2010-03-20, 00:20
Just re-deploy an old redundant PC, install Ubuntu (whatever flavour, my favourite is Mythbuntu for my specific use case), don't spend any cash on anything but a bunch of huge hard drives.
Have fun.
Have fun.
Quote:Unraid and Flexraid are designed as media storage systems. They are a lot easier to expand. Many RAID5 systems cannot be expanded or if they can require a drive that matches the existing drives. So if your array (RAID5) is made up of 4 - 500GB drives and you want to expand you have to buy another 500GB drive, even if that 1.5Tb is cheaper. Unraid and Flexraid (if I understand flexraid correctly) allow you to just add another drive, no matter what size it is. Unraid does require the parity drive be as large as the largest drive in the array but making that change is well documented and doesn't require moving any data off the array.
Also know that unraid and flexraid (I think) will automatically spin down drives if they're not being accessed. This cuts down your power usage and extends the drive's life. RAID5 keeps them spinning.