Have you considered Fibre Channel? That would be the way I would go if I wanted to build an array. Its not too expencive either, you can find some cheap Fibre Channel drives on ebay or a few other places I know of. Plus there is no limit on how many you can add to the loop. That way you can keep all of your drives outside the case, or even in your closet, and wont have to get a new case. And if you do it right you can do it for much cheaper than $500. Mike Hicks wrote: > I've been thinking about putting together some sort of RAID system for > my home system, just to give myself a little extra layer of protection. > However, I don't really want to figure out how to fit another two or > three drives into my system. Putting drives outside the box has > problems, though, since IDE cables aren't really meant to go there.. > > Going outside the box probably means using SCSI, FireWire, or USB 2.0. > SCSI would be nice, but it's expensive, and I'm sure that any IDE<->SCSI > bridges probably cost quite a bit. USB scares me a bit, so I've been > looking at what can be done with FireWire. > > Anyway, I guess I'll just outline my thoughts and see if anyone thinks > it's a stupid idea or what.. > > I'm thinking of scrounging up an enclosure of some kind (probably an old > SCSI box), ripping out any extra guts, putting in 3 or 4 IDE drives, and > using FireWire<->IDE bridges to connect them to a FireWire bus. > > Optimistically, I think I could pull it off for about $500, but maybe > I'm just deluding myself.. > > Is this a stupid idea? Should I just do SCSI instead, or buy a new > case? > > -- > _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ ___ _ _ __ The more things change, the > / \/ \(_)| ' // ._\ / - \(_)/ ./| ' /(__ more they stay insane. > \_||_/|_||_|_\\___/ \_-_/|_|\__\|_|_\ __) > [ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088 at tc.umn.edu ] > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Name: signature.asc > signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature > Description: This is a digitally signed message part ------ http://USFamily.Net/info - Unlimited Internet - From $8.99/mo! ------