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Domain: hypermicro.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to hypermicro.com.

Comments · 8

  1. Re:What's "inexpensively"? by leapis · · Score: 2, Insightful · on Terabyte Storage Solutions?

    I own a large collection of DVD, and decided recently to price some large-volume storage so I could have a digital backup of my discs. What I figured out was that a 250 GB hard drive currently costs about $200. This works out to about $0.80/GB. Your average DVD contains about 7 GB of data, so you can figure a per-disc storage cost of $5.60 per disc. Based on these numbers, you can store about 35 movies per drive, so if you happen to have a couple hundred discs, you'll need at least seven drives for a RAID5 solution. Go ahead and throw in $500 for a SATA RAID card, another $450 for a case with 7 hot swap bays. And then you have to build the rest of the machine. If you spent $300 to do so, your total cost is $2650. Divide this by the total storage capacity (233 discs), and your net storage cost is $11.30 per disc. Most movies can be acquired on eBay in perfect condition for this amount or less, and you don't have the ongoing expense of also replacing drives when the die.

    Obviously, these numbers are quite variable variable, and you could certainly use cheaper parts, but there is an absolute minimum cost for everything here. My conclusion was that until there is a fundamental change in the world of mass storage, in either techology or cost, this is just going to have to wait.

  2. Off the shelf or build yourself? by egarland · · Score: 2, Informative · on Terabyte Storage Solutions?

    Promise has a nice off-the-shelf solution and you can get it for arround $3600.

    If I were going to do it I'd build it my own by combining a nice case and a 12 port 3Ware controller with whatever server configuration and SATA drives I wanted to get.

  3. Re:Recordable DVD Drive a Deal-Breaker? by Unoriginal+Nick · · Score: 2, Informative · on Rabid TiVo Fanaticism

    OK. Try here. 100 pack of Lead Datas for $79.00

  4. Re:SCSI by Zeio · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Pioneer DVR-A05 Review

    Plextor has a new SCSI version in the works. Unfortunately quality and efficiency is secondary to volume. I personally have a Plextor 12X SCSI, and it has never burned a coaster and this was before Just Right and Burn Proof. Jörg Schilling has a fetish for Plextor as well (he writes cdrecord).

    Real hardware zealots appreciate SCSI stuff in a machine. Steven peddles "Dell Dude's approved Hi Val Lite On Combo Re-Writer" but the reality of the situation is grim.

    My first epiphany with regards to SCSI being superior came form this "old POS" 486 server I found lying around somewhere. But it was a SCSI system. Not that I condone dumpster diving, but when these new fangled Packard Bell pieces of crap with their feeble Pentium 90 with FDIV [PENTIUM - Produces Erroneous Numbers Through Incorrect Understanding of Math] error and cheesy IDE hard disks, looking around for real alternatives isn't a bad idea.. Needless to say the SCSI 486 box lived far beyond its intended day of deprecation.

    What IDE comes down to is its Intel backed. Not that Intel is a bad thing for the industry in terms of volume, they bring cheap and fast to the masses, nor are they bad to keep things competitive. But they sell CPUs and endorse IDE/EIDE/ATA/ATAPI and USB/1/2. That means SCSI and Firewire is better.

    SCSI - first to implement SMART. This stuff has worked for me first hand. SCSI uses sector sparing which remaps defects to spare sectors, not marks them as "bad." ATAPI is a subset of the total commands available to the SCSI, and SCSI being the superset it has more commands available to it to perform various extra things. IDE drives have primitive understanding of tagged commands, if at all. If you have to write, Say, ABCD to the disk - but the placement on the physical platter was ACDB. SCSI would write them out as ACBD, to say the disk from having to do extra work. IDE class would start at A, then pass up the C locations to write the B, then rewind to the C location, then forward to the D location. Grossly inefficient. SCSI drives have superior warranties. SCSI drive vendors will advance replace hard drives, not requiring you to rip out your drive and send it off as IDE vendors do. SCSI vendors make money on SCSI drives - this is a good thing because that means they actually support he product. SCSI implementations on UNIX are clean, and most IDE "SCSI-like" devices are emulated as SCSI for a reason. If you think SCSI is a myth, try this one on. Novell 4 provided an IDE driver so that people could use IDE CD-ROM. They specifically asked that IDE drives not be used to serve Novell shares, the devices generally could not handle the extremely aggressive (and pleasantly fast and recoverable) Novell file system. Low and behold, my cheesy boss thought to put an IDE disk in there. It seized up a year later. Literally. The drive wouldn't even spin up. Luckily I noticed this condition and was able to copy the info off (we had backups but hey, up to the minute is better). After power off and power on, drive, dead. This drive was not one of those drives prone to failure, like the 75GXP or a 6GB WD. It died a horrible death due to inferior capability.

