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DIY RAID...Cheap and Fast


Sonny

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For those of you who do post production, here's a link to a DIY guide for a cheap, fast RAID array.

http://www.freshdv.com/2008/10/blazing-fast-4tb-raid-under-2k.html

I actually built an 8 GB *EDIT: Should be 8 TB* version (came in at about $1800) for a production company that I work with from time to time.  The only caveat is that the cables linked to in the article had the wrong locking mechanism.  I had to pick up the correct ones (the ones with thumb screws) here:

http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=19979&sid=25T2JLF568NK9MH3KGLAXHS13QWP815C

Considering the fact that I've never set up a RAID array before, it was really pretty easy.

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I'm still reeling at the price drop in hard drives. 1TB drives are now down to $79 (if you shop around), and the new 1.5TB drives are at $139. How low can they go?

--Marc W.

I have to mention it again because it still continues to blow my mind: in 1986 I purchased the first external hard drive for our Mac Plus computer --- it was from a company called DataFrame and it cost $1500. for 20 MB --- yep, that's megabytes! Times have changed, haven't they.

-  Jeff Wexler

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my first computer was a PC-XT (8086) with a 40 MB hard drive - cost me about 1200$ in 1990. I used the beast until 1998, can you beat that? :)

The printer was a 132 column dot matrix printer. A workhorse. During the strike(s) at film school, my room at the hostel was the hub of activity. The authorities would wonder how the hell the students were presenting all memos/documents/letters etc in computer prints...

-vin

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my first computer was a PC-XT (8086) with a 40 MB hard drive - cost me about 1200$ in 1990. I used the beast until 1998, can you beat that? :)

The printer was a 132 column dot matrix printer. A workhorse. During the strike(s) at film school, my room at the hostel was the hub of activity. The authorities would wonder how the hell the students were presenting all memos/documents/letters etc in computer prints...

-vin

My first computer setup was just about exactly the same --- an XT (8086) clone I built from no-name parts --- but that was in 1980 I believe. I remember the parts were not too expensive but I did spring for a hard drive mounted to a card from the company named Mountain --- it was a whopping 20 MB drive but it sure beat the 5 1/4 floppies.

-  JW

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The part I remember about going from floppys to installing that first 20mb hard drive was the feeling that this was sooo much space -- it would be able to handle all storage requirements forever and a day.

Yesterday, I ordered 5TB more and found myself wondering if I under-bought.  That's about 250,000 times the storage of a 20gb HD.

JB

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.. to a card from the company named Mountain ..

Now there's a name from the past.

I had one of their memory cards in my Apple ][+ back in '85.

It took the stock memory from 48 to a whopping 64K, and added a clock.

All for around $200 or so I think.

BTW, Did anyone else make their own double-sided 5 1/4 floppies with the paper punch trick back then?

10 For lolcat=1 to 10

20 Print "I can haz Hello Wurld?"

30 Next lolcat

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BTW, Did anyone else make their own double-sided 5 1/4 floppies with the paper punch trick back then?

Ah, what memories. I think that's how you officially differentiate between the old farts and new computer users. Yeah, I was punching holes in 5-1/4" disks for my old Apple II in 1980, and later with the PC. I gave that up when I finally bought a Mac II in 1987, but we always kept PCs around just for sheer geekitude.

The first hard drive I ever bought was a 60-meg drive around 1986, for my IBM AT, and it cost $1600 just for the drive. (I held back and waited for IBM to improve on the original 1982 PC, so I went with the 2nd generation model in early 1984.) As I recall, it took something like 3 hours to format the thing. My friends at the time were incredulous and asked me, "how will you ever fill up 60 megabytes? You won't ever need to buy another drive again for the rest of your life!" *sigh*

Meanwhile, just had to buy four more 1TB drives this week. I'm using these cool little docks:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=209055554

which let you drop in a bare SATA drive and access it via eSATA or USB. Perfect for backups. I keep the drives in these hard-plastic Wiebetech boxes and then stick 'em in a drawer. That's a lot cheaper than buying a heavy-duty drive enclosure, which now cost more than the drives.

Still, in 1986 terms, what we have now is about as inexpensive as a pack of chewing gum...

--Marc W.

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