Probox Media Storage Or 45Drives 15 Bay Storinator

[Talamakara]

Think long term storage.

 

I'm currently running a Probox 4 bay media drive connected to my PC via USB.  There is nothing special about this other than the fact i have 1 running right now and a 2nd sitting on my floor empty. A local PC store here has HD Reds & IronWolfs on sale and it has led me to some thinking about long term storage and accessibility.

Obviously long term storage I'm referring to NAS style drives that have a million or better hours of life expected from them. Currently i'm using consumer grade drives and i'm over the two year mark of them never actually turning off. My luck has held out pretty well at this point but i've blown through stacks of hard drives over the years am well aware that they could click off really any time costing me the data I have on the drives. I had one probox that had raid built into it but i'm not a fan of raid or software that combines drives and that box disappeared when i moved.

Accessibility is the next issue. As i currently use Univeral Media Server to share the data across my home network it works out very well that the Probox is connected to my PC and that my family can use our devices to access the data in any room of the house. If I move this to a NAS box I need to run something that can act as a media server which is looking like I'd need to build a windows based NAS box or plug in the second probox with some larger drives. As a lot of the systems out there like the AV15 Storinator run firmware based OS and not an over riding OS, so accessing the data on say a tablet or PS3 would not be possible. (Though if I'm wrong please correct me) I also can't find anything on the 45Drives site saying Windows could be installed.

 

Options I was considering -
1) What I was looking at was a 45Drives AV15 Storinator - if all i wanted was storage my PC could access this would be a great idea as it's cheap and I can add hard drives over time, I don't need all 15 at once. The AV15 is also built to run consistently without worry about reboots and the hard drives would be NAS style drives so long term life expectancy. The AV15 also isn't that expensive 1500 US and the drives would end up costing more if you bought 15 at once. estimated $2500 system and a number of drives.

 

2) Putting 4 WD Reds or SG IW into the second probox i got (if it can handle them) plug the probox into my PC and run it on the network in the same fashion as the current unit. Cost would be based on 4 hard drives of what ever size i chose to got with so lets say 6TB drives. roughly $1200 bucks as the probox is already here. 

3) Build a xenon server/PC with a system board that has 10-12 Sata ports and a larger power supply capable of powering that many drives, cpu can be smaller as it's not processing a lot of data though probably at least 16 gig of ram. Again using equipment that can sit on a shelf and run for years with little concern for life expectancy.

 

I gave myself a budget of 1500-2k on this (i know the AV15 is over that)
Please share your thoughts and experiences, I am open to other options as well.

 

Thanks.

(P.S. I'm calling it a night now, but will respond in the AM)

[tt2468]

The 45drives storinator is literally just a server. It has no special firmware or anything. It's a Xeon based server with 15 bays/

 

I personally would go with option 3 and get a nice server and storage array. Something good would be an dl360g8 or r420 with a Lenovo SA120.

Here is a nice dl368g8: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Proliant-DL360-G8-Virtualization-16-Core-Server-48GB-RAM-P420-4-Trays/172530477994

And an external HBA if you want to run software raid: https://www.ebay.com/itm/SAS9207-8E-LSI-8-port-6gb-s-SAS-SATA-TO-PCIe-Host-Bus-Adapter/253413945368

Or if you would like to do hardware raid: https://www.ebay.com/itm/9285CV-8E-LSI-SATA-SAS-MEGARAID-CONTROLLER-1GB-CACHE-6G-PCI-E-2-0-x8/131953999051

SA120: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkServer-SA120-DAS-Array-70F10000UX-3-Year-Warranty/332337644546

 

Everything supports 6Gb/s sata and sas, so you can put whatever drives you want in there. I think the biggest drive someone has put in an SA120 is 8TB, but I'm quite sure it will do more. What's nice is that if you ever need more storage, you can just purchase another array and stack them together if you run out of ports on your HBA/raid card.

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, tt2468 said:

Here is a nice dl368g8

Ain't never heard of that model before .

 

Also yes as above used servers are an excellent option if you need higher end requirements on a lower budget. You get used servers on ebay for less than just a new rackmount chassis and the ones from HPE/Dell/IBM are far superior than any standard chassis you can buy.

[AshleyAshes]

8 hours ago, Talamakara said:

Build a xenon server/PC with a system board that has 10-12 Sata ports and a larger power supply capable of powering that many drives

I've seen this opinion many times but there's really no truth to it: Hard drives don't use that much power and don't need high end power supplies.

 

I'm literally spinning 11x3.5" drives, 2x2.5" drives and a single SSD on my FlexRAID server with a Supernova P2 650w and at peak it pulls 200w from the wall during start up, idles with all drives spinning around 125w, and idles with most drives spun down around 65w.

 

Seriously, the only 'challenge' has been getting nice third party modular cables to physically connect that many drives.  But you could just go cheap and use a bunch of Y splinters too.

[Talamakara]

4 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

I've seen this opinion many times but there's really no truth to it: Hard drives don't use that much power and don't need high end power supplies.

 

I'm literally spinning 11x3.5" drives, 2x2.5" drives and a single SSD on my FlexRAID server with a Supernova P2 650w and at peak it pulls 200w from the wall during start up, idles with all drives spinning around 125w, and idles with most drives spun down around 65w.

 

Seriously, the only 'challenge' has been getting nice third party modular cables to physically connect that many drives.  But you could just go cheap and use a bunch of Y splinters too.

You areabsolutle correct, they dont use all that much power. I was thinking Bout forward upgrades but never mentioned it.

[panther420]

On 2/14/2018 at 8:13 AM, AshleyAshes said:

I've seen this opinion many times but there's really no truth to it: Hard drives don't use that much power and don't need high end power supplies.

 

I'm literally spinning 11x3.5" drives, 2x2.5" drives and a single SSD on my FlexRAID server with a Supernova P2 650w and at peak it pulls 200w from the wall during start up, idles with all drives spinning around 125w, and idles with most drives spun down around 65w.

 

Seriously, the only 'challenge' has been getting nice third party modular cables to physically connect that many drives.  But you could just go cheap and use a bunch of Y splinters too.

I might be a little late to this post - but I just wanted to add something.

 

In a server like the one @tt2468 linked, you don't need SATA cables. Everything is hooked up using hotswap bays into a backplane. That's why servers are so great for storage. (and, to be clear - the backplane is hooked up to the system usually through a SAS HBA, which has an internal sff-8087 or minSAS connector, and that goes to an SFF-8484 connector on the backplane if I recall correctly.)

 

[Mikensan]

Just for your awareness, even if the server is connected over IP, you can still use your personal desktop to host "Universal Media Server". Create a SMB/CIFS share, attached it to your desktop, and point UMS to it. However if your new solution can host it independently, no reason not to.

[Talamakara]

Thanks for all the advice, I appreciate it. I'm looking at the different options mentioned and trying to decide my next step. With the ebay options I'm having fun cause every time i find something I think will work with what i want it ends up saying " May not ship to Canada "

 

 

 

[leadeater]

5 hours ago, Talamakara said:

With the ebay options I'm having fun cause every time i find something I think will work with what i want it ends up saying " May not ship to Canada "

I know that pain well, same issue trying to find listings that ship to NZ.