    I like my Adaptec and LSI/Symbios high end SCSI cards. I like low CPU usage. I like a proactive approach to error detection and correction - sector sparing and SMART. I like calling and getting support.

    Notable - the price for 80 pin SCA equipment is in expensive. If you need cheap SCSI disks this is the way to go, there seems to be overstock of said drives and places like Hypermicro will give you a converter from 80 to 68 pin (LVD safe) for free with 80 pin purchase.

    Also, just recently, be cognizant of the fact that FireWire creamed USB 2.0 despite the higher bandwidth maximums. Intel sell CPUs. Eating more and more CPU power created a need for bigger better faster more.

    Now a drawback with SCSI is the idiotic cabling, high cost. The answer to idiotic cabling was SCA a SAF-TE enclosure. Hot swappable and all. Clearly with SCSI-over-IP coming, and 10GE with SCSI-over-IP being a planned alternative to FC, there is something alluring about SCSI to keep it going on in the 10 GE era.

    I would like to see a firewire-like connector adaptation of SCSI at some point. I like SCSI. The driver support is universal for AIC78xx and NCR/Symbios/LSI 53C8xx/53C7xx. The performance is superior and handles very busy multi user stuff far more gracefully. Better warranties. Better data reliability. Interestingly cheap backchannel for 80 pin SCA.

    For DVD-ROMS, I would like to see SCSI and firewire come out first, the crud adaptations to USB and ATAPI come out later.

    I am repulsed by ATAPI add in cards, btw. I don't like Promise too much, I don't like HPT at all. I think 3Ware is a nice idea but it's a hack and it makes not sense to do anything but mirror an IDE to me.

    Do I have a 120 MB 8MB buffer hard drive? Yes. Do I wish it was a SCSI yes. Would I buy another CDR burner when I have a Plextor SCSI 12X? No, not until another SCSI one comes out. I already have the SCSI subsystem in place so the incremental cost in getting a SCSI drive is worth it.

    So in summation, I am supporting "alsta's argument and desire for SCSI versions of hardware. I also makes it easy to stuff new things into SCSI only platforms like some Sun Ultra workstations. And interestingly enough, lots of former Mac zealots and I agree, Apple jumped the shark hard when they bailed on SCSI. For anti SCSI zealots I will condone only Firewire. And then maybe USB for junk like keyboards and mice. I wish that machines were all build with the SCA or FC backplane that the Sun workstations get. Its elegant, reliable, easy to service, hot swappable and guess what, if you care about what's on your hard drive no price seems to high to guarantee better data availability.

    High-Quality! Inexpensive! Superior-Performance! - pick any two.

  5. Re:huh? by JPelorat · · Score: 1 · on Apple to Unveil .Mac Today
    Yup, lots of places have bare drives

    I got mine from this place, but I'm sure pricewatch.com will get you a ton of others...

  6. don't forget reseller ratings by sandone · · Score: 2, Informative · on Home-Built vs. Store-Bought PCs
    Before you buy make sure you can exchange parts (like ram, and disk drives); have cheap S&H and good prices. The best source of this information is ResellerRatings.com.

    I personally use the same vendors most often but will use pricewatch to find deals when buying individual parts. my Fav vendors are:

  7. Re:Performance - doesn't anyone care? by Elbereth · · Score: 2 · on Serial ATA Coming
    If we used what we had instead of reinventing the wheel, then all those engineers and marketing types would be out of a job.

    If anyone is curious about getting into the world of SCSI, here's what I suggest:

    1. Get a cheap Ultra Wide SCSI host adapter or motherboard with integrated Ultra Wide
    2. Buy a refurbished Plextor SCSI CDROM
    3. Buy a refurbished Plextor CD-RW
    4. Get a cheap Ultra Wide, Ultra2 Wide, or Ultra 160 hard drive (preferably not refurbished)


    You can get refurbished Plextor optical drives at many online stores. I use www.hypermicro.com the most. They have great products and service. I've bought almost all of my SCSI peripherals from them.

    I bought an Asus P2L97-DS motherboard (dual processor, slot 1, PII 266-333 and Celeron 266 to 533, 0 - 512MB PC66 to PC133 RAM, 4 DIMM slots, integrated Ultra Wide SCSI, 4PCI/3ISA, 2x AGP) on ebay for about $50. This is a great intro board to both SMP and SCSI. All you need is two cheap Celeron processors and you're all set.

    If you want to use refurbished hard drives, I suggest searching ebay for someone who's got lots of positive feedback and a non-DOA warranty. You can get 9GB and 18GB Ultra 160 hard drives incredibly cheap, due to the cut-throat competition.

