Out of space. Need to upgrade.
Well it’s that time again. I’m having issues keeping enough free space on my server to stuff. I built the server back in November 2003 with a two year old Pentium III processor and according motherboard. I added a four 160Gb Seagate HDDs in a RAID 5 array and got about 310GB of storage space. I’m now down to 4.4GB of free space and struggling to figure out what I can delete to free up space.
The thought has crossed my mind to build a new array. I was to build something that will last me a few years and give me the peace of mind that I really don’t have to worry about the thing. Something I’ve wanted to do is transfer my whole DVD collection to the server and be able to watch on demand wherever I have the appropriate amount of bandwidth. 2TB of storage space come to mind.
My present server including the RAID5 array cost me about $700. $500 is tied up in the HDDs alone and include one cold spare that I’ve never used. Pricing out the necessary HDDs with the lowest cost comes to $1600 with no cold spare. Performance has always been a concern, but 3Gbps SATA RAID 5 array managed by PCI Express x8 RAID card could definitely reduce speed issues. The problem is that I would need to do a complete upgrade on the server replacing every component except the case itself. Before I know it, I’m at $3000 for a new server.
It’s not like the thing needs much processing power to do what it needs to do. I’ll probably stick with my current server and just upgrade the HDDs. Hopefully the RAID card that I’ve got can handle the huge drives I’m looking at. Though, it might be a while till I can muster up that kind of expendable dough on some new drives especially when I’m spending money on a lady, have vacation ideas, and have other projects on the back burners.
The thought has crossed my mind to build a new array. I was to build something that will last me a few years and give me the peace of mind that I really don’t have to worry about the thing. Something I’ve wanted to do is transfer my whole DVD collection to the server and be able to watch on demand wherever I have the appropriate amount of bandwidth. 2TB of storage space come to mind.
My present server including the RAID5 array cost me about $700. $500 is tied up in the HDDs alone and include one cold spare that I’ve never used. Pricing out the necessary HDDs with the lowest cost comes to $1600 with no cold spare. Performance has always been a concern, but 3Gbps SATA RAID 5 array managed by PCI Express x8 RAID card could definitely reduce speed issues. The problem is that I would need to do a complete upgrade on the server replacing every component except the case itself. Before I know it, I’m at $3000 for a new server.
It’s not like the thing needs much processing power to do what it needs to do. I’ll probably stick with my current server and just upgrade the HDDs. Hopefully the RAID card that I’ve got can handle the huge drives I’m looking at. Though, it might be a while till I can muster up that kind of expendable dough on some new drives especially when I’m spending money on a lady, have vacation ideas, and have other projects on the back burners.