Need to build a Raid Array

[LordAuch]

I need to build a raid array with 8 to 10 disks. What I was thinking was to use a cheap computer with a Raid card to attach them all. What is most important in the computer a fast processor such as i7, lots of ram of the Raid card?
I was hoping to use SATA III disks with a 100 Gig SSD as a Cash. I am doing allot of HD rendering and working with HD video on many computers. Each is has dual Gbit Ethernet that can be ganged together for two connections per computer.

I was also thinking of running Linux as the OS to save cost and up the reliability.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Auch

 

[sub mesa]

Did you read about ZFS? It might be the al powerful filesystem that suits your wishes.

I have written a guide on how to install and setup a ZFS filesystem using FreeBSD. You can find my tutorials in my signature.

Please take a look and say if this suits your needs? It's not Linux, but very similar; and gives you the most advanced filesystem on the planet.

 

[gtvr]

HD rendering and HD video tax many components, from what I understand of it. Processor, RAM, HD are all important, so it's hard to say one is "most" important. You may even want to throw the video card in there, if you have software that can offload certain tasks to the video processor.

For a RAID array, the number of disks & amount of storage you need are one issue, and the TYPE of array is the other. For example, RAID 5 supports a lot of storage, and gives redundancy, but can be slower for writes than other formats. RAID 10 is very high performance. RAID 0 is probably the highest, but at the cost of redundancy.

Also, there's a limit on the number of drives you can attach to a raid card (SATA) unless you do something like go external to a chasis with a port multiplier.