External RAID 5

tumult — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:29:37 -0800

The amount of data I now have makes it impractical to continue backing up to DVD. I was planning on building a RAID 5 array, but I'm in over my head. The computer doing the hosting would be an older PowerMac G5, which means PCI-X. It would be sharing over my network (gigabit). I have over a terabyte of data to store, so I was planning on buying 4 500gb drives. In case you've never looked inside a PowerMac G5, there are only two drive bays, so the drives would have to be external.

So how the hell do I do this? I've already seen the Drobo and I'm not too interested – it's $500 and butt slow. I'm totally willing to spend $500, but not on something that slow. I don't need the array to be super high performance, but 11mb/sec isn't going to cut it. Also, their marketing gets on my nerves ("data robot"? come on.)

I've looked into some cards, but I'm not sure what to get. External SATAII connectors and an enclosure? Most of the manufacturers I've seen so far (areca, high point, etc) have really sketchy websites and vague compatibility information.

To sum up:
Need RAID 5 solution, drives must be external.
Must be compatible with PCI-X, Mac OS X.
Everything would be plugged into a UPS.

USB for PCI-X for my PowerMac G5

Plug Dub In — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:26:40 -0800

How can I add more USB 2.0 ports to my G5 PowerMac if it only takes PCI-X cards? The PCI-Express card I got doesn't fit. Bah. I guess that was dumb.

Is there any way to add more internal USB ports? I'd rather not get a hub, as it's an extra power cord, an extra blinking-lights thing on my desk, and frankly, I feel like I should be able to make use of these empty card slots.

The only things I can find to put in them are ATA ports, network ports, and SCSI ports, none of which I have any use for.

Thanks, all.

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External RAID 5

USB for PCI-X for my PowerMac G5