Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

USB Harddrives

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mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 1:13 PM

Post #26 of 31 (628 views)
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Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Brad DerManouelian <myth [at] dermanouelian>
wrote:

> On Jul 22, 2008, at 8:50 AM, Mitch Gore wrote:
>
> > At this point im thinking im going to use my old Athlon 1800+ to
> > build a NAS box. I do have one other 120gb drive i would like to
> > put in my Mythbox but there is no room in the backend box. I don't
> > really like the idea of having to turn on another PC 24x7 just to
> > run drives but i guess its necessary. I cant really move my backend
> > to the NAS/new box because commflag and transcode will run REALLY
> > slow on a 1.5ghz AMD! Compared to my 5700 X2!
> >
> > Thanks for the comments. Now i just need to find time to build a
> > box.....Dam Small Linux looks like a good choice for this project tho.
>
> It's more cost-effective to buy a big new hard drive and replace
> what's there than to run another machine. Newegg had a 500GB drive for
> $69 this morning.
>
> <http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users>
>

Except for this sentence that wrote last post
"I do have one other 120gb drive i would like to
> put in my Mythbox but there is no room in the backend box."

I dont want to have a tower machine in my theater. I have a mATX Home
Theater case that can only hold 3 drives. If i remove the myBook that has
2x250 drives and if i add the 120gb thats a total on 6 disks....

If i use a old machine how long would it take to cost me ~130 in Power?
Considering its a AMD 1800+.

Mitchell

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 22, 2008, 1:29 PM

Post #27 of 31 (622 views)
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Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 1:13 PM, Mitch Gore wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Brad DerManouelian <myth [at] dermanouelian
> > wrote:
> It's more cost-effective to buy a big new hard drive and replace
> what's there than to run another machine. Newegg had a 500GB drive for
> $69 this morning.
>
>
> Except for this sentence that wrote last post
> "I do have one other 120gb drive i would like to
> > put in my Mythbox but there is no room in the backend box."
>
> I dont want to have a tower machine in my theater. I have a mATX
> Home Theater case that can only hold 3 drives. If i remove the
> myBook that has 2x250 drives and if i add the 120gb thats a total on
> 6 disks....
>
> If i use a old machine how long would it take to cost me ~130 in
> Power? Considering its a AMD 1800+.

I don't pay your electric bill, so I don't know. :)

I do know that if you buy 2 750GB drives and put them in your Home
theater box that holds 3 hard drives, (saving 1 drive for your OS/
mysql, etc.) you'd end up with 1.5TB of storage and no noticeable
extra energy costs. I also know that you will notice running an extra
machine 24/7 on your monthly electric bill.

See if you can spot when I bought larger hard drives to consolidate
machines...
Bill Date kWh
5/28/2008 909
4/28/2008 960
3/28/2008 890
2/27/2008 1,052
1/28/2008 1,435
12/28/2007 1,397
11/29/2007 1,414

I didn't include what I pay for electric, but I'm saving between $150-
$175/month.

-Brad

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mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 3:52 PM

Post #28 of 31 (629 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Peter VanDerWal <peter [at] vanderwal> wrote:

> >> It's more cost-effective to buy a big new hard drive and replace
> >> what's there than to run another machine. Newegg had a 500GB drive for
> >> $69 this morning.
> >>
> >> <http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users>
> >>
> >
> > Except for this sentence that wrote last post
> > "I do have one other 120gb drive i would like to
> >> put in my Mythbox but there is no room in the backend box."
> >
> > I dont want to have a tower machine in my theater. I have a mATX Home
> > Theater case that can only hold 3 drives. If i remove the myBook that has
> > 2x250 drives and if i add the 120gb thats a total on 6 disks....
> >
> > If i use a old machine how long would it take to cost me ~130 in Power?
> > Considering its a AMD 1800+.
>
> Hard to answer that without knowing for sure how much power your proposed
> NAS draws and what electricity costs you.
> But a (reallY) rough estimate, your drives are going to draw about 10
> watts each x 6 = 60 watts. The rest of the computer (NAS) probably draws
> at least 50-60 watts.
> Say 120 watts total - 10 watts for the new drive. Assume electricity is
> $0.10 per kWh, that means you'll break even in about 16 months. If you
> sell the old drives/computer you'll break even a lot sooner.
>

True, but i can spin down the drives when not in use like i do on my other
drives. So it will on average be the system draw plus a watt or two...

