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lucas1985
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High performance storage with low noise levels.

Thu Jul 12, 2007 2:40 pm

I've found a rather interesting product, the Enhance Technology QuadraPack Q14.
It houses 4 2.5" hard drives in a 5.25" drive bay with active cooling (40 mm fan)
Some (basic) reviews:
- InformationWeek
- Tom's Hardware
Just imagine: four (RAIDed) high performance HDDs, such as the Seagates's Savio (10k RPM) in a single 5.25" bay (ideal for SFF systems): Jaw-dropping performance with lower space/power requirements than 3.5" drives. The only issue is the (relative) high cost of this solution and low storage space. Storage space shouldn't be an issue using external HDDs/DAS/NAS for high storage demands (backups, photos, video, music, P2P)
What do you think, folks?
 
just brew it!
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Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:00 pm

Looks like an interesting niche product.

Dunno if I'd really say the performance would be "jaw dropping"... 4 normal size drives in a similar RAID array would perform better.

But for high availability servers where space and/or power consumption are more important than raw performance, a RAID-5 array built using these may make sense.
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JJCDAD
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Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:12 pm

I can see something like this taking off once SSD drives become more cost effective.
 
morphine
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Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:45 pm

Is it just me or the statments "40mm fan" and "low noise level" seem contradictory? Honestly, if you're looking for quiet storage, the best bet is to get a good case, a Samsung hard disk, and if you want to go for the full hog, suspend the hard disk in rubber bands. Not silent, but dead quiet.
 
just brew it!
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Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:50 pm

morphine wrote:
Is it just me or the statments "40mm fan" and "low noise level" seem contradictory?

Well...

Mobile hard drives don't dissipate a whole lot of power, and have a fairly large surface area. You could probably get by with a fairly low RPM (for a 40mm) fan.
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JJCDAD
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Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:01 am

Tom's Hardware wrote:
Cons:

* Unreasonable fan noise.


:roll:
 
morphine
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Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:44 am

Tom's Hardware wrote:
Cons:

* Unreasonable fan noise.

Ha :lol:

Is this where I get to say "told you so"? Hehe... trust me... a big Samsung HDD and some "HDD suspenders" are the best choice for storage couple with low-to-no-noise.
 
JJCDAD
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Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:49 am

morphine wrote:
Is this where I get to say "told you so"?


Absolutely! And you can do your happy dance too. :P

However, I really do like the concept of 4 hot-swappable drives in a 5.25" drive bay. Just no hair dryer 40mm fans please. :)

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