[nickpoore]

Hey Guys.

I see lots of posts on HDD expansion, but even though I've searched them, there is just too much info to read.

I'm looking to expand the recording on my two HR20-700's.

I'm looking for something QUIET as one of these is in my bedroom.
(The DVR makes enough noise as it is...)

Can people recommend.
1. An all in one external solution (eg Seagate 1TB external)
2. A quiet enclosure, so I can purchase my own drive.
3. A quiet RAID enclosure, so I can double my expansion with 2 drives and RAID0.)

Reliability is a concern.
Cost is not so much of a concern.

Thanks.

Nick.

 

[jdspencer]

Maybe there are some hints in this thread.
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=92029

 

[DarinC]

Maybe there are some hints in this thread.
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=92029

As far as #1, I just (as in last week) ordered this drive. It arrived yesterday, and is now operating with no problems. It doesn't have a fan, but these are reported to use the Western Digital Green Power drives, which are known for being cool and quiet. It is indeed very quiet, and barely warm. The Green Power drives seem to be the most commonly recommended ones. Unfortunately, this has gone up a bit since I ordered it last week... last week it was $175 with no rebate, now it's $203 less a $20 rebate. I used this 5% off coupon, which appears to still be good, and if you go through the Live Search Cashback program, you can get another 2% back.

If you instead buy a drive and enclosure separately, the Antek MX1 enclosure is very popular. From what I've seen, the drive of choice remains the WD GP drive. If you want to go true RAID, you could get something like this, though it's a bit pricey. But it does do RAID5, so you could put three 1TB drives in it, and get 2TB of storage with redundancy for data protection. But I've not used it, so I can't confirm compatibility. A cheaper 2TB solution would be an enclosure that does simple JBOD and span two 1TB drives. Note that 2TB is currently the limit for thr HRs.

 

[Sirshagg]

For me there is only one choice the WD10EACS (1tb wd drive) in the Antec MX-1 case. Mine are quieter than the HR20's themselves.

 

[Herdfan]

3. A quiet RAID enclosure, so I can double my expansion with 2 drives and RAID0.).

Any thoughts on this? I would like a 4 drive RAID enclosure that I can put 4 TB drives in for 2TB recording capacity.

 

[DarinC]

Any thoughts on this? I would like a 4 drive RAID enclosure that I can put 4 TB drives in for 2TB recording capacity.

Why buy 4 drives when you can just buy 3? Get this one with 3 1TB drives in RAID5. I can't confirm compatibility... maybe you could do that for us.

 

[bpjones]

Any thoughts on this? I would like a 4 drive RAID enclosure that I can put 4 TB drives in for 2TB recording capacity.

I think the point is that you don't have to use RAID at all, if you're not interested in data redundancy. If you insist on RAID, then you might be better off choosing a different RAID configuration rather than mirroring striped drives. With RAID 5, you only lose the storage capacity of 1 drive.

 

[1948GG]

I think the point is that you don't have to use RAID at all, if you're not interested in data redundancy. If you insist on RAID, then you might be better off choosing a different RAID configuration rather than mirroring striped drives. With RAID 5, you only lose the storage capacity of 1 drive.

The problem is, that the RAID5 'stand-alone' drive enclosures (like the Thecus N3200 mentioned above) are very expensive (>$400) without the actual drives (although 1TB Seagate's are only $180/ea). So that the entire cost is, with 3 drives, > $950, whereas a Raid1 array (with 4TB drives at $720, wich an enclosure at $150 max), is a good $100 less at a minimum.

Until the RAID5 enclosures come down in price, going Raid1 (mirrored), with the continuing price falling of the 1TB drives themselves, make the Raid1 array's actually cheaper.

 

[Tom Robertson]

The problem is, that the RAID5 'stand-alone' drive enclosures (like the Thecus N3200 mentioned above) are very expensive (>$400) without the actual drives (although 1TB Seagate's are only $180/ea). So that the entire cost is, with 3 drives, > $950, whereas a Raid1 array (with 4TB drives at $720, wich an enclosure at $150 max), is a good $100 less at a minimum.

Until the RAID5 enclosures come down in price, going Raid1 (mirrored), with the continuing price falling of the 1TB drives themselves, make the Raid1 array's actually cheaper.

Funny how prices can do things like this

 

[DarinC]

The problem is, that the RAID5 'stand-alone' drive enclosures (like the Thecus N3200 mentioned above) are very expensive (>$400) without the actual drives (although 1TB Seagate's are only $180/ea). So that the entire cost is, with 3 drives, > $950, whereas a Raid1 array (with 4TB drives at $720, wich an enclosure at $150 max), is a good $100 less at a minimum.

My math comes out differently than yours. The page I linked to has the Thecus @ $360, but that's not the lowest price it can be had for (this is not the lowest, but a good price from a reputable store, +free shipping). On the other hand, I can't find a 4 bay RAID0+1 capable enclosure that will work for $150. The price difference for the enclosures alone based on what I could find with some quick searching is closer to $125-ish, give or take (in favor of the 4 drive). That's about a $50 advantage for the RAID5 enclosure once you include drive prices. On top of that, once you have 3 drives compared to 4. 4 is going to increase the chance of drive failure, increase heat, increase noise, and increase power consumption.

As I said, I can't vouch for compatibility with the HR, never tried it. But on the surface, a 3 drive RAID5 would seem like a better solution than a 4 drive RAID0+1.

 

[Richierich]

I am using a DS3RPRO DUAL HD RAID ENCLOSURE running RAID 1 with 2 1TB Drives and be sure that you don't mind losing all of your recordings and settings if you have one of your drives fail. Someone in this forum just had that happen and they are all bent out of shape because they finally realized that they are losing recordings that they really wanted to keep.

Hopefully you will be offloading that content via a DVD burner.

 

[DarinC]

I think that's his whole point... he doesn't want to risk losing anything. Although he didn't explicitly state it, I have to assume that since he was planning on using 4 1TB drives to get 2TB of storage, he was thinking of doing RAID0+1, which would give him data redundancy in case of a drive failure. He would also get that with RAID5. But if you are using a two drive setup, and getting the full capacity of your drives, then you are either spanning or striping, so you WILL lose data when one of your drives fail.

 

[Richierich]

No, he was saying he wanted to run RAID0 with 2TBs of space instead of 1TB which does not give him any backup unless he runs RAID1 like I am doing.

 

[DarinC]

That's what nickpoore wanted. But Herdfan wanted to use 4 1TB drives to get 2TB of recording space. If he's planning on only getting 50% capacity out of the drives, he must be planning on mirroring to get redundancy. I guess perhaps we were replying to different people.

 

[nickpoore]

Thank you to DarinC and everyone else for your help.

I've ordered a couple of the Cavalry 1TB drives.

Nick.