Computer Help Thread

[jGLZa]

So that I dont bombard Graham with billions of PM's regarding technical questions I figured I'd start a thread so that I may pose my questions to all. Obviously others may ask questions too.

So I want to know:

• What is RAID and what is software RAID?
• And what is the difference between having a Network Attached Storage (NAS) and a Home Server?

That is all for now.
Thanks.

[GrahamZA]

It's not a problem

Answer 1
RAID, or redundant array of independent disks, is a form of technology that "combines" discs. There are 2 basic versions of RAID: 0 and 1.
RAID 0 is striping which combines discs to appear as one. While this will make your data access and writing faster if 1 drive failed then all data is lost.
RAID 1 creates a redundant disc that backs up the other. Your data will be safer, but it will be a bit slow.

Hardware RAID requires a PCI/e/x RAID controller card. Depending on the chipset it uses can be cheap or more expensive than a car (I'm not joking there). Software RAID uses Windows as a layer over the discs, so it can be slower but doesn't require any extra hardware.

If you're going to RAID then makde sure all of the discs are the same make, model and firmware. For a PCI card make sure it at least supports RAID 0 and 1.

There are lots more other variations of RAID such as 3, 5, 10 etc. All are diferent configurations.

Answer 2
A home server is a dedicated PC that's on 100% of the time and houses your content. This can be costly as it's an entire PC. A NAS is a self-controller external enclosure for Hard drives (it can support RAID) which connects directly to your router/switch.

NAS will be slower than a server as it's bottlenecked by the connection and multiple users writing to it (or reading from it) can bog it down. A server will be faster in this regard, but can be more expensive.

If you're going to steam any HD content (720p upwards) then don't use WiFi at all. Even WiFi N can struggle with this at times. For now it's safer to lay a Gigabit network around the house.

I hope all of this helps?

[jGLZa]

Thanks. Your answer made much more sense than wikipedia did.

So my reason for the questions are: I have a spare PC at home which I would like to use as a central storage for all my media (mostly video) so that all my family can access it. In the future I may want to setup a FTP as well. So I was wondering which would be the better option to have as the spare PC isnt the fastest so Im looking for the least resource intensive option.

Also, when you say stream content do you mean:
access server via network > select video > play on my laptop (not server)? (This is what I want to do)

I dont have wireless, the bluddy thing doesnt work so everything is connected via lan cables.

Unrelated question: Does WinXP support 2TB HDD's? What is its limit? Which OS's support big HDD's (1.5TB & up)?

[GrahamZA]

If you have a spare PC then you may as well use it. You don't really want to fork out extra for a NAS?

Yip that's what I mean about streaming. It's how I do it through a external media player.

Yip it does support 2TB. Only from Vista onwards do they support larger drives. I can't quite remember, but 64bit may be your friend here.

[jGLZa]

Obviously I wasnt going to buy an actual NAS, that would be insane. I could either use a the PC as a server or convert it into a NAS. I want to know which is the better option.

Both can be used for storage and ftp. But I suppose I cant install applications on a NAS (e.g. mySQL). A NAS would use less resources though right. Which one would have a faster read/write speed though (for streaming purposes)?

So XP supports 2TB but no bigger. Perfect.
Only have Ubuntu 64bit.

[GrahamZA]

Both can be used for storage and ftp. But I suppose I cant install applications on a NAS (e.g. mySQL). A NAS would use less resources though right. Which one would have a faster read/write speed though (for streaming purposes)?

It can very much depend. Some NAS units are terribly slow - the faster ones do cost more.

What specs are the PC?

[5NAKE]

Lol Graham you should charge jGLZa for his IT help?

jj.

I just wanna comment that RAID isnt something you should mess around. It doesnt really help for certain purpose otherwise the HDD drives will get damaged.

[GrahamZA]

I just wanna comment that RAID isnt something you should mess around. It doesnt really help for certain purpose otherwise the HDD drives will get damaged.

I agree in a sense that I'm not a fan of personal RAID. If your HDDs are big enough then leave them as is.

[jGLZa]

Lol Graham you should charge jGLZa for his IT help?

 I cut him a good deal for a You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

new car

, but he never accepted - his loss.  ;D

Spare PC specs:
P4 2.x ghz
1.5 GB RAM
ATi GPU (dont know specifics)
WinXP
Sick PSU... may be replaced if I can afford it.

[GrahamZA]

I cut him a good deal for a You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

new car

, but he never accepted - his loss.  ;D

The sale was rigged!

Spare PC specs:
P4 2.x ghz
1.5 GB RAM
ATi GPU (dont know specifics)
WinXP
Sick PSU... may be replaced if I can afford it.

That PC is fine for what you need. As for the PSU if the GPU isn't high-spec then get a iSonic 500W PSU - they're pretty cheap.

[Alucard]

Grahams answers are to long...

With RAID, you get really good read write speeds, but if one hdd fails you loose all your data... nuf said...

[GrahamZA]

Grahams answers are to long...

With RAID, you get really good read write speeds, but if one hdd fails you loose all your data... nuf said...

Well if you want to be short about it  And besides that's only with RAID 0 

[Alucard]

lol, well we could turn it into the x360 vs ps3 "talk" we had...

RAID 0 vs RAID X...

[GrahamZA]

lol, well we could turn it into the x360 vs ps3 "talk" we had...

Fond memories 

RAID 0 vs RAID X...

Eiter way I'm now it's biggest fan. Redunency is alwasy good (RAID 1), but it just costs too much.

[Alucard]

Money is the issue there...

Anyway for jGLZa, speed is the priority, esp if 3 or more people are watching at the same time...