On Wed, 2011-08-31 at 08:42 -0700, Bob Blick wrote:
> Gigabit isn't fast unless you have a fast CPU and chipset.

Very true, one machine I had only had 100BaseT, so I installed a PCI
gigabit card (no PCIE in this machine). It went faster then the 100BaseT
adapter, but the most I ever got out of it was 40-50MB/s (less if the
PCI video capture cards were doing something).=20

> Fanless means your drives fail in a year.

Even more true. Heat is the true killer of HDs.

> I never tried more than 4 drives at a time. If you need up to 12 drives
> you will need multiple SATA controllers, it starts to sound expensive.

Not necessarily. If you get a motherboard with a couple PCIE slots, and
add a couple 4 port SATA cards (can be had for about $20 locally),
you're set (this is assuming the MB has at least 4 SATA ports, most have
more). You would have to upgrade the power supply, and have a case to
hold it all (with proper cooling), so the price will ramp a little for
that. But still, if you don't care about looks (buy a $40 box fan then
blow it at the open case) you'd have something workable.

I'd though have to question the requirement of "12 drives". As with
everything, a cost/benefit type deal has to be calculated. For example,
if the op was planning on using 12 1TB drives to save money, considering
the additional costs, it might be worthwhile to use 6 2TB drives
instead.

TTYL



--=20
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