Reliable Data Storage on the Cheap!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,628 words · ~8 min read
0:00
I don't know why you have a ton of data I mean maybe your wife for GF or hubby
0:04
your kid is a huge photography nerd
0:08
maybe you're the world's worst let's player who needs to record hours of
0:12
footage to salvage 3 minutes of entertaining content or maybe you have a
0:16
100 monkeys tied up in your basement typing away 24/7 at keyboards hoping to
0:19
reproduce the entire works of William Shakespeare I don't care whatever the
0:24
reason is you're looking for a better way to expand your storage safely and
0:30
that is what this video is
0:40
about Intel brings ddr4 to the mainstream with their core i7 6700k and
0:46
core i5 6600k processors check out the
0:49
link in the video description to learn more so the way most people expand their
0:54
storage is by buying a hard drive and putting it into their computer tower
0:59
wrong if you need a fast way to expand
1:02
your steam Library sure but for bulk
1:05
storage of things like photos or videos this is pretty much guaranteed to be a
1:10
crummy way to do it in the longer term consolidating your storage in a Nas or
1:15
network attached storage device makes it easier to share and if you have multiple
1:20
devices like a desktop and a laptop it helps avoid that nightmare of where did
1:25
I put that file or where did I put that one without r ring on cloud storage
1:31
Services which can get very expensive with higher capacity plans not to
1:35
mention the trust issues that some people have with giving somebody else
1:40
their sensitive data for safekeeping on top of that even basic networking
1:45
equipment these days can handle over a 100 megabyte pers second transfer speeds
1:49
meaning that even 4K video editing across a network is easy as p with the
1:54
right workflow the main problem with network attached storage is that the
1:59
consumer grade stuff sucks the single
2:03
drive or two Bay stuff sucks because
2:06
it's slow and offers little to no redundancy that is protection from Drive
2:12
failures and the 4 Bay and up stuff
2:15
sucks because the affordable ones are slow with limited functionality while
2:19
the good ones are so expensive you might as well just buy a computer to do it and
2:25
that's ignoring the with some exceptions generally crappy intuitive management
2:31
software so enough about the problem then let's talk about the solution we've
2:36
been diving into more and more server grade stuff on the channel lately for a
2:40
number of reasons number one I find it interesting deal with it number two
2:45
whether it's higher capacity RAM or ssds
2:48
or many core CPUs it's a reflection of
2:52
the technology that will trickle down into consumer grade gear in the future
2:57
which I find interesting deal with it and and number three which ties in
3:01
closely with number two old server stuff
3:05
can be incredibly cheap while offering the same functionality or better than
3:10
what a general consumer would be able to buy on the Shelf today so it's time to
3:15
hit up good old eBay I found that buying
3:18
a cheap already built computer is a good way to both ensure the compatibility of
3:23
all the parts you're getting and save a few bucks versus buying individual
3:27
components but your mileage may vary so any cor I3 based machine will be
3:32
powerful enough for all but the heaviest Nas use and will sip power relative to a
3:38
more featureful processor ensure that the included motherboard and power
3:42
supply are standard ATX and check the
3:45
motherboard product page to ensure that it has gigabit Lan from there if you
3:51
just want a couple of discs and you don't mind fussing with internal cables
3:54
whenever you want to expand you can add either a free nasos like rock store or a
4:01
paid one like the one that we use at lonus Media Group on raid for like 60
4:05
bucks and you're actually sort of good to go I mean it'll be a bit of an ey
4:09
sore but hopefully the money you saved will help heal that wound because a dual
4:14
core class Nas boox off a retail shelf would cost two times as much or more but
4:20
if you want something then that more closely resembles the pre-built Nas
4:24
experience I've got some tips there too first you'll want to change out that
4:28
case eBay to the rescue again here search for hot swap case and you'll come
4:34
up with all kinds of options that should suit your needs this chenbro refurb that
4:39
I found while writing this looks perfect for us standard ATX motherboard
4:43
