Storage Solutions How can I use more than 3 HDDs?

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Sei

Galvanizer
My download PC, which is also my HTPC now, has 2 HDDs (160GB and 1.5TB) attached to it via SATA ports. Now, one of the SATA port does not work and I want to attach 2 more HDDs to it to make it my media storage server.

Currently, this the situation:

HTPC

160 GB (OS Drive)

1.5TB (For storing new downloads and other stuff)

MAIN GAMING RIG

320 GB (OS)

750 GB (Shows)

1 TB (Movies)

Now, as you can see when I want to see movies on the HTPC over the network, I have to keep my main power hungry rig on. I want to shift the 750 GB and the 1 TB disk from the main rig to the HTPC.

Are there PCI cards available with SATA inputs? If yes, for how much and from where? Or is there any other way I can attach the 2 HDDs on the HTPC?
 
hey use sata coverter sata to ide converter which has two port of sata port and one ide port it fits on ur board and ide panel and gives u the two output for sata connection
 
Yep you have PCI cards available which have SATA ports. Ive seen 2 SATA port cards for 400 bucks here in bangalore. Speeds will be an issue though as its limited to 133 MB/s max theoretical i think and its shared among other PCI devices as well
 
if u board at u sata board does not working and out of warranty

then why can to get new board g31 or any another board with more than 6 sata board for using it ;)
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Can someone tell me the exact cost of these cards?

@Apollyon: That guy is so far from my house and his shop is really at the end of the rabbit hole, so to speak. It took me 2.5 hours to reach there when I bought my gfx last year. Would prefer some shop which is near the main road. Know any such dealer? :D

Checked on eBay. Getting the card for approx 450 bux with shipping. Also, is there a chance of spoiling my HDD by using these cheap PCI cards? :(
 
hunt3r said:
Speeds will be an issue though as its limited to 133 MB/s max theoretical i think and its shared among other PCI devices as well
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You will rarely touch 100MB/s even with SATA 3 HDD's, so its moot :)
 
blr_p said:
You will rarely touch 100MB/s even with SATA 3 HDD's, so its moot :)
Click to expand...

Uh? Normal SATA 2 HDD's sometimes have burst transfer rates of 150-200 MB/s, and they can sustain 90-100 MB/s easily.

133 MB/s is the theoretical bandwidth, there may be other PCI devices, say TV tuner cards/sound cards etc which eat a bit of bandwidth as well as some overhead. Same reason we see SATA 2 HDD's limited to ~260 MB/s whereas the max theoretical is ~300 MB/s. But as i said for a dump drive its acceptable

@Sei, i dont think there should be any issue using these pci cards. Dont think it can get spoilt but just do a bit more research. Exact cost on SP road was 400 bucks for the 2 port card so 450 shipped seems reasonable
 
hunt3r said:
Uh? Normal SATA 2 HDD's sometimes have burst transfer rates of 150-200 MB/s, and they can sustain 90-100 MB/s easily.
Click to expand...
I'll agree they can sustain 100 MB/s, thats really their max is what i intended to say. They won't cross higher with sustained transfer and in that sense are only marginally faster than PCI 133 will allow. The limit is there as a platter can only spin so fast and be read.

What good is burst and how much can you transfer with it ?

hunt3r said:
133 MB/s is the theoretical bandwidth, there may be other PCI devices, say TV tuner cards/sound cards etc which eat a bit of bandwidth as well as some overhead. Same reason we see SATA 2 HDD's limited to ~260 MB/s whereas the max theoretical is ~300 MB/s. But as i said for a dump drive its acceptable
Click to expand...
A friend did a dump on SATA 2's and the avg was 90-100MB/s which is only 1/3rd of its spec'd speed. Thing that upset me was SATA 3 would be no better even tho its theoretical is twice as fast.

What does the SATA speed have to do with more bandwidth available for tv tuner cards & sound cards ?

Those devices won't be in the SATA chain to begin with.
 
blr_p said:
I'll agree they can sustain 100 MB/s, thats really their max is what i intended to say. They won't cross higher with sustained transfer and in that sense are only marginally faster than PCI 133 will allow. The limit is there as a platter can only spin so fast and be read.

What good is burst and how much can you transfer with it ?
A friend did a dump on SATA 2's and the avg was 90-100MB/s which is only 1/3rd of its spec'd speed. Thing that upset me was SATA 3 would be no better even tho its theoretical is twice as fast.

What does the SATA speed have to do with more bandwidth available for tv tuner cards & sound cards ?

Those devices won't be in the SATA chain to begin with.
Click to expand...

Yep exactly, even i said that they usually wont cross 110MB/s but my point was that using PCI you might get a fair bit less if there are bottlenecks.

Burst does make a slight difference as the initial transfer rate is faster. Granted its not much but at least its something.

I gave the example of the SATA speeds only to highlight the possibility of overhead(ie for sata 2 you get speeds of 260 mb/s max even though theoretical is 300). I never said anything about sata speed affecting pci speeds :S
 
hunt3r said:
Yep exactly, even i said that they usually wont cross 110MB/s but my point was that using PCI you might get a fair bit less if there are bottlenecks.
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Hmm, i guess Sei will let us know, but i'm thinking there is not going to be more than 10% difference on sustained transfer with the addon PCI card compared to his other locally attached HDD's.

Now he's not said it but i'm assuming he's got better than PCI on his mobo, most likely pCI-express, thats got a bigger bandwidth than just PCI. So the difference will be slight even with other cards on the same bus.

hunt3r said:
I gave the example of the SATA speeds only to highlight the possibility of overhead(ie for sata 2 you get speeds of 260 mb/s max even though theoretical is 300). I never said anything about sata speed affecting pci speeds :S
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Speed of 260MB/s ??

Is this with RAID 0 ?
 
blr_p said:
Hmm, i guess Sei will let us know, but i'm thinking there is not going to be more than 10% difference on sustained transfer with the addon PCI card compared to his other locally attached HDD's.

Now he's not said it but i'm assuming he's got better than PCI on his mobo, most likely pCI-express, thats got a bigger bandwidth than just PCI. So the difference will be slight even with other cards on the same bus.

Speed of 260MB/s ??

Is this with RAID 0 ?
Click to expand...

Yep i suspect as much, maybe only 10-20% max. Yea most mobos probably have at least PCIE 1 X. I had seen a card from mediahome with 2 sata and 2 esata but for 1000 bucks. PCIE 1X offers 250MB/s each way

You can reach 260 MB/s even with a single SSD in sequential read/write speeds

AnandTech: Intel's X25-V & Kingston's 30GB SSDNow V Series: Battle of the $125 SSDs
 
Sei said:
@Apollyon: That guy is so far from my house and his shop is really at the end of the rabbit hole, so to speak. It took me 2.5 hours to reach there when I bought my gfx last year. Would prefer some shop which is near the main road. Know any such dealer? :D
Click to expand...

With such descriptions i can only assume you picked up your card from AMI too :D.

Please lemme know if those cards work out well for you, i'm in the same dilemma as you are, lack of Sata ports on my HTPC, was considering going 1tb External.
 
^ Yes that is AMI indeed.

I'm not bothered with data transfer speeds as I'm with the reliability of the cards to ensure that my HDDs don't go kaput. Only going to watch movies and series off it. No issues there.
 
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