Best way to share 10 DVDs over network?

jimboe

Solid State Member
Messages
6
A friend of mine needs to share 10-12 data DVDs over a small network. He asked me to "build" him a tower. Does anyone have any ideas? I know the first thing that people are going to think of is immaging them on a machine already on the network or a nas drive then sharing them as individual drives but he doesn't want to do this. Here are some of the things that have crossed my mind:
1) Full tower, 11 drive bays, a regular machine with O.S., 2-3 additional ide controller cards. Can you have this many ide drives that need irqs? I didn't think so, but maybe someone else has an idea.
2) Full tower, 11 drive bays, a regular machine with O.S., mobo with 8-9 sata ports, additional sata controller card. Can you have this many sata drives?
3) This one might sound silly but, Full tower, 11 drive bays, no mobo, ide to usb cables, usb hub in case, drives connected to 600w power, 1 or maybe 2 usb cables to connect to host computer on network. I know they say you can have up to 127 usb devices connected but how would the performance be? The people on his network (only 3-4) wouldn't be spinning up all 10 at once, maybe 2-3 at a time max. Would all 10 still have to share the bandwidth if they are not accessed at the same time?

Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks.
 
I'd select #2 for faster speed, but really, the #1 is a better option. I'd buy a server board if I were you.

Equip yourself with a router/switch also.

As for bandwith sharing, I think it'll need to share. When the data come from the IDE drivers, they perform horribly when both are acting together, so try the #2 build.

Just be aware that they're going to be sharing bandwith if you connect them from the same network. Another LAN card could lighten the task, but I'm not sure for that.
 
You could always use SCSI if you can afford it. Why doesnt he want to image the discs?
 
Thanks,
If I went with ide, wouldn't I be limited to a certain number of drives because of irqs?
 
The controller cards would be controlling them, so they wouldnt be using extra IRQ's
 
Raffaz said:
You could always use SCSI if you can afford it. Why doesnt he want to image the discs?
SCSI would be too expensive.
He doesn't want to image because he receives a new set of data monthly and he has nobody there that is computer savvy. I would have to go to his shop every month and do it.
 
Raffaz said:
The controller cards would be controlling them, so they wouldnt be using extra IRQ's
So I could put in 3 controller cards, connect 4 drives per card and have no irq issues?
 
He has to share 10 dvd's all at once? He can't just switch them in one drive as needed?
 
Tommy Boy said:
He has to share 10 dvd's all at once? He can't just switch them in one drive as needed?
Yes, it's a huge database of different mfg. parts. He is "swapping" now, 20-30 times a day.
 
jimboe said:
So I could put in 3 controller cards, connect 4 drives per card and have no irq issues?
Yeah, because it would be the expansion slot that would use the IRQ, the controller on the expansion card would control the actual drives. Similar to USB, the controller controls the connected devices.
 
Back
Top Bottom