what do you think of this for storage?

[cmcquistion]

Originally Posted by ClamsTheCat

I agree that RAID is over hyped for HTPCs. Other than the sustained transfer rates needed for reading and writing HD content, it is unnecessary.

When I do the math, an uncompressed OTA HD stream is only about 2.3 MB/s, so even a single drive should easily be able to write 20 or more of those, simultaneously, if you just take sustained data transfer rate into consideration.

Of course, in real-world use, you also have to contend with IO's per second, CPU and Memory, so that number isn't that high in a real system, but it isn't because of hard drive sustained data transfer speed.

(P.S. My math, above, is derived this way: If one hour of OTA HD content is around 8 GB, then you take 8*1024(MB) divided by 60 minutes, then divided by 60 seconds per minute. This gives you about 2.3 MB/s for that HD stream.)

[jbartlett777]

I agree, a RAID on a HTPC is a little overkill, but I didn't install a RAID on my HTPC.

[Darkk]

If BTV had the ability to automatically use the other hard drives when the primary drive fills up then this RAID stuff wouldn't be necessary. I feel safer having smaller HDs instead of a large one.

Darkk

[cmcquistion]

Originally Posted by Darkk

If BTV had the ability to automatically use the other hard drives when the primary drive fills up then this RAID stuff wouldn't be necessary. I feel safer having smaller HDs instead of a large one.

Darkk

You can achieve this by having Windows create a spanned array out of several disks or partitions. These aren't RAID, they are like JBOD. When one disk/partition fills up, it starts using the next one. There is no performance improvement or penalty; it's just one big drive made up of several smaller ones.

[GeorgeH]

I have 2 250GB WD drives in a RAID0, sustained transfer rate 90MB/sec. 2 HD tuners and 2 SD tuners.

I used to think that RAID was necessary. I think less of that idea now. I think I will convert to non-RAID with a shut down time of 5 minutes of no use.

As I need space I plan on upgrading to 1 500Gb IDE (1 DVD player) and 4 500GB SATA drives. And 2 more SD tuners. This all that will fit in my case with current motherboard..

[Rich A]

Long ago and far away, back in the early days of this Snapstream forum the RAID debate was discussed in great detail covering drive mechanics, speeds, reliability, pros, cons and even the laws of probability.

Like three drives in one box. Two are stripped in RAID Zero totalling 500 GB . One is by itself and is 500 GB. If either of the two raid drives fail you loose the whole 500 GB. But if the single 500 GB drive fails, you still loose the whole 500 GB. The argument then went into which was more likely to fail. One of the two drives in the raid? Or the single drive. This can make you crazy ...

Looks like deja vue all over again.