[Phoenix32]

SOLUTIONS

Solutions are pretty straight forward. You can a) Live within the limits of 2TB to 3TB, b) Get more Snap Servers, c) Change to another storage solution, d) Upgrade to newer SATA type Snap Servers, or e) Convert your 4400/4500 family Snap Server(s) to SATA.

Some folks can live within the 2TB to 3TB limits, and it does sound like a lot to the average home user, but I remind you about the data explosion we have seen this last couple of years, and there seems to be no end in sight with it yet. 2TB or 3TB is really not that much data anymore, not to mention the premium you will pay for those drives, at least within IDE.

I will not argue about more Snap Servers because it can be the solution in some cases, but for efficiency and costs for hardware, drives, and electricity, maintaining fewer units is more efficient. I myself have 3 x Snap 4400, 1 x Snap 4500 with a Snap Disk 10, and 1 x 15000 with a Snap Disk 30 (that’s 40 drives for those not counting), so who am I to argue against more Snap Servers? But, I also do redundant backup, have a family of desktops, notebooks, and mass amount of multimedia. I am shooting for somewhere in the 40TB+ zone right now.

Changing to another storage solution was covered earlier in the STORAGE OPTIONS and NAS SOLUTIONS sections. Refer back to those sections for basic discussion on this idea.

Ah, upgrading to newer SATA Snap Server Models. If you like this idea, then go for it, but here is my take on this. First, these units (like the 410, 520, etc) are plenty more expensive and you could do an older unit with a SATA upgrade for less. Next, these units are far less efficient and eat more electricity, and thus also create more heat. I don’t know about you, but many would be surprised how much of a damper units like this can put on their electric bill. It’s bad enough now, but if cap and trade ever gets passed, it will really kill you. For home and small office users, do not ever underestimate how much this can affect you. Next, if you think a 4200 or 4500 is loud, wait until you hear one of these jet engines screaming through your house or office, nuff said. Lastly, IMHO, and I am a genuine hardware engineering technician, these units are not built to anywhere near the standards some of the older units were. IMO, Adaptec really screwed the pooch with these units. So let’s see, more expensive, less quality, less efficient, more wattage, more heat, and more noise. Oh yeah, this is a good idea (sarcasm). And all of this does not take into account the problems some people have had with drive upgrades due to some speculative trickery in firmware that prevented drive upgrades in some units (not proven, but suspected).

Guess where this leads us? Yup, right back to converting the 4400/4500 family to SATA drives. This, as you can tell from this article, is in my opinion a very viable and efficient option. These are great units. Well built, reliable, efficient, inexpensive for what you get, and a rock solid well proven NAS solution.

Remember, those IDE drives are only going to get harder to get and thus go up in price, and SATA drives will continue to go lower in price and continue to increase in size.