tarball.org: Example configurations

Notes

• The LSI SAS9211-8i is the cheapest (8-port) controller from LSI. All of the LSI products seem to have good Linux drivers. Use LSI controllers.
• The Supermicro SATA card was a nice cheap solution for low-end performance, but the Linux drivers are unstable and, over the last 5 years, Marvell has been unwilling to spend the time to make them good. Avoid Marvell-based controllers.
• The Supermicro driver trays are excellent and highly recommended. Three 5.25" external bays are required (and then support 5 spindles). I've used many of these for years without any problem. Use Supermicro drive trays.
• There is a lack of options in good mid-tower cases that support 6 or 9 open 5.25" bays. The Lian-Li cases are excellent, but currently only support 3 or 4 5.25" bays, unless you go to a (huge) full tower. There's no reason for this lack of options -- the cases are very similar, only a few pieces need to change to support 9 open bays (which can be used to mount 15 spindles, supported by 2 LSI cards, for 48TB usable RAID5-protected storage). Lian-Li needs to update their product line.

Ad Hoc Workstation Solution ($264/TB): September 2012

24TB Usable RAID-Protected Storage: August 2011

Synology Solution: $120/TB

Ad Hoc Solution: $110/TB

Notes: The Supermicro drive drive trays allow 5 drives to be mounted in 3 bays. The trays come with fans, but replacing them with Noctua fans makes them quieter. The Shuriken CPU fan replaces the AMD-supplied fan because it is quieter (but I now (2012) have had 4 of these fans fail within a year of purchase). The Crosshair IV can run 2 PCIe slots in a 16x configuration, allowing full spindle bandwidth from all spindles simultaneously from the 8-port SATA controllers. These controllers do not ship with cables and they require a Linux kernel patch for reliable operation. A USB CDROM/DVD drive is required for installation. A cheap recycled PCI video card is required for installation and for a local console.

Old Content

• The Tarball Linux Distribution
• Example HTPC Configuration
• Example Hardware ($645/TB in May 2007)