External Hard Drive a or Server question. Which is better?
Answers:
I would not recommend a server b/c they're too slow, noisy, take up too much space, and power hungry. They do have their advantages, but I find I can't stand copying files across the network, but I don't have a gigbit network. If you do, then it might be worth the try. Don't even think about it on Wifi for large files like the ones you're talking about.
You also might not have the performance overhead from when multiple people are accessing the server, so performance might be improved for a single user.
By the way, if you're going to build a server, you might as well run everything on it, since it'll essentially be a under-utilized desktop.
By the way, the definition of server I think in your mind is just a junk desktop. There are some very effective storage solutions using servers but they really don't make sense for your application. They also still don't beat a USB 2.0 or Firewire connection but allows you the ability to put on LOTS of data. I can't imagine you having that much porn and anime or whatever to need that much.
Here are my suggestions
1) Deal with multiple externals (get stackable ones).
2) Purchase a external case that houses multiple drives (check newegg out).
3) Purchase an enclosure that allows you to swap drives in and out (check newegg out)
4) Replace your current drives with 1TB, 750GB, or 500GB drives. A 500GB can be had for around $100. Buy two with and put them in your old externals or buy new enclosures for $30/each and you can have a terabyte of storage for $260. Definitely a cleaner solution and essentially triples your current capacity. I've seen some 500GB externals selling for around $120 total so it's possible to have the setup for around $240.
5) Build a custom enclosure using an old case, or whatever and just pile them on and using adapters and hubs to connect to your old computer. Be creative, there are several ways to do this.
Don't have to go to Newegg but I'm not going to look at every retailer to find every product for you.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...
You can use something like this with a 5.25" Enclosure... Buy a few of these and you can swap them in/out but I don't see how this is any more beneficial than having several externals. It's good for desktops b/c of performance.
http://www.techsunny.com/generic_5.25_ei...
Note: Some of the above will need adapters to work with your notebook (i.e. eSATA to PCMCIA, or whatever).
Never have any doubt ... a server is best... BUT in your case, there is something else you can do...
Since your just playing arround and not protecting any real data, and only using it on one computer a server is going to be cost prohibitive for this task.
Adding additional external hard drives either daisy chained or on indepentant LUNs is pretty cheezy and your just waiting for them to get jostled arround and fail.
So I reccomend you go in between... NAS Network Attached Storage. It's cheep as dirt, has it's own enclosure, is share-able (natively) and can be configured to be fault tolorant. Your going to loose all of your presouse muzac and torrents of crap one day and you won't be happy!
Check out this from buffalo tech.
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/netw...
the terastation line will give you 1 to 2 TB of storage space over 4 inexpensive drives in one enclosure. And most importantly you can configure them for RAID 5. ERGO, when one of the drives die, you won't loose your information!
Oh and by the way, these devices plug directly into your network or computer via gigabit ethernet(1000 Megabits per seccond) way faster then firewire or USB. Actuall throughput will be dependat on the hard drive access not the link speed.
There are more expensive and delux NAS options (intel has a nice one) but this is probably the device for you!
Have a nice day.. .
A better solution to this mess would be why do you not just get Dvd's of your infomation burnt? Because, lets face it, you can switch dvd's of your favorite anime or porn faster and cheaper than you can hard drives : P It is also alot more cost effective.
Also if you do chain up your hard drives will slow them down slightly.
Yeah, I don't manufacture stuff like that personally, but they do have cases out there about 1/2 the size of a PC tower that have nothing bout slots for large capacity hot-swappable HDs arranged in stack of 6 or 8 HDs per case. Server would be good idea but it would be really expensive and totally overkill.
EDIT: The previous answerer is on to something, you could just burn lots of DVDs of your stuff and then they would be immune to hardware problems and viruses and etc.
you should return them, get something with ALOT of memory,and there yu have it . thats why its good to save reciepts!
What about a network storage device?
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/satellite...
The answers post by the user, for information only, RunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers ...