2 Terabyte Rack Mount Storage

[MidnightSensi]

I've got most the parts for my rack now, but I store most my music on portable drives (I have a terabyte seagate, buncha other 250s and such also) and so I've been thinking about buying a rack mount storage that I could put on my network. It would give me redundancy and also a central place to store music. I have about 1.6 terabytes of music right now.

What are my options? I looked at the Dell storage servers but they are super expensive.

As far as a budget, I'm not sure what these things cost but I'd like to stay under 1000 if possible.

I did some googling but I don't know what I'm looking at. :/

 

[10010011]

Granted it's not rack mounted but the HP Media-Smart server is kind of slick.

I just saw one at Office Max and they are pretty f'n small, like 9x5x12 and have four hot swap drive bays.

 

[MidnightSensi]

Granted it's not rack mounted but the HP Media-Smart server is kind of slick.

I just saw one at Office Max and they are pretty f'n small, like 9x5x12 and have four hot swap drive bays.

Big up, I might go that route. I wish they made a rack mount version though.

 

[highfigh]

I've got most the parts for my rack now, but I store most my music on portable drives (I have a terabyte seagate, buncha other 250s and such also) and so I've been thinking about buying a rack mount storage that I could put on my network. It would give me redundancy and also a central place to store music. I have about 1.6 terabytes of music right now.

What are my options? I looked at the Dell storage servers but they are super expensive.

As far as a budget, I'm not sure what these things cost but I'd like to stay under 1000 if possible.

I did some googling but I don't know what I'm looking at. :/

I saw 1.5 TB hard drives at BB for $269 and they're network drives. Depending on how may you want to use, with three of these and a network switch, connect them to your router and you'll have a whole lot of music on it and you just access what you want. Buy them online and save.

 

[MidnightSensi]

I saw 1.5 TB hard drives at BB for $269 and they're network drives. Depending on how may you want to use, with three of these and a network switch, connect them to your router and you'll have a whole lot of music on it and you just access what you want. Buy them online and save.

See I'm looking for something I can fit in a rack....like this:

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/ReadyNAS1100/RNR4450.aspx

...but I'm not sure what is a good brand, good price, etc.

 

[strube]

They don't make any rackmount network storage systems at your budget AFAIK. I think you would be looking at a DIY sort of situation to get something that would suit your needs at your budget as a rack-mountable device...

 

[MidnightSensi]

They don't make any rackmount network storage systems at your budget AFAIK. I think you would be looking at a DIY sort of situation to get something that would suit your needs at your budget as a rack-mountable device...

What would my budget need to be for something out of the box rack mountable?

That NetGear 2TB is about 1800 bucks, is that about what I should look at paying?

 

[strube]

That NetGear 2TB is about 1800 bucks, is that about what I should look at paying?

That isn't too bad. There are cheaper solutions. If I were going for a rackmount Network Attached Storage solution, I would probably get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822107017

and then purchase however many of these I could afford (you can always add more later):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

The problem I see with all of these devices is that you obviously need a pretty high technical level of understanding for enterprise-grade storage, because all rackmount solutions are designed with large enterprise storage in mind.

Are you familiar with how to implement and manage enterprise-level storage? The reason I ask is that even with a bit of experience, I have limited understanding myself - these devices are certainly not designed to be user-friendly.

Unless you're completely uninterested or don't have the rack space, for that much money, I would actually recommend the alternative: put together a DIY media PC/server in a full height rackmount case (probably for much less $$$) and a couple of the above hard drives. It would require a little more time to set up but less time (and possibly frustration) to use.

 

[highfigh]

See I'm looking for something I can fit in a rack....like this:

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/ReadyNAS1100/RNR4450.aspx

...but I'm not sure what is a good brand, good price, etc.

I thought you wanted to stay around a grand and the NetGear is $1799.

Here's one that holds a lot more and is actually less $.
http://www.polywell.com/us/storage/NetDisk8000V.asp?gclid=CNuH6oqWwZcCFRPZDAodhiPOTA

 

[MidnightSensi]

That isn't too bad. There are cheaper solutions. If I were going for a rackmount Network Attached Storage solution, I would probably get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822107017

and then purchase however many of these I could afford (you can always add more later):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

The problem I see with all of these devices is that you obviously need a pretty high technical level of understanding for enterprise-grade storage, because all rackmount solutions are designed with large enterprise storage in mind.

Are you familiar with how to implement and manage enterprise-level storage? The reason I ask is that even with a bit of experience, I have limited understanding myself - these devices are certainly not designed to be user-friendly.

Unless you're completely uninterested or don't have the rack space, for that much money, I would actually recommend the alternative: put together a DIY media PC/server in a full height rackmount case (probably for much less $$$) and a couple of the above hard drives. It would require a little more time to set up but less time (and possibly frustration) to use.

Is QNAP a good/trusted brand? It's certainly well priced and those Western Digital drives it looks like I could buy two and get 2TB and still have room for 2TB more as needed! Does it automatically format the drive when you put it in?

Good find man, that's bookmarked!!!


As far as building, I'm fairly good with computers and networking, but I'm not interested in building computers anymore. Basically, I can do an extra dj set or something and pay for the difference in the time it takes me to build it. I like these units because they have their own simple operating systems. I could build a linux or BSD server or something, but, I doubt it would be as stable as something these software engineers come up with.

I have lots of extra U's, so, size doesn't matter.

I thought you wanted to stay around a grand and the NetGear is $1799.

