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On 14 Dec 2008, at 02:49, Grant wrote: |
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> My desktop currently runs one of these: |
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> |
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> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140 |
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> |
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> I'm pretty much out of space and I'm trying figure out the best way to |
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> expand. The factors to consider are cost, capacity, speed, noise, and |
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> heat. ... but $200 for 300GB is pretty expensive |
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I don't find your criteria well-defined - fast, cheap (large) & |
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reliable, pick any two. |
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If the factors were ONLY cost, capacity, speed, noise, and heat, then |
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I would say throw away your old hard-drive & RAID 0 across cheap 1TB |
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drives, which are c £65 each at the moment. |
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In RAID 0, however, the 0 stands for how much data you get to keep in |
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the event of drive failure, and most of us don't want that. I also |
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don't see your old drive as redundant. |
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Haven't you considered just mounting an additional drive at /media/ |
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video, or /var or /home or wherever? |
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I personally don't find hard-drives to be significant contributors to |
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a system's noise. There are too many fans in any of my machines to |
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notice the difference made by an extra disk crunching away. |
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Additionally, in typical PC systems with capacity for only 4 (maybe 6, |
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these days?) ATA drives, I don't find heat to be a problem. I'm sure |
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I've read articles saying how heat is the biggest contributor to drive- |
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failures, but I have two machines in my airing cupboard here [1], each |
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stuffed as full of disks as possible (3 in one, 4 in the other PC) and |
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have never had a failure on any of them. One system is at least 4 |
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years old, probably more like 6, the other at least a couple. |
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In a later post you say drive throughput may be an issue for you, |
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which I did not really find clear initially. I would personally |
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consider a pair of two of the cheapest new drives I could find |
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(probably 80gig @ £22 each inc VAT or 160gig @ £28) and RAID 0 them. |
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Others may advise if the partition scheme which immediately occurs to |
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me - 3 partitions: swap, /tmp and /mnt/video/my_tmp - is wise. RAID 0 |
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will be twice as fast as any single drive, but for me I wouldn't need |
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a large volume in that configuration, as I wouldn't keep anything |
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important on it, nor the root of my system, nor anything that would |
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need restoring in the event of a failure. |
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Stroller. |
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[1] US readers: I'm not sure if you use the same expression. In the UK |
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the "airing cupboard" is the small cupboard in which the home's hot |
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water tank sits. I guess you may keep the hot water tank in a large |
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basement, but British homes have less room, so it is confined in a |
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small cupboard which gets very warm indeed. Consequently it is used to |
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dry bath towels after use, and hence the cupboard's name. |
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