Just ordered myself a home server but not sure which raid or hdd setup to use

[TwistedHelixis]

Just ordered a second hand DELL R710 U2 server with 6 x 500gb sas drives.

 

This server will have 2 uses, gaming sever for things like Rust or Minecraft and as a test work server so I can test out work ideas. I will be setting it up using hyper-v host installed as a service in standard full 2012r2

 

Now at work all my servers are RAID 10 and I would really like to replicate my work setup as much as possible but that would only give me 1.5gb of usable space with the drives that come with the server, which is probably fine for the moment but I can see needing 500gb or 1tb more at a later date.

 

I do have some 1tb sata drives, 2 spare and 2 with data on but could be used, but then they are not sas drives so would be slower.

 

Need another viewpoint on this setup.

[bald_pig]

I'd go for raid 5 across 5 of the drives, and keep a hot spare.

 

Don't forget though, RAID is not a backup!

[computer_expert]

Just be aware that the PERC6 card is limited to a maximum of 2TB per drive. If you need anything larger you'll need to go for a H700 card instead.

 

I'd go for RAID10 myself

[RJohnson91]

Just be aware that the PERC6 card is limited to a maximum of 2TB per drive. If you need anything larger you'll need to go for a H700 card instead.

 

I'd go for RAID10 myself

 

+1 for raid 10

[TwistedHelixis]

I'd go for raid 5 across 5 of the drives, and keep a hot spare.

 

I really hate RAID 5, but its not a critical server so might go with it anyway. Thanks

[TwistedHelixis]

BTW it comes with the H700.

[TwistedHelixis]

ohhhh now I am bouncing back to raid 10. Dont want to get everything installed and setup only to find I dont have enough space in 6 months time.

[RJohnson91]

ohhhh now I am bouncing back to raid 10. Dont want to get everything installed and setup only to find I dont have enough space in 6 months time.

 

 

Well, Raid10 halves the space, so do your calculations before hand.

[PotNoodleTech]

With 6 drives you could use Raid6, that way you'd lose two drives worth of capacity instead of 3?

 

If you want to maximise capacity use raid 5,

If you want to maximise speed and reliability use Raid 1 / 10 / 01

If you want the middle gound between the two use Raid 6

 

You have to pick as you cant have it all!

[TwistedHelixis]

but i want it all -

 

What about using sata drives which are way cheaper and ditching the SAS drives, would i notice a big difference based on my needs?

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Is this the 3.5" or 2.5" chassis btw?

[TwistedHelixis]

Is this the 3.5" or 2.5" chassis btw?

 

It comes as 3.5"

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Ahh, so you're stuck at six drives. Righto.

 

You didn't buy it from our ebay store did you?

 

If so you'd be able to swap the 500GB SAS drives for some 1TB ones and pay the difference

[TwistedHelixis]

ou didn't buy it from our ebay store did you?

 

Nope but thanks anyway