    Tekram makes inexpensive, powerful SCSI host adapters. They use the LSI Logic chipset, which is extremely well supported under Linux. Adaptec SCSI host adapters are lot more expensive, but you can find them much easier at retail stores.

    If you wanted to, you could get a dual processor Asus motherboard, Plexter SCSI CDROM, Plextor SCSI CDRW, and a 4.55GB Ultra Wide SCSI hard drive for something like $250. Then, grab two Celeron or Pentium II processors off ebay (about $25-$50 each), an Enlight 7237 case ($50-$75, depending on the power supply), and a Matrox G200 or other cheap, well supported AGP card. In the end, I doubt it would even come close to $500. And now you have your very own SMP SCSI workstation.
  8. My quiet case project : it's an answer ... sort of by Prozzaks · · Score: 1 · on Building Quieter Computers

    Well, it seem these days, most of the power user just care to get something like 200fps in Quake III. Why ? Beat's me ! I'm not on a quest to get the ultimate frame rate, I just want my box to be quiet as possibly can be.

    To help you understand my take on the subject, here is the background :
    My PC has the following components :

    • A OEM case
    • A 235W OEM power supply
    • ASUS P3B-F
    • Intel Pentium II rated 400Mhz @ 400Mhz
    • A cheap OEM SECC2 Heat-Sink made of aluminum
    • A 128MB CAS2 no-name DIMM
    • Two 32MB CAS3 Samsung DIMM slowing down my memory timing, but preventing the appearance of the all mighty evil SwaP
    • A ATI All-In-Wonder Rage128 16MB
    • A Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
    • A Realtek 8139 Ethernet NIC
    • My beloved USR 56Kbps ISA Real Modem. Sorry but to me a component that uses CPU power to do it's processing instead of taking the load off is not worthy of being in my computer. Not to mention the M$ Win part...
    • A Creative 48x CD-ROM drive. It's the loudest damned thing in my computer when it's spinning
    • A Quantum Fireball AS PLUS 40GB (7200RPM) in a removable tray
    • A Quantum Fireball CX1 10GB (5400RPM) mounted inside the case
    • Of course the stupid old 1.44 MB floppy drive only used for booting Tomsbrt in case of emergency

    Soon to be :

    • A Adaptec 2940UW
    • A Diamond Monster 3D II for Glide games

    It turn out that the Quantum Fireball AS makes less noise than the Quantum Fireball CX1. I still have to figure it out ...

    I use my PC for :

    • Running Linux and learning as much as time allows me (Jez I had so much time when I was a student... Think of all the time I wasted in High-School running the evil W monster)
    • Doing some gaming i.e. : Diablo II, Unreal, UT, Undying (Although that thing is going to cost me a new box)
    • Spending numerous nights filling my brain @ Slashdot, Tomshardware, Anandtech, Arstechnica, StorageReview, Developper.Intel.com, and most importantly, hounding the web for all the case manufacturers and their take at a quiet box.

    As I'm writing this post, that is probably going to be the base documentation for my Silent Case Project, you're guessing that my sleepless night of browsing have not yielded the desired result.

    I've check out many options such as water cooling, moving the PC to the closet, returning to the forest where a PC is pretty far from your everyday quest for survival. None of them suits me.

    The objective of my project is to build a case that meets the following criteria :

    • A silent as possible
    • Accessible
    • Provides sufficient ventilation to maintain all the components running within thermal specs
    • Be light enough to be easily transportable (Let's not forget the Lan parties ;-)

    To attain those goals I have to :

    • Read all I can about noise, sound, aerodynamics, PC specs
    • Find suitable materials : A case is not just a protection against unwanted fingers and dust ; it must provide EMI shielding, proper grounding, resist to impacts, and fit into my conception of the king of object you want in your bedroom (If you were thinking about plywood and a box of rusted leftover nails, forget it)
    • Find the tools or the companies or individuals with the means to work the materials I choose to build the casing

    For the sound isolation I was thinking about some kind of foam. Mineral lint would be affective but that takes too much space and it's not the kind of thing I want beside my bed. Form the casing itself, metal is almost inevitable if you want EMI shielding and grounding. And as for you who wonder why I have not mentioned water cooling yet, the greatest source of noise is not my CPU cooler and your just moving the problem out of the case (Nice ; you have water heating up but unless your reservoir is like a bathtub or something you will have to transfer the heat for the water to the air).

    That about as far as I am. If you have any idea that might help me, please fell free to send me some bits forming ASCII characters at Prozzaks@operamail.com

    To finish up, here is a list of thing that might help people wanting to achieve similar goals :