On a whim, late last year I built a fileserver at home, using a dual processor machine with lots of RAM, an Adaptec 4HD SATA Raid controller and four 160GB SATA drives. I made my wife and kids work the heck out of it for four months. They suffered no problems with it. Huge amount of storage for very cheap.
With that experience I took the plunge and when my file server here at the Museum started to fill up, I built another using a similar dual processor MB with a gig of RAM, the same 4HD Adaptec SATA RAID controller and four large drives. A truer test, although we have less than 100 users here, it has been running for about eight months. I have not noticed any problems. One of these could be built for less than a $1,000. On one server I used a separate hard drive for the OS (Server 2003). But on the other I just used the RAID for the OS as well. And I run Exchange (and everything else, including a website) on it at home too as I have only the one server. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Hutchings Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 12:42 PM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: SATA storage arrays OT again.. forgiveness please :-) Does anyone have any experience with HP Storage Arrays, specifically the SATA based units? I'm looking at replacement options for one of our main filservers, and right now SAN is a bit out of our league but direct-attached SCSI doesn't seem to offer enough potential once you fill a single cabinet. We usually buy Dell, but the HP MSA20 SATA disk, SCSI connected array caught my eye as it seems a fairly cheap way of adding lots of storage (for general file-serving purposes) whilst apparently being capable of plugging into a HP SAN controller if we do reach that point. Any thoughts much appreciated, either HP specific, or on the whole "I need lots of storage but don't want to pay lots for it" issue! I should stress I'm NOT thinking of putting anything Exchange related on thise, purely file-serving in a 500-ish PC switched network. cheers, Paul _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=exchange To subscribe: http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/ To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with. _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=exchange To subscribe: http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/ To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
