Advice on building/buying something to house multiple hard drives

mr kr0nik

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for advice on the best solution to house some additional hard disks (eventually up to 4). I have a express PCI card with 4 external SATA connections. I'm thinking of using these to connect to the disks.

I don't really want to go out and just buy an off the shelf NAS.

Can I just buy an empty case (plus PSU) for this and fill it with disks (and fans).

I was thinking of something like

http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=ECE1540894

cheers.

Unregistered.

mr kr0nik wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for advice on the best solution to house some additional hard disks (eventually up to 4). I have a express PCI card with 4 external SATA connections. I'm thinking of using these to connect to the disks.

I don't really want to go out and just buy an off the shelf NAS.

Can I just buy an empty case (plus PSU) for this and fill it with disks (and fans).

I was thinking of something like

http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=ECE1540894

cheers.

What do you have now?

mr kr0nik

I have an old Dell PC that has no spare HD slots or internal SATA ports.

I'm beginning to think about keeping the data separate from the PC itself.

Mister Man

mr kr0nik wrote: »

I have an old Dell PC that has no spare HD slots or internal SATA ports.

I'm beginning to think about keeping the data separate from the PC itself.

You could go with external hard drives instead? Would save you money. Not much point of moving old Dell parts into a new case I don't think.

mr kr0nik

Cheers,
I'm not looking to move any dell parts. I want to buy 4 3.5 inch 2TB hard disks and was wondering what would be the bast way to house them. I'd prefer to use internal disks (and have a single power supply for them) rather than have loads of AC adaptors lying around.

Has anyone ever done this before?

Cuddlesworth

150 euro after cashback.. Then install openfiler and attach with a 1gig switch to the main machine. Has four internal disk slots, you can drop in a 1gig memory key to install the OS on, runs near silent and uses about 10watts on idle.

http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=MME9433D4Y

mr kr0nik

Thanks Cuddlesworth.

You mention installing OS. Do I need it? I just wantto be able to access the drives from my existing PC (Hope I'm not sound too picky...)

Unregistered.

Ahhhh. OP, this is what you want to be doing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BatakM9iAik

mr kr0nik

Thanks Unregistered,

Sorry for being a complete dunce.

Can I not just install the disks in some type of chassis, power them with a standard PSU and then connect them externally back to the original PC with e-SATA connections.

Do I need mobos etc. as well??

Thanks

Unregistered.

I think it would be better / cheaper just to get a new case and a new PSU (though, your old one may be fine with adaptors). You will probably have to pick up a PCI sata card for extra ports. Then just transfer the contents of your old case to the new one - form-factor permitting! Does anybody know if Dell use BTX or their own form factor?

mr kr0nik

Hadn't thought of that to be honest. Did find this on the interweb though...

http://www.shopaddonics.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=ST6ESA-B&eq=&Tp=

Cuddlesworth

mr kr0nik wrote: »

Thanks Unregistered,

Sorry for being a complete dunce.

Can I not just install the disks in some type of chassis, power them with a standard PSU and then connect them externally back to the original PC with e-SATA connections.

Do I need mobos etc. as well??

Thanks

You could just buy a external hard-drive case. Seems like a waste of Money. Considering it is essentially nothing but some pressed steel and a 12v psu. You can turn the machine I linked to above into a great NAS that could stay powered on all the time, runs on a penny in terms of power and would allow you to set it up as a completely redundant solution with ease. Or you can pick up something like the below.

http://www.lindy.ie/usb-quad-drive-sata-enclosure/42825.html

http://www.lindy.ie/sas-sata-back-plane-system-for-4-x-25-hard-drives/21980.html

mr kr0nik

Thanks for the help. You've given me some options.

Serephucus

Personally, I see this as a great excuse to set up a home server. If you have the money, buy your bits new, but if not, pick up the bones of a system cheap on Adverts*. You already have the PCI expansion card, so you don't need a fancy motherboard with a ****tonne of SATA ports.

*http://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-pc-lcd-monitor/640399

You're also not bottlenecked as with Cuddles' option; four hard drives sharing a single USB2 port would be bit too contrained for my liking.

slave1

Think about a DAS device, I got this one a hell of a lot cheaper from eBuyer and have four 2TB drives in her and everything works with ease.
I don't have any RAID set up, just four separate discs.
The package includes a PCI-1 esata replicator card and esata cable so with one cable you get four extra drives.
I use for backup and no problems so far.
Here's an Amazon link and if you're interested you can shop around.

mr kr0nik

Now we're cooking.....

Can anyone answer my initial question.

Can I just get a bare case, install a PSU and then power the disks from that (forget about RAID etc, I'm thinking of rsyncing between them).

I just need to connect each disk back to my PC (assuming I have enough e-SATA ports).

Am I missing something obvious in the above, thanks for the help, I'm just being a bit pigheaded.

Serephucus

Yes, you can do that. Bare in mind though, that if you're connecting the drives to your computer via eSATA, you're going to need to get from SATA (the drives) to eSATA somehow, be it adapters, or whatever. You will also need to jump the ATX connector on the PSU, to keep it on all the time*.

If you have the PCI expansion card, you could just get really long, regular SATA cables, and run them through and empty PCI slot or something.

* You do this by finding the (usually) green wire, and connecting it to any ground (usually black) wire. If you're look at the connector, with it pointing away from you, and the tab facing up, it should be fourth from the right. There'll be a few black wires around it. You'll just need a paper clip and a bit of tape.

mr kr0nik

Thanks for that. I wasn't aware I had to hack the PSU as well, although thinking about it now, it sounds obvious :-)

Unregistered.

IF YOU ARE GETTING A BARE CASE THEN WHY NOT JUST MOVE THE CONTENTS OF YOUR PC INTO THAT AS WELL.

Am I missing something? What's the point in having four disks in a separate case and run sata cables back to your main PC? A case such as the Antec 300 which you posted earlier will be just fine for everything you have now + 4 more disks. The only other sensible option to me is a NAS or some other portable storage box.

mr kr0nik

Its just me. The PC is working fine, I just want something that I can keep adding disks to.

I suppose there's more that one way to skin at cat.