Toy #2:
I read about this and just knew I had to have it. I had planned to build a server around a RAID card, but when you factored in the cost of a computer to run it, the cost of the card, the cost of the drives, it got pretty prohibitive. This new toy really doesn't help all that much cost-wise, but it is pretty cool.
It's a 12-bay rack-mountable array. It does need to be hooked up to a computer, but I've already got one on the rack running the print server, so that's not a problem. The drives hook up via eSATA and run three possible different arrays - 2 five-drive arrays and 1 two-drive array. Or, as I am going to do, 2 five-drive arrays and two hot spares. So, should a drive fail in the RAID5 array, there's already a spare online that can be used to rebuild the array.
As you can see, I already have 5x300gig drives, as I used to have 4 in a RAID array in my current computer, but something happened to that array and I lost a ton of data (since a RAID5 is supposed to be fault tolerant, but something went wrong with the software). So I will have 5x300 (1 as a parity drive, 1.2TB useful) and I plan on buying 5x500 or 5x750 depending on the amount of cash I can save and the amount the drives go for (Fry's had a great deal last weekend with 750 gig drives at $309 - still expensive for 5 drives though).
So there you go, another nice little toy. It'll fit well in my new 7' rack I just ordered. Toy #3 will be coming soon as I plan on upgrading my computer. I will take my current computer that I'm typing on now and put it in a new rack-mountable case I ordered with the 7' rack. It'll be nice and sweet once it all gets on-line. However, the arrays will be limited to wireless connectivity until I drop a line in from the attic...
Norco DS-1210 Black 3U 12 Bay Rackmount Hard Drive Storage System
