5x 500gb or 5x 750gb

[veedubfreak]

Ok so i've decided that im too cheap and too impatient to wait for 1TB drives to go on sale for a decent price. So now i'm looking to do raid 5 with either 500gb or 750gb drives for my home theatre pc. This also validates my decision to keep my DS3R so anyone know what drives are on sale right now, and on a side note, anyone with experience setting up raid 5 on a DS3R any help would be appreciated.

 

[aetherh4cker]

I was planning on doing a RAID5 with 5x 750GB drives on the DS3R as well!

Then my budget fell through, and I'm stuck waiting until next year.

I'd do it with the 7200.11 Seagate drives though. I'm not sure why, but the 750GB version isn't on Newegg yet, but it will be soon. That would be one cool RAID5.

 

[Ste]

Well if your thinking about the drives, That I think you thinking about (LOL) then it would be cheaper to do 5X750.

Its cheaper by a few cents per GB on the 750 GB drives..

 

[veedubfreak]

Ya im looking at the 7200.11s. Hmm hows it gonna be cheaper for the 750gbs vs the 500's? BTW i have roughly 300 dvds that i plan to rip to the HTPC and pretty much whatever movies i rent

 

[Ste]

Ya im looking at the 7200.11s. Hmm hows it gonna be cheaper for the 750gbs vs the 500's? BTW i have roughly 300 dvds that i plan to rip to the HTPC and pretty much whatever movies i rent

I didn't say you would spend less overall, All I said is that the 500 and 750 drives I was looking at, the 750 ones where cheaper PER GB.

And really you can do the math by yourself.
But For example, I am looking at two seagate Drives right now, Everything is the same about them except one if 500GB and the other is 750GB.
Both SATA II and 16MB Cache, the 500 one is 4.16$ Per GB while the 750 one is 3.94$ per GB. So it is cheaper to go with the 750 GB one.

 

[veedubfreak]

Pricewatch only shows 1 place carrying the 750gb 7200.11's and they are about 95 bucks more per drive what drives are you looking at STe. also, on a related note, is it possible to add drives to a raid 5 after the raid is initially set up? Say like i go with 5 500gb drives and end up running out of space, can i add another drive? I'm guessing the answer is no, but i havent ever really dove too deep into raid setups.

 

[Ste]

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
And
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3750640AS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

I thought you were choosing between 500 and 750 GB drives, if you want the cheaper Per GB then buy the 750 GB Drives, in the end its cheaper PER GB. If price as a total is a concern then why were you even considering 750 GB Drives?

 

[veedubfreak]

Oooo oem drives. Didnt even see those. One thing im wondering though is if its worth waiting for the 750gb .11s to come out. Total price isnt really the concern, price per gig is. 5x500 i'll end up with 2TB @ a cost of 600 bucks, where as 5x750 i'll get 3TB for 945.
500gb drives come out to $3.33 per gb
750gb drives come out to $3.17 per gb. Ok now that the math is done, i see where you are coming from.

 

[veedubfreak]

Ok so i pretty much decided im just gonna get the 750s, but does anyone know enough about raids to know if i can add to it after the fact? My has 8 SATA ports, so i can get away with 7 hard drives, just wondering if i should spend the money up front and get all 7 hard drives now or if i can add in later. Bueller? Bueller?

 

[aetherh4cker]

I don't think you can add drives into a RAID5. (not entirely sure though)

After you have 3 disks in the RAID5, the only way to make it 5 is to recreate the RAID5, losing all data.