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Multiple Harddrive question


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#1
Jackler

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I was wondering if you can have multiple harddrives(more than two) in one computer. Within the next month Ill be handling files that may total 1-2 terabytes(yes, over 2K Gigs). The largest drives ive seen are 500GB, so im wondering if I purchased multiple units, would all be accesible as slaves(master aside)? What would you recommend computer spec. wise, and what would the best HD quality wise be on the market? Thank you in advance for any help.
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#2
troppo

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yes you can have more than one hard drive in the same computer BUT you might want to connect 4 500Gb hard drives in a RAID config so that your system see's the hard drives as one hard drive

but

i dont htink that windows can see that much hard drive space i could be wrong but that is a huge huge amount of memory what the [bleep] can be taking up that much space????? thats increadble
:whistling:

that will also take a massive amount of time to trasfer that amount of data definetly get drives with a 16Mb cache and look depending on what the data is you might want toconsider a RAID 0 config for performace but as i said that depends on what this data is

thats increadble and i would be interested in knowing what it is :blink:

now computer spec wise it depends on what your doing with these files. if it is say video files then you would need a entirely different system that for i dont no what ever the heck takes up that much space....

you would probably benifit form a new core 2 duo system and that would be one of the higher ones (E6600 or higher) a fair amount of RAM (probably 1-3 gigs would be heaps)

but still im not sure if windows XP can see that much HDD space someone else migth be able to clear that up but thats what i think
troppo

Edited by troppo, 05 September 2006 - 02:23 AM.

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#3
troppo

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and buy the way there are larger HDD sizes out there they are just harder to find
i found theese two for you on newegg

they are 750Gb's

http://www.newegg.co...;SubCategory=14

one is SATA 3.0Gb/s and the other is ultra ATA 100 i would get the SATA deffinetly

and if you are going to get 4X500Bg's i would get them SATA 3.0Gb/s as well

and also it may not be XP that is the limmiting factor but the BIOs on your motherboard. if your motherboard is new one im pretty sure (kinda) that it will take that much space because think about it if you have a motherboard with 4 SATA plug on it then its gotta support over 1Tb because thats only 2 500Gb hard drives which is pretty responable so im guessing that a newer type motherboard would be able to support that much but still im not quite sure

ill try to do some more research for you and see what i can find, google is your friend use that aswell and see what you can find also


troppo

Edited by troppo, 05 September 2006 - 03:40 AM.

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#4
troppo

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also sorry for all teh posts i just had some more thoughts:

1) all thoose hard drives would chew through a bit of juice you will have to at least buy a 600W PSU i found some that have 4 connectors some have 6 but it depends on what else you have in your system such as burners extra hard drives (os drive) and other things and if your looking at a high end system with a power full CPU and heaps of fans and even a mid range graphics card you might want to get a better even more power full PSU

2) will you have a seperate drive for you OS?

3) are you building a brand new system to accomadate all of this space because you didnt make that clear in your post are you just wantign to add hard drives or build a new systemw with the hard drives installed into it aswell?

4) all of thoose hard drives might be hard to fit into a case you would need to buy a full tower case maybe even a server case to house all the hard drives because if you are having 5 drives thats alot.

5) thoose hard drives tsacked close together will generate alot of heat and you might have a hard time cooling them you would need to buy a really good case to get pleanty of air over the drives
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#5
warriorscot

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You might want to look at SCSI drives or purchasing a hard disk array. Biggest drive you can easily pick up is the 7200.10 750Gb from seagate.

More info would really be needed in order to give a complete answer.

PS Troppo we have the edit option for a reason.
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#6
Jackler

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What info would be needed?

Also I found this, what do you guys think:

http://www.compuplus...6p687bx1xf0q3o2

I hadnt understanded the comment about the OS being on a diff drive.

The plan is to build an entirely new system, which is why I asked what would be best comp. spec. wise. I would need fastest load times without killing the functionality of the computer. The tasks do take a large amount of power and is spread across multiple monitors;therefore I need actions not to distort the monitors when active.

