22 replies to this topic

[jpap33]

Morning!

After listening to one of the last podcasts, I've decided I think making the jump to ssd would be fun and good for my homebuilt whs2011.

I do have a few newbie SSD questions....

Where can i put the ssd in the box? can i just put it on the "floor" of the machine with a bunch of cables running around it?

If I go with the 64 gig ssd:
1?: recommendations on brand etc?
2?: I run a few programs on my desktop. Mostly Itunes/utorrent/mymovies/goodsync Will there be enough room to install these too? (I guess I could always install these on a partition of another drive in the pool)

I have a 10tb setup currently....1 1tb, 1, 3tb, 3 2tb drives and a blu-ray dvd. Looking to replace the 1tb with another 3tb and then add the ssd. the 3 2tb drive are all indiviual JBODs. Pooled with Drive bender.

Thanks for any help offered!

Joe
in dc.

[ikon]

If this is your first SSD, I would think you would have better places to use it than your WHS. It won't make that much difference to WHS and, if you have a laptop or desktop that doesn't have an SSD, I think you would find the improvement much more impressive in either of them.

[jpap33]

I run all Mac laptops everywhere but my whs. Biggest reason is the SSD size (physical) and getting the OS on a drive that doens't have any data.

[ikon]

Well, Macs can benefit from SSD as much as Windows or Linux. Are you saying the SSD would be too small for your Macs?

[Joe_Miner]

Morning!

After listening to one of the last podcasts, I've decided I think making the jump to ssd would be fun and good for my homebuilt whs2011.

I do have a few newbie SSD questions....

Where can i put the ssd in the box? can i just put it on the "floor" of the machine with a bunch of cables running around it?

If I go with the 64 gig ssd:
1?: recommendations on brand etc?
2?: I run a few programs on my desktop. Mostly Itunes/utorrent/mymovies/goodsync Will there be enough room to install these too? (I guess I could always install these on a partition of another drive in the pool)

I have a 10tb setup currently....1 1tb, 1, 3tb, 3 2tb drives and a blu-ray dvd. Looking to replace the 1tb with another 3tb and then add the ssd. the 3 2tb drive are all indiviual JBODs. Pooled with Drive bender.

Thanks for any help offered!

Joe
in dc.

I secured my SSD to part of the internal framework of my MicroServer with electrical tape. Any convient place in your box should be fine.

IMO, For a WHS-2011 read speeds on the SSD are a lot more important than write speeds. I'm personally partial to Crucial M4's but I could be swayed by a good price -- everyone has their fav's! Check the board on what other's are buying & using and check the deals too!

Have you checked out the links at http://homeservershow.com/tag/ssd

And in particular have you read the article at http://homeserversho...ssd-on-whs.html where PC-Doc explains how he used Acronis to move to a SSD for his 2011 OS drive? It’s worth a read.

Also, check out the articles at http://homeserversho...ds-controllers/

Edited by Joe_Miner, 09 April 2012 - 03:33 PM.

[jpap33]

Thanks Joe for that information! I'm reading away!

& and Ikon, I erally just want the ssd in my whs.... my other devices are doing fine....

[pcdoc]

Couple of comments. First, if you use a 64, you can not do an install (without modification the installation files) so you will have to clone or fix the install file. Second, no problem with mounting on the floor of the case. Before you clone, make sure that "all" you folders are not mapped to the same physical drive. So move them before cloning. As for brands, I would go with the Vertex 2 or Crucial M4. Several reasons, the vertex 2 is a second gen product know for reliability as is the M4. ON a server, that is important. I run Vertex 2 on both of my servers.

[HSS-Dave]

All I kept thinking while reading this is how many times I've put a hard drive on the bottom of a case or slid it on top of the DVD drive. All without securing firmly.

I'm also curious what draws you to WHS when you have all Macs in the house.

[jpap33]

well.... a few things. Its just me in the house....and I was a PC guy till last fall. I'm an early adopter, like most of you, and started with the iphones and ipads..... and finally crossed over to the dark side.

I've had the hp media smart 470?5? and then upgraded to the 495....loved them both. used them for backup of my stuff and then started streaming my dvd collection to my ps3. This winter I built my first whs with 2011 on it. I miss DE and this raid stuff is just a bit over my head.

I keep all of my files there and have remote access if I need it with no limits on storage (i.e. dropbox/sugarsync) I keep my itunes lib on there.... and I've started backing up my parents pcs to the server for them....and even keep a few friends photos here as a backup backup. While I don't have an offsite backup, I'll do a backup and then throw it in my safe of all the important stuff once a month. While I don't stream to my ps3 any more, I do stream to xbmc on my jailbroken appletv.

I just don't think you can get the size and capapbility of what I built in the mac world for that price. While some crossplatform communication is hard, its still doable. Who doesn't like a challenge anyway?

On a completely different note, I picked up a WDTV live for my dads birthday.... that thing is pretty nice...wish it ran xbmc on it and I'd ditch the appletv for that! Anyone know any small boxes like that, that run xbmc?

Sorry for the tangent I appreciate all the advice with the SSDs! I've never gotten this many responses so quickly on other whs forum sites!

Joe

[jpap33]

Looking at the stats of those two drives PCDOC, the vertex read is 285....while the crucial is 500..... the vertex has much better write speed in the 200s while the crucial is only around 90. We don't do a lot of writing to the os drive, so I assume its ok to go with the crucial? or does that write speed also impact writing to the other drives?

Sorry if thats a noob question....

[pcdoc]

Looking at the stats of those two drives PCDOC, the vertex read is 285....while the crucial is 500..... the vertex has much better write speed in the 200s while the crucial is only around 90. We don't do a lot of writing to the os drive, so I assume its ok to go with the crucial? or does that write speed also impact writing to the other drives?

Sorry if thats a noob question....

That is true is you are hooking to a Sata 3 otherwise the Vertex is faster in both read and writes on a Sata 2. If you are using a SATA 2 like I am, the Vertex is faster all around. If you have a SATA 3, Go for the Crucial M4.

[jpap33]

ordered from newegg...79$

[pcdoc]

ordered from newegg...79$

Ordered ??? Which one.

[jpap33]

crucial m4

[ikon]

good luck with the new SSD. Maybe you can post some pics?

[Joe_Miner]

ordered from newegg...79$

Nice price for a M4. I have 2 M4's and love them. Once you get yours up and running you'll be wondering why you didn't put one in sooner. Good luck and keep us posted!

[jpap33]

Installed! Had some minor issues that I worked thru. I didn't ntfs my usb stick.... did that and then the install of whs2011 worked fine. Took me a minute to figure out that my raid card driver needed to be installed..... but its up and running now.

I do have an issue with my drive bender shares....I'm going to post a question under that topic now....

Thanks for everyones help on getting the ssd up and running!


Joe

Edited by jpap33, 14 April 2012 - 03:21 PM.

[pcdoc]

Nice. Looks like a LIan Li case. Glad you got it running. I saw your other post and I a bit confused as you just stated you are using a raid card. Why then use DB? Great build and thanks for the pictures.

[jpap33]

Cause I'm scared of it! lol..... I have it set up as indivual jbod drives. This always me to use the 'software raid" and add or remove drives without worrying about the raid. At least in theory.....

[ikon]

There's no need to be afraid of using a RAID card. Many cards are pretty versatile these days regarding adding and removing drives.