Building a 10 TB Array For Around $1,000

As storage hardware costs continue to plummet, the folks over at Tom's Hardware have decided to throw together their version of the "Über RAID Array." While the array still doesn't stack up against SSDs for access time, a large array is capable of higher throughput via striping. Unfortunately, the amount of work required to assemble a setup like this seems to make it too much trouble for anything but a fun experiment. "Most people probably don't want to install more than a few hard drives into their PC, as it requires a massive case with sufficient ventilation as well as a solid power supply. We don't consider this project to be something enthusiasts should necessarily reproduce. Instead, we set out to analyze what level of storage performance you'd get if you were to spend the same money as on an enthusiast processor, such as a $1,000 Core i7-975 Extreme. For the same cost, you could assemble 12 1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 hard drives. Of course, you still need a suitable multi-port controller, which is why we selected Areca's ARC-1680iX-20."

Comments

Why This Article Is Stupid

[eldavojohn]

One: The title is a borderline lie. Yes, you can buy 12x 1TB drives for about a grand. But if I'm going to build an array and bench mark it and constantly compare it to buying a Core i7-975 Extreme, the drives alone don't do me any good! (And I love how you continually reiterate with statements like "The Idea: Massive Hard Drive Storage Within a $1,000 Budget")

Two: Said controller does not exist. They listed the controller as ARC-1680ix-20. Areca makes no such controller. They make an 8, 12, 16, 24 but no 20 unless they've got some advanced product unlisted anywhere.

Three: Said controller is going to easily run you another grand. And I'm certain most controllers that accomplish what you're asking are pretty damned expensive and they will have a bigger impact than the drives on your results.

Four: You don't compare this hardware setup with any other setup. Build the "Uber RAID Array" you claim. Uber compared to what, precisely? How does a cheap Adaptac compare? Are you sure there's not a better controller for less money?

All you showed was that we increase our throughput and reduce our access times with RAID 0 & 5 compared to a single drive. So? Isn't that what's supposed to happen? Oh, and you split it across seven pages like Tom's Hardware loves to do. And I can't click print to read the article uninterrupted anymore without logging in. And those Kontera ads that pop up whenever I accidentally cross them with my mouse to click your next page links, god I love those with all my heart.

So feel free to correct me but we are left with a marketing advertisement for an Areca product that doesn't even exist and a notice that storage just keeps getting cheaper. Did I miss anything?

Re:Why This Article Is Stupid

[jo42]

They need to keep 'publishing' something to justify revenue from their advertisers. Us schmucks in the IT trenches know better than to take the stuff they write without a bag of road salt. A storage array of that size is going to need at least two redundant power supplies and a real RAID card with battery backup and proven track record -- unless you want a solid guaranty to loose that amount of data at some point in the near future.

Re:Why This Article Is Stupid

[Kjella]

A storage array of that size is going to need at least two redundant power supplies and a real RAID card with battery backup and proven track record -- unless you want a solid guaranty to loose that amount of data at some point in the near future.

Depends on what you want it for. I got a 7TB server w/12 disks using a single power supply and JBOD - I could use RAID1 if I wanted, but I prefer the manual double copies and knowing at once when a disk has failed since the last time I messed with RAID I lost a RAID5 set because the warnings never reached me. Works like a charm with all disks running cool and stable as a rock, much cheaper than this. I'm also very aware of the limitations of this setup, it's in no way a redundant setup in any sense. If I wanted 10TB of highly available enterprise grade information then all the following apply:

a) I wouldn't use my cheap gaming case
b) I wouldn't use my single non-redundant PSU
c) I'd get a server mobo with surveilance
d) I'd get a real RAID card with staged boot etc.
e) I'd get hotswap drive bays
f) I wouldn't be using consumer SATA drives

This sounds like the half-way being neither really cheap nor really reliable. What good is that?

$1000 my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

That'll buy the disks. But nothing else. "Hey, look at my 10TB array. It's sitting there on the table in those cardboard boxes."

Another selling point for double parity

[zaibazu]

Another thing with RAID arrays that have quiete a few drives is, you have no method of correcting a flipped bit. You need at least RAID6 to correct these errors. With such vast amounts of data, a flipped bit isn't that unlikely.

How does the home user back this up?

[HockeyPuck]

Ok, so let's say you built one of these monsters. Or you rolled your own with linux and a bunch of drives.... How would a home user, back this up? They've got every picture/movie/mp3/resume/recipe etc.. that they've ever owned on it.

• Blu-Ray DVD? Those have a capacity of 50GB

• An old LTO-3 drive from eBay. They have a native (no compression) of about 400GB. So you'd still need 4-5tapes for all your data. Though this will cost you over a grand. Plus you'll need to buy a LVD external SCSI adapter.

• Online/internet backup? Backup and restore times would be brutal.

Anybody got any reasonable ideas?

Re:How does the home user back this up?

[BiggestPOS]

Build an identical one and keep it far enough away that you need to feel safe? Ideally at least a few blocks away, sync them over a short-haul wireless link. (encrypted of course!) and take the same precautions as you would with anything else?

Oh yeah don't do a flat fire store, make it a SVN repository of course.

Re:Misleading headline

[gweihir]

but you won't have anything to connect them to, as the controller itself is another $1100.

You don't need that. Get a port with enoigh SATA ports on PCI-E and add more ports per cheap PCI-E controller. Then use Linux software RAID. I did this for several research data servers and this is quite enough to saturate GbE unless you have a lot of small accesses.

Re:Redundant Array of INEXPENSIVE Disks

[vlm]

Lessons learned:

9. Software raid is much easier to remotely admin online while using SSH and linux command line. Hardware raid often requires downtime and reboots.

10. Your hardware RAID card manufacturer may go out of business, replacements may be unavailable, etc. Linux software raid is available until approximately the end of time, much lower risk.

11. The more drives you have, the more you'll appreciate installing them all in drive caddy/shelf things. With internal drives you'll have to disconnect all the cables, haul the box out, unscrew it, open it, then unscrew all the drives, downtime measured in hours. With some spare drive caddies, you can hit the power, pull the old caddy, slide in the new caddy with the new drive, hit the power, downtime measured in seconds to minutes. Also I prefer installing new drives into caddies at my comfy workbench rather than crawling around the server case on the floor.