Here's one that holds a lot more and is actually less $.
http://www.polywell.com/us/storage/NetDisk8000V.asp?gclid=CNuH6oqWwZcCFRPZDAodhiPOTA

I'd like to stay under a grand, but, I didn't really have too good of an idea of what the stuff costs.

 

[strube]

Is QNAP a good/trusted brand?

I haven't heard bad things about them, but I just read reviews - no experience with them. They have received good to excellent reviews from what I have seen. Just google "QNAP TS-409U review" and you will see what I mean.

It's certainly well priced and those Western Digital drives it looks like I could buy two and get 2TB and still have room for 2TB more as needed!

I linked you the best performance (speed wise). Some drives are slower but much quieter, so you can decide based on that

One of the quietest drives (if not the quietest) on the market:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136151

I put one of these (except 750GB) in my HTPC because it is right under my TV and I wanted it to be silent, and it is . The higher performance one I linked earlier I have in my desktop, and it isn't that loud, but it is noticeable. It is quite a bit faster.

Does it automatically format the drive when you put it in?

You remotely set up the drives through the web GUI in what sounds to be a fairly quick and simple process.


Hope this info helps. Let me know what you end up with!

 

[MidnightSensi]

Cheers for the info!! I might go for the quieter drives actually since if I get four it might be more of an issue since the rack is in my main living space and nothing will be streamed off of this unit, only stored mp3, FLAC, wav files and my project files from the mini studio that will be upstairs.

Hope this info helps. Let me know what you end up with!

Yeah, I'll let you know. I have a stack of boxes and after the holidays I'm going to start putting everything together and taking some pictures for the forum. I'm going to take a few days off to get things started. Moving is such a pain, but, with new toys it won't be too bad!

 

[Warpdrv]

Get a D-Link NAS drive......


I got the two bay unit DNS-323 for $250 at the time and put 1 tb in each bay, but they are much cheaper now, in fact they have a 4 bay with better redundancy.... I am looking at getting rid of my 2 bay 323 unit and upgrading to a 4 bay... So I have the security of everything being backed up properly.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=667

If your interested, I'll sell the 2 bay unit, you just need to add a couple drives......
I have been thrilled with the unit, it works flawlessly for cheap, I can't ever remember rebooting it or ever having an issue with it for over a year....
I be happy to part with my 2 bay so I can upgrade to a 4 bay......
Let me know if your interested...

Warp

 

[MidnightSensi]

Get a D-Link NAS drive......


I got the two bay unit DNS-323 for $250 at the time and put 1 tb in each bay, but they are much cheaper now, in fact they have a 4 bay with better redundancy.... I am looking at getting rid of my 2 bay 323 unit and upgrading to a 4 bay... So I have the security of everything being backed up properly.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=667

If your interested, I'll sell the 2 bay unit, you just need to add a couple drives......
I have been thrilled with the unit, it works flawlessly for cheap, I can't ever remember rebooting it or ever having an issue with it for over a year....
I be happy to part with my 2 bay so I can upgrade to a 4 bay......
Let me know if your interested...

Warp

Thanks for the offer, but, I'm looking for something rack mountable.

 

[Warpdrv]

Duh.... sorry, hence the title... rackmount...

I guess what I meant to say was, I like the D-Link NAS drives, it sure would be nice if they offered a rack mount unit...

 

[gus6464]

Build yourself a cheap rack data server with a 1U or 2U chassis.

 

[corey]

I don't quite get the rack mount necessity. You could put a NAS device anywhere you like & just run cat5, or set it up wirelessly.

 

[MidnightSensi]

I don't quite get the rack mount necessity. You could put a NAS device anywhere you like & just run cat5, or set it up wirelessly.

Just because its clean. My new years resolution is to keep my place looking tops. You make a good arguement though and I might end up going that way, but, more than likely I'll spring some extra cash for a rack mount one since I have plenty of extra U's. I didn't think the price difference would be as big as it is though. Seems like standalone units are half of the rack mountable ones.

 

[gus6464]

Just because its clean. My new years resolution is to keep my place looking tops. You make a good arguement though and I might end up going that way, but, more than likely I'll spring some extra cash for a rack mount one since I have plenty of extra U's. I didn't think the price difference would be as big as it is though. Seems like standalone units are half of the rack mountable ones.

$1000 budget is totally doable for a 1U rackmount with 3 1TB hard drives. You can get a Supermicro barebones rackmount with CPU included for $400 and then some ram (~$30) and 3 WD Green 1TB HDDs for $90 a piece. Then just load up the OS of choice. You can use Linux and run a software raid 5 config with no problem with 3 drives and have 2TB of storage.

 

[JJ Johnson]

Cheers for the info!! I might go for the quieter drives actually since if I get four it might be more of an issue since the rack is in my main living space and nothing will be streamed off of this unit, only stored mp3, FLAC, wav files and my project files from the mini studio that will be upstairs.

What exactly is going into this rack before your storage server?

Rackmount servers are invariable _loud_. If you've never worked around them before, you're in for quite a surprise. Forget about quiet drives - it won't make the least bit of difference.

The physical issues with rackmount servers can lead to some incredibly high fan noise. First, the overall case volume tends to be lower and more packed with electronics and hard drives. This means it's necessary to have more air movement for cooling, so more fans. Second, the cases themselves being small can only accommodate small fans. A 1U chassis is only 1.75 tall, so uses 40mm fans instead of the 80, 90, and 120mm fans used in desktop or tower chassis. These little fans are screamers - they have to be run at a fairly high RPM and it requires many of them. A 2U chassis (3.5" tall) can take larger fans, but it's just less of the same problem.