Adding more hard drives to computer

[professorman]

I have a Windows 7 PC and I currently have 4 internal hard drives. (Asus P6T SE motherboard with i7 950 processor). I use my computer mainly for photo editing. I have maxed out all my hard drive sata cables. I have:

-120GB SSD with windows
- 1TB for my documents and data
- 1.5 TB for my archives
- 3TB for my backup drive

My motherboard also has 2 external eSata slots. I use one of them:
- 650GB eSata for my photography catalog pictures

I would like to add a SSD for a cache drive.
What is my best option to add more hard drives to my system? Should I get a hard drive controller?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Explain how you use your "archive" and "backup" drives?

What kinds of documents and data are on the 1TB drive?

Why are your catalog pictures on an external drive instead of one of the internal ones?

And then what are your plans for a "cache" drive - what kind of cache?

 

[Elixer]

Yeah, I don't understand by what you mean by a 'cache' drive either, are you looking to use the SSD as a temp drive to store things on, or do you want the SSD to cache data from the other drives ?
If you want the SSD to be a true cache drive, and your motherboard don't support it, then your only choice is to get a controller that supports that, and it really isn't that cheap.

What are you looking to speed up?

P.S, If you are a professional, then you really need multiple backups, and/or a online backup service (but that can be really expensive if you use lots of data, not to mention you need a fast connection) I just mention this, since I assume the 1.5 & 3TB HDs aren't in hotswap bays...

 

[professorman]

I use Adobe Photoshop lightroom and regular photoshop for my photo-editing. This past weekend, i took 2,500 pictures, in RAW format, meaning that they are between 20-30MB for each file. It was about 80-100GB of pictures & video from a single event.

In order to speed up culling (going through, selecting, deleting, star rating, color rating) of the pictures, I need to navigate through them super fast. I need them to be on a FAST hard drive, so that they can be accessed quickly.

I can set Adobe Photoshop to cache the rendering of each file (jpeg) on the SSD drive, so that it can access the files quickly and speed up my workflow. Or, I could just put the pictures on a SSD and the access time will be faster.

For backing up to the 3TB, I use Second Copy. Whenever I copy new stuff to my drive, I just run second copy and it mirrors my files unto my backup location. It looks for new files or changed files and only copy those, and remove deleted files from the backup into an archive (recycle bin type folder). So, I want this drive to be fast and easily accessible, so that my backup do not take too long.

I do an offsite mirror of the 3TB as another backup.

Explain how you use your "archive" and "backup" drives?

What kinds of documents and data are on the 1TB drive?

Why are your catalog pictures on an external drive instead of one of the internal ones?

And then what are your plans for a "cache" drive - what kind of cache?

Archives are files that I am finished with, I put them in my archive. Right now, my 650GB eSata drive is full, so I need to move old pictures over to my archive drive, so that I can continue working on current pictures from my eSata drive. I need the archive to be accessible, so that I can find old stuff. I also use it to archive all documents that I have ever used in all my life. I have projects that I worked on from high school days...

Documents on the 1TB are my computer documents, files, personal pictures/videos, etc.

Really, I could get a 3TB to replace both the 1TB and 1.5TB, however cost is the factor for that right now. I have had to buy too many hard drives recently as I reconfigured my system.

I catalog pictures on my external drive, using a eSata port, so that when I am on the road, I can grab my hard drive, stick it in my laptop and I am up and running EXACTLY as how I am on the desktop.

Cache drive is explained above, to cache photoshop lightroom pictures before I do my editing, so that I can speed through my photo editing process.

Photography editing isnt as taxing on a system as video editing, but it will still cause a fast machine to come to its knees when you are doing certain tasks.

I assume the 1.5 & 3TB HDs aren't in hotswap bays...

What are hotswap bays?

 

[anttir]

What are hotswap bays?

Hotswap bays are for removing and inserting harddisks while system is running. This need support from both the motherboard, chipset and some hardware support. This is almost the sames as hotplug drives which require the system shutdown and then the drive can be unlocked and pulled out without a screwdriver. They HDD slots are visible on server enclosures.

To get more SATA cable slots in system you only need a new sata controller, such as

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815124006

Areca is a very good controller, and Adaptec and 3ware propably most famous, but they cost a fortune.

If you don't have space for harddrives you'll need a bigger enclosure or an external enclosure for the drives. The mentioned external enclosure should be connected with USB3 as USB2 is too slow.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I don't know why speed of backups should be a concern, unless they're taking many hours. Even then, start the backup when you go to bed. I would first look into whether or not an external USB drive for backups would be sufficient. Or use the eSATA for the backup and move the storage of those files on the external drive to an internal one.

Using an internal drive located in the same computer for backups is something of a no-no in my book. At the very least, I want to use an external drive that can be powered off during normal system use, so that some user error or program that runs amok can't touch the backup. Better yet would be to disconnect the drive and move it to somewhere like a fireproof safe, so that it will be protected from fire or theft of the PC.

If increasing the size of the individual drives isn't an option, then sure, use a controller card. You could get get a SATA III controller that would benefit the 2nd SSD drive, but I think I'd keep the OS SSD on the motherboard's native controller.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Here's another possibility - a PCIe mSATA adapter card that lets you use an mSATA SSD without using up a SATA port.

http://thessdreview.com/hardware/peripherals/owc-mercury-accelsiorm-pcie-msata-controller-review/

 

[Elixer]

I use Adobe Photoshop lightroom and regular photoshop for my photo-editing. This past weekend, i took 2,500 pictures, in RAW format, meaning that they are between 20-30MB for each file. It was about 80-100GB of pictures & video from a single event.

In order to speed up culling (going through, selecting, deleting, star rating, color rating) of the pictures, I need to navigate through them super fast. I need them to be on a FAST hard drive, so that they can be accessed quickly.

I can set Adobe Photoshop to cache the rendering of each file (jpeg) on the SSD drive, so that it can access the files quickly and speed up my workflow. Or, I could just put the pictures on a SSD and the access time will be faster.

OK, that makes sense, for the cheapest option, I assume you want the workhorse SSD to always be available, so it would look something like this:
-120GB SSD with windows
- XGB SSD for phtoshop operations
- 1TB for my documents and data
- 1.5 TB for my archives

Then, have a external case for each eSATA port.

If you want to spend a bit more (actually, it could be less, depends what you get), then you can get a internal hotswap drivebay, and then plug in your 1.5TB there, and then, you could swap out that drive as needed.

The most expensive option is to get another controller card, then, as mentioned, some kind of a external case for all the HDs (or SSDs) that you want. If you have a free PCIe slot, and the bandwidth isn't already used (As in, you aren't using dual/quad SLI/crossfire, and the PCIe 1x (or 4x) slot is still available) then this would work, though I am unsure why you want to go this route, unless you plan on adding more HDs that will always be online.