Too Many drives!!!

ninjasurfer1

Help!!

Currently, I have approx 13 hard drives (7 IDE and 6 SATA's) about 7 TB's worth.
I'm looking to put approx 4-6 of them into a HTPC and store most of my movies/music for playback on the tv.

I currently use a 1TB NAS drive to send the media to an XBMC xbox, but I have to transfer the files i need to the NAS box first which is quite slow and involves moving files back and forward across my lan.


What I'm looking for is the following:
HTPC with 4-6 drive capacity (approx 4-5TB's of storage).
HD playback
WIFI/Ethernet
Internet, etc.
quiet.
small footprint - If possible, I'd like the capability of switching off the HDD's I'm not using to reduce heat and the associated electricity costs with having them all spinning at the one time.

I've researched this but cannot find any suitable pc's.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance....

AlmightyCushion

I'd say you'd have to go down the route of a self build. I've seen quite a few cases on hardwareversand that take around 7 hdds, they looked quite nice as well and would work well in a cabinet under a tv. Not low footprint. The hard drives will turn off anyways when not being used so don't worry about that.

ninjasurfer1

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I'd say you'd have to go down the route of a self build. I've seen quite a few cases on hardwareversand that take around 7 hdds, they looked quite nice as well and would work well in a cabinet under a tv. Not low footprint. The hard drives will turn off anyways when not being used so don't worry about that.

Thanks for the reply Almighty,

What kind of spec/price do you think I'd be looking at for a self build?
I already have a high spec computer (quad core, etc), so i'd prefer not to have to spend a load on a new build.

For (mainly) movie/audio playback, do you think i'd get away with:

2GB's of ram.
nvidia 8800 (or less preferably).
6 drives,
7.1 audio card.
Avermedia TV card.
Dunno about the case,I'll look up hardwareversand as you suggested.
Any ideas on the motherboard and PSU?

Thanks.

AlmightyCushion

You could get away with much less graphics card wise. An ati 4350 would easily do full hd and I think it does 7.1 sound as well through a DVI>hdmi that comes with them. Might want to double check the sound though. Even if it doesn't on board sound is pretty good nowadays. PSU you'd get away with a decent 450w I'd imagine. Motherboard, just get something with enough sata ports. You should get one for about 60 or 70.

somakasvh

You could maybe go for the antec mini P180.
It's got 5 3.5" drive bays, and you could convert one or two of the 5.25" bays to jam in more drives.
Airflow to the drives could be a problem, however, as the front 120mm fan mounts can't be used if 3.5" drive bays are installed, but overall the case+fans should be pretty quiet.

Anything with better airflow/more hdd bays will probably mean going ATX.

If you're not gaming on the machine, you can get away with using a 9300/9400 intel or amd 780G/790GX mobo which will reduce power/heat/etc

Solitaire

Silverstone SST-LC17B is a more HTPC-esque case that won't break the bank (...too much - its nearly €90) while accomodating 6 HDDs (as well as the external bays!). Downside is that its big and can't mount as many HDDs if the front 80mm fans are installed depending on motherboard topology GD01 is similar with the addition of a VFD and remote but its far more scarce and expensive as a result

After that things are simple. Get a mobo with 7.1 sound and 6-8 SATA ports (usually mATX can only mount 4-6 and those cases above can take ATX mobos anyway), a basic CPU (e.g. E5200 for LGA775), 4GB RAM, a HD4350 for HDMI acceleration and a basic PSU. Bear in mind that you'd have to spend a fair bit to make it worth your while getting a discrete sound card.

the_syco

Maybe a ASUS P5QL-EM Sockel 775 Intel G43, mATX at €77 would suit you? It has 6 SATA ports. Then add something a card like http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338397 into the case, to bring it up to 10 SATA ports.

Maybe cut down the amount of drives? Put in a "green" WD 2TB drive or two? It will save space but will cost €40 extra (as opposed to buying two seperate drives at €80 each).

Solitaire

I wouldn't want to pay out for delivery from both HWVS and Komplett!

the_syco wrote:

Maybe cut down the amount of drives? Put in a "green" WD 2TB drive or two? It will save space but will cost €40 extra (as opposed to buying two seperate drives at €80 each).

RTFM! The OP already has over a dozen modern HDDs floating around and is looking for somewhere to stuff some of them!

ninjasurfer1

Solitaire wrote: »

I wouldn't want to pay out for delivery from both HWVS and Komplett!



RTFM! The OP already has over a dozen modern HDDs floating around and is looking for somewhere to stuff some of them!

Thanks for all of the advice lads,

I'll try and put together a spec and come back for your comments.

As for buying more hard drive, I'd love to, but the missus would divorce me!!

the_syco

Solitaire wrote: »

I wouldn't want to pay out for delivery from both HWVS and Komplett!

Went looking in HWVS first, but could only find the card in Komplett at the time, but I did some looking in HWVS, and found a 4 port SATA controller for €64. It would take up a PCI-E slot, me thinks, though. HWVS also has a few HTPC cases.

Solitaire

Its got a PCI connector, shouldn't be a problem. Problem with non-enterprise RAID cards (i.e. sub-€300 ones) is that they have no built-in PC (yes, I mean that!) so the resources for running a RAID config has to come from the CPU. Not sure how bad a cheap dual-core would be hit, most peeps save RAID for tri/quad-core CPU rigs.