compatibility and up to eight Drive sleds power supplies can be a little
4:48
tricky with these rack mount style cases this one's a 2u and not all this stuff
4:53
is super standard but with some double-sided tape or hot glue this one
4:58
could be made to fit quite easily and is Affordable if you find something
5:02
like this six Drive ready bundle you actually won't even need to worry about
5:06
the power supply or this next step but most of the cases you'll encounter
5:11
will'll need power supplies and we'll use sff 887 SAS connectors for their hot
5:17
swap back planes which leads us finally to the original inspiration for this
5:22
video my search for a cheap storage card
5:26
for my personal Home Server upgrade now I had thought that I could repurpose an
5:31
old raid card but what I discovered is that for proper monitoring and smart
5:36
reporting that is the health of your drives hbas or host bus adapters with no
5:42
raid functionality just ports to plug into work much better than raid cards
5:47
because most and there are some exceptions raid cards even in jbod or
5:52
HBA mode will not behave completely
5:55
transparently which can be an even bigger problem for os's that require be
6:00
Drive access like frz the issue is that
6:04
affordable hbas either use normal SATA
6:08
connectors making them unsuitable for use with a back plane or they're made by
6:12
brands that I frankly wouldn't put my important data anywhere near so I ended
6:17
up following alpen wasser's guide on the lineus tech tips Forum to pick up some
6:22
cheap cables and a super affordable LSI
6:25
raid card model the 9211 8i on eBay
6:28
again that supports eight drives and can be flashed to something called it mode
6:33
to make it behave exactly like an HBA
6:38
after the flash all the smart monitoring data showed up perfectly and for $500 or
6:43
much less if you have some parts lying around to reuse or you don't mind
6:47
sacrificing some power efficiency by using even older Hardware from a thrift
6:51
shop like free geek we've got ourselves a wicked box to put in the closet that
6:56
depending on the operating system you choose uh but we actually accounted for
7:00
some budget for unraid can do so much
7:03
more than an off-the-shelf Naz not to mention the nearly unlimited
7:08
upgradeability down the line I mean try
7:12
upgrading this thing speaking of upgrading why don't you upgrade your
7:17
internet connection today tunnel bear is the easy to ouse VPN app for mobile and
7:22
desktop tunnel bear allows you to Tunnel through over a dozen different countries
7:27
which makes it appear to we we sites or online services as though you are
7:32
browsing from those countries great for getting access to stuff that you
7:36
otherwise wouldn't have they've got apps for iOS Android PC and mac and they also
7:42
have a Chrome extension and the greatest thing about tunnel bear is that it is
7:46
super easy to use you just download it
7:49
install it basically press a button say Okay I want to be American today and
7:55
Boop your connection gets encrypted with ases 256bit encryption without any Tom
8:00
Foolery with you know port forwarding or any of that nonsense and you are off to
8:05
the races and the best thing about it again actually I've come up with a lot
8:09
of best things about it today another great thing about it is that if you do
8:12
have any trouble their friendly support bears are happy to help you another best
8:16
thing about it is that they even give you the first 500 megabytes of data for
8:20
free so you can try it out no credit card required then if you want to
8:24
upgrade to an unlimited plan which is quite affordable by the way you can save
8:28
10% by going title bear.com LT so start browsing start start
8:35
browsing privately today so thanks for watching guys if you
8:40
dislike this video hit that dislike button I'm not afraid but if you liked
8:43
it hit the like button get subscribed and maybe even consider supporting us
8:47
you can use your Amazon affiliate you can use our Amazon affiliate code when
8:51
you shop at Amazon instructions for which are up there you can buy a cool
8:54
shirt like this one or you can give us a direct monthly contribution through our
8:58
community Forum you gives you a little contributor badge and it's cool stuff
9:01
now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button
9:05
in the top right corner to check out I don't know what the hell have we done
9:10
recently ah fascinating you can see me
9:13
take an angle grinder to a GTX Titan video card yes my friends it's actually
9:18
less cringeworthy than it sounds