10. Going with a PCIe board would increase that limit to about 200 MB/S or so, minimum.

[Rondog]

I was thinking entry level C2D, such as an E7300.

[Áedán]

SCSI or SAS is way over the top for what you're wanting. If I understand correctly, you're really looking for near-line storage. As Gizmo says, hardware RAID tends to be more reliable, but slightly slower. If you need every gram of performance you can squeeze out of a disk array, then software RAID is the way to go. This doesn't sound like the scenario you're facing, so hardware RAID may be more useful.

The downside of hardware RAID is that the controller card is generally fairly expensive. LSI do a range of SATA/SAS controllers (note that SAS controllers can generally talk SATA as well as SAS, but SATA controllers don't generally talk SAS) in various bus configurations, ranging from 4 ports up to 16 ports.

[Rondog]

Reliability is what I'm after. I am not hugely concerned about cost, the business will be paying for it.

Finally, can I run two separate RAID arrays, IE: two separate RAID10 arrays?

[Áedán]

Depends on the RAID controller. Most controllers I've come across will allow you to have any number of RAID arrays. One thing to remember though, if you only have a four port RAID controller, you can only have one RAID10 array. If you want two RAID10 arrays, you'll need a minimum of eight ports.

[Rondog]

I've got all sorts of ideas running around in my head at the moment: media centre with redundancy, file server to store images, WSUS, RIS. I'm sure I will get it all sorted out. Now that I know what I'm after for RAID. Do you think a basic C2D will be sufficient for a system to run it?

[Áedán]

A file server doesn't take a lot of CPU power. Presumably, if you are running WSUS and RIS, you'll also have an active directory.

What's the media centre going to be used for - If it's video, is the machine going to have hardware acceleration suitable for the encoding used?

[Rondog]

This is what i've decided on after looking at my options.

I'm wanting a machine to do AD, WSUS, RIS, file/printing sharing. With the 3tb RAID10 array as mentioned above. Will be running Windows Server 2003.

I'm wanting a second machine for a media centre with a 1tb RAID1 array for protection of my data. It will be connected to the network, but not on the domain. Media centre will be connected to the TV, watch/record live tv, watch stored DVD's, play music etc. Will probably run XP MCE 2005.

Or is their a better option I could look at.

[Áedán]

Personally, I'm using Mythbuntu (MythTV on Ubuntu) for my media centre, although it's all at SD at the moment. HD requires more resouces, strangely enough.

I don't see why an MCE wouldn't work either - as it supports DVB.

[Rondog]

For the media centre the plan thus far C2D E8400, 2gb ram, GA-EG45M-DS2H, 2x1tb HDD in RAID1 array for media, 80gb for OS/apps. And a blu-ray reader. HD/Analog hybrid tuner. Mythbuntu, never heard of it, will look into it later on today. Does it support remote controls, thats why I was thinking MCE with an official MS Remote.

For new server for home. XEON X3330, Intel S3210SHLC, 4gb RAM, 4x1.5tb RAID 1 0 array on a RAID card of some kind, just need to find one first. And possibly 2x80gb RAID 1 for OS/apps on the onboard SATA RAID.