This is a good discussion...but to trying to explain why i need to buy new
drives that are going to cost ~250-300 up front is not going to be a easy
one with the wife. lol.

Mitchell

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 22, 2008, 4:39 PM

Post #29 of 31 (616 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 3:52 PM, Mitch Gore wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Peter VanDerWal
> <peter [at] vanderwal> wrote:
> Hard to answer that without knowing for sure how much power your
> proposed
> NAS draws and what electricity costs you.
> But a (reallY) rough estimate, your drives are going to draw about 10
> watts each x 6 = 60 watts. The rest of the computer (NAS) probably
> draws
> at least 50-60 watts.
> Say 120 watts total - 10 watts for the new drive. Assume
> electricity is
> $0.10 per kWh, that means you'll break even in about 16 months. If
> you
> sell the old drives/computer you'll break even a lot sooner.
>
> True, but i can spin down the drives when not in use like i do on
> my other drives. So it will on average be the system draw plus a
> watt or two...
>
>
> This is a good discussion...but to trying to explain why i need to
> buy new drives that are going to cost ~250-300 up front is not going
> to be a easy one with the wife. lol.

I forget how much storage you said you have now split across however
many drives, but how about replacing them all with a $175 1TB drive?
You can tell her you're helping the environment by not using so much
electricity spinning all those drives all day and by not running yet
another noisy/hot machine.

Don't forget about the network bandwidth you're saving by keeping all
your myth data local. Everyone in my house noticed when I stopped
throwing video all over the network.

mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 6:51 PM

Post #30 of 31 (612 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

> I forget how much storage you said you have now split across however many
> drives, but how about replacing them all with a $175 1TB drive?
> You can tell her you're helping the environment by not using so much
> electricity spinning all those drives all day and by not running yet another
> noisy/hot machine.
>
> Don't forget about the network bandwidth you're saving by keeping all your
> myth data local. Everyone in my house noticed when I stopped throwing video
> all over the network.
>
>
Here is what i got:
10GB - System Drive
500GB - Recordings/Documents
120GB - Recordings

Adding via USB
MyBook 500GB (2x250GB disks inside box)

Spare drive id like to add
120GB

The thing is any drive connected internally i can spin down so they are
using standby power (virtually nothing from what i understand).

Mitchell

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 22, 2008, 10:52 PM

Post #31 of 31 (606 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 6:51 PM, Mitch Gore wrote:

> I forget how much storage you said you have now split across however
> many drives, but how about replacing them all with a $175 1TB drive?
> You can tell her you're helping the environment by not using so much
> electricity spinning all those drives all day and by not running yet
> another noisy/hot machine.
>
> Don't forget about the network bandwidth you're saving by keeping
> all your myth data local. Everyone in my house noticed when I
> stopped throwing video all over the network.
>
>
> Here is what i got:
> 10GB - System Drive
> 500GB - Recordings/Documents
> 120GB - Recordings
>
> Adding via USB
> MyBook 500GB (2x250GB disks inside box)
>
> Spare drive id like to add
> 120GB

Gotcha, so you would get ~1.25 TB of storage total. Get rid of your
external drive (return it? Sell it? Get $80 for it on ebay?) and ditch
both your 120GB drives (Sell for $20/each?) then put that money
towards a 1TB drive ($175) and you end up with a 10GB system drive,
500GB recordings/documents drive, and a 1TB drive for a total of
~1.5TB of storage for ~$55 out of pocket, no increase in your electric
bill, no fuss in maintaining yet another machine, and your future
babies get to breath an extra 10 seconds of fresh air with the
greenhouse gases you save. ;)

-Brad

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mythtv-users [at] mythtv
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