Hmm...odd, I swear I replied to all this already...
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#7
troppo

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nah that hard drive is no good for what you want to do because it is an external drive the transfer speed would be way to slow internal drives are the way to go.

so you want to build a new system with no lag and multiple monitors...what is your budget???

how many monitors are you wanting to run??? just 2???

core 2 duo systems are the best on the market at the moment but it depends on your budget and how much you are willing to spend that will determine what sort of things that you put inot your system but a decent graphics card woudnt be a bad thing if your running 2 fairly high resolutions.

but we need to no if this data is goig to be loaded there and just sit there or is it being constantly played with as in are you trasfering or updating the data alot or just every so often??

troppo
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#8
warriorscot

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What i was meaning is what are you using the system for which is the biggest factor in deciding what the system is for until we know this we cant actually reccomend anything. What are the file types for example what are they for why are they so large how many will you be working with at the same time stuff like that.

So it seems you need a workstation, might be more complicated whats your budget the kind of system you want will be very very expensive, you are looking at over a grand just for disk drives at the moment. And something with enough power to handle large data files with good speed and multiple monitors is probably going to be another 2 or 3 grand at least.
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#9
Jackler

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It will be somewhat like a library, the files will mostly be collected, however they will be accessed when needed. I would be working with anywhere between 3 and 10 at a time. The main task is video editing. After compiled they will be stored, edited when needed/ready, and spread across 2-4 monitors. So after loading them to the large drives, to a sense they will sit there and wont really be moved much, however with video editing i will be creating new files from them.

The budget isnt an issue. If anything the first thing I was going for was an estimate as well, and even if the price is beyond my capibilities, it just means Ill hold on it for a few months.

What graphics card would you recommend for the multiple monitors? Im also looking for one that would have an RCA component so it could also use a general TV as a monitor.
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#10
warriorscot

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Most new TVs have S-video or DVI/hdmi so most vid cards can handle that if needs be you just get an Svideo component converter.

You are looking at serious cash and serious kit if its video editing youll probably be better off with a 2d card rather than the normal 3d cards designed for gaming 3d applications, cards like fireGLs i think would be better for video editing although im not as in with that side.

You are looking at alot of HDD youll need to buy an array style system even with todays largest drive which is 750Gb youll need 27 of them thats something like 14,500 USD worth of HDD space so as far as i know youll need some sort of pre built array but i dont know alot about those as they are beyond my means. The workstation itself isnt so bad some convential high end setups for workstations and multi CPU server types would do but they arent cheap either and to work with files that large youll need alot of ram and that might mean a server board more expensive and need more expensive memory, again not as good with this kind of system i only know the basics of them.

Multi monitor is probably the easiest bit lots of multimonitor solutions again these arent cheap though.

Last time i looked at systems like what you need was a couple of years and they cost more than 40000 pounds which is alot more than most earn in a year. Im not even sure if i know anyone that will have a system like that who i could ask for more info.
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#11
Jackler

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Well actually the range in which im working is between 1-2TB, thats sorta my work quota. Im not big business(yet),heh, so ill be working with 5-10GB sized files, and enought o fill about 1-2 TB.
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#12
warriorscot

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Thats all right 20Tb is was worried there thats hard to do, i can manage 2Tb easy enough youll need 4 or 5 750Gb drives and a fairly sizable case as well.

Where are you from to get an idea of prices(ill do it in GBP for now as its easier for me multiply by about 1.8 for USD), 5 drives will run £1700 and youll need a stacker probably with a hard drive converter module to get the extra drive mounts another £170. Youll want intel core 2 probablly if there is no cash limit so another £160 and as much ram as it will take £500 maybe more youll need to find 2Gb modules to max it out. And another £500 for vid cards and maybe £150 for a vid capture card. The top end intel is 750ish but the one down is half that.

So looking at least 3grand all in which is not to bad considering all that HDD space still alot of cash and youll need a powerful PSU for it and the monitors and vid cards will be a little trickier than normal ive asked about how good fireGLs are for video editing as ive only seen them in CAD style machines but they arent cheap either and it depends how you want your monitors set up.
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#13
-=blaster=-

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Seagate should be releasing the 1tb drives before the end of the year. If you can find a better price, buy it. Expect prices on stuff like this to drop even more when those monster drives come out.

:whistling:
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