RE: Thoughts on storage devices??

["Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I had 3 x 8 bay firewire to IDE enclosures on a Mac Mini as my file
server
for a couple of years and it worked without a hitch ... the Mini actually
spins the drives up and down reliably (as opposed to Windows and Linux
whose
firewire support for external drives suck).

If you are careful and plan out your storage strategy you can actually mask
the spin up time quite effectively too - I used to have a directory on the
mini's internal drive which contained links/shortcuts to the actual movie
files spread out over the external drives and so that was browseable
without
having to spin up the external drives which - because there were 26 of them
(3 x 8 + 2 additional external drives) could take several minutes.

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of noel_pilot
> Sent: 19 April 2008 14:58
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_d] Thoughts on storage devices??
>
> So...the moneys finally getting close to what I need for next stage of
> HA server/storage and I need to confirm what I'm thinking is the right
> way to go ahead.
>
> I'm very much in favour of using macs wherever possible and with xbmc
> on osx coming on in leaps and bounds thats pushing me further in this
> thought.
>
> My plan (inspired by this list) was for a mac mini and a 4 bay
> firewire drive enclosure.  This would suit my needs certainly for the
> moment and when I need to expand I could add another firewire
> enclosure or upgrade to bigger drives.
>
> There's a few tasks i'd like to have carried out by the mini including
> radio recording on schedules, and possibly some x10 interface by
> Indigo.
>
> My only other option considered recently is to move away from the
> mini, just use a NAS of some sort and get myself an Imac for bedroom
> use that could cover the scheduled tasks side of things and probably
> the x10 interface.
>
> At the moment I have a number of hard drives in a large pc case that
> runs hot as heck and is a little power hungry, I only turn it on when
> I need it, what I want to get to is having the movies and music
> available 24/7 but with out killing me in electricity costs.
>
> So....mac mini with a firewire enclosure still a reasonable approach??
> if not anything else I should be looking at?
>
> btw looking at the 4 bay firewire enclosures from span.com.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Noel
>
>
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