External RAID 5 Array?

[Gnome]

So basically I have 3x 1TB hard-drives now and about 1.5TB of stuff that I don't really want to be losing and I thought I'd create a RAID 5 array but I'd prefer it if I could keep it external, does anyone know of such a package that is affordable?

I know you get RAID 0 / RAID 1 solutions that connection VIA Ethernet but RAID 1 just isn't going to cut it, how it communicates with the PC isn't too much of a fuss but Ethernet is preferred.

Rebuild time is a non-issue and performance doesn't need to be spectacular

 

[MadMailMan]

Check out http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Storage/LAN_RAID/N0001LN/n0001ln.asp or http://www.intel.com/design/servers/storage/ss4200e/index.htm

Will cost around R6.5k before drives.

 

[zambussi]

I bought a Thecus N4100 NAS box - cost me 5K from Intellistor - has 4 Sata -2 bays, so I can do raid 0,1,5,jbod - works so well, that I bought another one.

Uses very little power, has two lan ports (Gigabit), E-sata and 2 USB.

When I bought mine, they only supported up to 750Gb, but this may well have changed by now.

I bought this brand after doing extensive googling and finding that this was one of the fastest, most stable units.

 

[Gnome]

K thanks for the info! These things are a bit expensive tho, it makes more sense to build a computer just to house the array VS. paying R5k for a 4 drive storage unit.

 

[The_Techie]

Have a look at the Drobo

 

[Gnome]

Have a look at the Drobo

Looks good but where do you buy it and most importantly does it feature any type of redundancy? The website is a bit uninformative and too riddled with marketing for me to see what exactly how it works.

 

[The_Techie]

Looks good but where do you buy it and most importantly does it feature any type of redundancy? The website is a bit uninformative and too riddled with marketing for me to see what exactly how it works.

I have no clue where you can buy it But it does feature something similar to RAID 5's redudancy, yes.

 

[zambussi]

Looks like the Thecus type setup (same options, same raid etc) to me and you're still at the 5K mark once you get it in here. I would buy a locally available product so that if it bombs out at least you can get it repaired / replaced. Look at the Intel stuff too.

I used to use PC's with Raid before using these NAS devices.

Problem is that PC's are too power hungry, and by the time you've finished buying all the anti-virus, anti-spyware etc - you might as well just have a bought a NAS box, and not had to sit and bugger around with Windows.