Adding storage via PCI-sata cards - anyone done this?

[mike_va 0]

I could use a little more storage and was thinking of buying a small computer case and some PCI-e adaptors to SATA. Any reason this would not work well or things to look out for?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Soundy 1]

So you're thinking a separate case with power supply, and a bunch of SATA cables stringing out the back of your DVR to connect to the drives in the other case?

 

Personally, I'd suggest just going with something ready-made: any sort of external RAID/JBOD drive enclosure that you can connect via network, eSATA, USB or firewire. Lot easier, and probably more reliable.

[groovyman 0]

I could use a little more storage and was thinking of buying a small computer case and some PCI-e adaptors to SATA. Any reason this would not work well or things to look out for?

 

Thanks in advance.

I'm confused (not something too unusual though ). PCI-e (PCI Express) adaptors need a motherboard to connect to. If you're just getting a case and some pci-e sata adaptors what are the adaptors going to connect to? Am I reading your post wrong? What am I missing?

[mike_va 0]

The VMS is running on a computer, which only has a few SATA slots. Would like to add some more hard drives.

 

Considered a box like mediasonic but not convinced of the reliability. And not sure how that works in terms of accessing the drives separately. I can setup the software to record to a failover drive, so would be nice to access them separately. Do you have a recommended box?

 

For the cost it seems I could get a case and power supply from Newegg, and fill it with hard drives connected with a few SATA cables.

[ssmith10pn 0]

Move your existing PC motherboard and all of it's components into a case that can house more hard drives. Then install a internal RAID card and more drives inside the housing. SATA cables are too fragile to be running outside the case into another box.

 

This one has 6 internal drive bays plus three 5 1/4 externals.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129178

 

Or you can go for the gusto and get this Norco 4u Rack mount case that holds 24 hot swappable drives.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219038

 

 

 

If it was me and you wanted to stick with external I would go with external SAS RAID card and an External SAS enclosure.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=external+SAS&x=18&y=14

[Soundy 1]

Considered a box like mediasonic but not convinced of the reliability. And not sure how that works in terms of accessing the drives separately. I can setup the software to record to a failover drive, so would be nice to access them separately

Most of these give you various options for RAIDing the drives, or just running as JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), which is what you're looking for.

 

Do you have a recommended box?

There are so many - where to start?

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100018944&IsNodeId=1&Description=jbod&name=External%20Enclosures&Order=BESTMATCH

 

For the cost it seems I could get a case and power supply from Newegg, and fill it with hard drives connected with a few SATA cables.

Possibly, except consider that your basic SATA cable is only 18" long... and by the time you reach the card(s) and the drives inside each box, you'll probably only have 6" left between the boxes, with all these cables, and have to be very careful not to move the two boxes apart.

 

It's the kind of thing that might be useful on a test bench, but I think you'd find it impractical in daily usage.

[kifaru 0]

Your best bet would be a JBOD/Raid case, as already suggested. You have already looked at Mediasonic. I use Sans Digital 8 bay (TRU8) connected to my WHS server. I had several drive bays daisy-chained but I needed a lot more space. I ended up building a single chassis Norco RPC-4220 with 20 drives to hold all my drives. I do still have the TRU8 attached for backups & this works fine. These stay on 24x7.

 

My old setup

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=60043#p60043

 

Here is a post with several MediaSonic bays

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=72967#p72967

[Soundy 1]

Move your existing PC motherboard and all of it's components into a case that can house more hard drives.

Or this.

[skane 0]

Running a PCI-E card that supports port multiplication to an external enclosure works fine. I use Addonics controllers in external boxes, I have cheap reliable working configurations that add up to 20 drives running off one PCI-E slot. Writing to the drives is never more than 3 at a time and bandwidth is not a problem. The SANS Digital enclosures work ok, but it's cheaper and better to build your own (after some experimentation). It's convenient for swinging dedicated storage around between primary and backup servers in environments without SAN. I do this for video-editing machines too, when I can't have massive amounts of data going over a network. Storage boxes are just placed next to the server in a rack, no issue with cables getting pulled.

[mike_va 0]

update:

 

For the time being, I have managed to get 3 HD and 1 SSD into the enclosure. Bought a card and 5.25 to 3.5 adapter and going to try to get one more in...

 

Next time seriously will consider building my own computer with something like an Antec case...