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320 Gig HD in 1U Of Rack Space
Mn3m0nic writes "Maxtor today announced a 320 gig rack mounted network storage server that fits in 1U (1.75") of rack space or 1 terrabyte in 5.25"." 14 bucks a gig. Can you stream video over a 100Mbs ether comfortably? Perhaps this is the backend for your DeCSS based DVD Jukebox? Or the mega Tivo extra hard drive (I s'pose that'd take some work tho). But you could fit a hundred or so movies on there... we're just inching towards it now.
We just bought 1 160gig, and 4 240 gigs! Shoulda waited another month. Anyway, here is my 60 second review.
They work great for storing this that don't require harddrive access speed, such as images (in my case...and no, not pr0n), or mp3's. They have a 10/100baseT connection to the network, and can share using nfs, or smb.
Bad: No Raid-5. This means your are forced to have at the least 2 volumes, at the most 4. One large volume would be nice. Also, you can't do both nfs and smb on the same share..either one or the other.
On the other hand...these things run freebsd and are hackable (in the good meaning of the term.) When I couldn't get the admin java applet to load on my system (my browser is hosed) I was able to telnet into the sucker and change the IP using vi to edit the text files on the system. I am sure with a little work, these things could be made into some interesting devices. I was thinking Apache/PHP in my case. Would make a hell of a web server for my low usage/high storage situation.
For the situations I mentioned they are good for, I highly recomend them. The price per meg can't be beat, but I question how good they would be for a general purpose envirnment where users would access them directly. The freebsd w/ telnet access is a plus.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
"...that fits in 1U (1.75") of rack space or 1 terrabyte in 5.25"
Precisely how many bytes is a terrabyte? Is it a single terrestrial byte? Perhaps one byte as big as the earth? Maybe a byte made of dirt?
I don't want a byte made of dirt. Perhaps I shall give it a squirt! Squirt that dirt!
But I digress...
Hmm ... or, alternatively, you could spend $20 a pop to buy the actual DVDs, for less than 10 bucks a gig!!! (Possibly much less, depending on the length of the movie.)
This sort of bass-ackwards thinking reminds me of the classic Onion article: New $5,000 Multimedia Computer System Downloads Real-Time TV Programs, Displays Them On Monitor.
"Yes, the image is somewhat grainy and limited to just six frames per second," Welborne said. "But the technology will only improve as 466 MHz processors with more efficient Pipeline Burst Cache and Accelerated Graphics Ports with 10 MB VRAM become standard in the consumer marketplace. And when they do, the images will be remarkably crisp and detailed, every bit as good as that of, say, a 19-inch Philips-Magnavox TV."
"This is incredible," said Wayne Messers, a Huntington Beach, CA, systems analyst who sampled the Presario 6000 last weekend at the National Computer And Electronics Expo in San Diego. "I'm watching TV, but there's a keyboard in front of the screen."
Cheers,
IT
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.