Does the size (GB) of a game effect whether you will buy it?

[Niode]

You guys with less than 1TB worth of space, I don't know how you do it. I'm always having to delete shit or archive to DVD just to struggle with the 4TB I had before I caved and got another 1TB drive.

Ken Thompson is quoted as saying "The steady state of disks is full". In other words, no matter how big your disks are, they will always end up full. In that regard, 5TB isn't really any better than 1TB. You'll be deleting/backing up eventually.

Personally, I do have a 2TB array. And yes, it's full. I'll get more eventually, but for now I'm just pruning. Take some spare time to go over what I have and evaluate whether I really need it. Doing that is just as valuable as getting more space, if not more so. Having all the space in the world doesn't help if it's all clogged up with stuff you'll never use.

BTW, 5TB? You have RAID on that, right?

No. The main reasons are, the speed benefit just isn't worth it to sacrifice redundancy. I can't afford to have a striped and redundant array (IE 4TB worth of discs for 2TB worth of space) and whenever I'm working on a project I make backups every day or whenever I make significant changes to a project (IE re-record an instrument). Luckily, in audio you only have to back the audio files up once and then I'll keep the project files backed up on a USB key and then burn the entire thing to a master DVD once complete. A lot of the time I'll have the same project in multiple places at once. Helps avoid mishaps like accidentally deleting an audio track off the disc in Logic (way too easy to do - thanks for that Apple!).

Bottom line, I just couldn't risk a RAID unless it was redundant and I can't afford redundancy, so there you go.

[irixith]

The size of a game is immaterial to my decision to buy it. The physical size of a game has little to do with the quality of the game. It does however, affect my decision about when to download certain purchases from Steam -- bandwidth caps and all.

[Hatta]

Bottom line, I just couldn't risk a RAID unless it was redundant and I can't afford redundancy, so there you go.

Just being pedantic here, but all RAID is redundant. It's what the R stands for. (RAID0 is not really RAID)

You're right though, a good back up plan is much better than any RAID. Personally, I can't be bothered to burn 200 DVDs to back up just one TB though, so RAID it is. You might consider RAID-5 though. If you have 5 1TB drives RAID-5 would give you a 4TB array and the ability to withstand failure of any one drive. RAID doesn't have to be twice the cost.

[Niode]

Bottom line, I just couldn't risk a RAID unless it was redundant and I can't afford redundancy, so there you go.

Just being pedantic here, but all RAID is redundant. It's what the R stands for. (RAID0 is not really RAID)

You're right though, a good back up plan is much better than any RAID. Personally, I can't be bothered to burn 200 DVDs to back up just one TB though, so RAID it is. You might consider RAID-5 though. If you have 5 1TB drives RAID-5 would give you a 4TB array and the ability to withstand failure of any one drive. RAID doesn't have to be twice the cost.

That is true, by redundant I was referring to the 1:1 mirroring. When most folks talk about RAID they're usually talking about RAID0 which as you correctly state, isn't really RAID.

I have thought about going RAID5 but I don't have a full ATX case to hold that amount of drives (it's pretty cramped in there with 3 already. Adding two more is just impractical despite having the space for it, I wouldn't have any space between my drives). Plus I wouldn't like to think of how I'd go about setting up OS X and Windows 7 (again) whilst still having a partition I can use between operating systems. It just seems like a massive headache. Perhaps for my next system I'll get a bunch of 1TB drives and do a RAID 5 from the get go.

[crux]

I first read this topic as "Does the size of a (GameBoy) game effect whether you will buy it?" As you can imagine, I was a little confused.

[Hatta]

I have thought about going RAID5 but I don't have a full ATX case to hold that amount of drives (it's pretty cramped in there with 3 already. Adding two more is just impractical despite having the space for it, I wouldn't have any space between my drives).

This is true. A well designed case is essential for a storage rig. I love my Antec P180B. It has a 4 drive cage in a separate partition in the bottom. Cool air comes in through a front fan, goes right over the drives, straight into the PSU and out into the room. It has silicone grommets everywhere, too. Heat and vibration are big hard drive killers.

Plus I wouldn't like to think of how I'd go about setting up OS X and Windows 7 (again) whilst still having a partition I can use between operating systems. It just seems like a massive headache.

That is a problem. Personally I just keep Windows on an unmirrored drive and if something happens to it, who cares? But I realize that doesn't work for everyone. My best idea for interoperability would be to make a virtualbox image with raw disk access to your RAID drives and share them with Samba. That is a configuration nightmare, so I haven't tried it out yet.

The ideal situation, of course, is to have a storage rig and a workstation. Save everything on the network. Then you get your data mirrored, and you can run whatever OS you like on the workstation. Alas, budgets are limited.

[Niode]

I have thought about going RAID5 but I don't have a full ATX case to hold that amount of drives (it's pretty cramped in there with 3 already. Adding two more is just impractical despite having the space for it, I wouldn't have any space between my drives).

This is true. A well designed case is essential for a storage rig. I love my Antec P180B. It has a 4 drive cage in a separate partition in the bottom. Cool air comes in through a front fan, goes right over the drives, straight into the PSU and out into the room. It has silicone grommets everywhere, too. Heat and vibration are big hard drive killers.

Plus I wouldn't like to think of how I'd go about setting up OS X and Windows 7 (again) whilst still having a partition I can use between operating systems. It just seems like a massive headache.

That is a problem. Personally I just keep Windows on an unmirrored drive and if something happens to it, who cares? But I realize that doesn't work for everyone. My best idea for interoperability would be to make a virtualbox image with raw disk access to your RAID drives and share them with Samba. That is a configuration nightmare, so I haven't tried it out yet.

The ideal situation, of course, is to have a storage rig and a workstation. Save everything on the network. Then you get your data mirrored, and you can run whatever OS you like on the workstation. Alas, budgets are limited.

I have an Antec 900, so it has 2x 3-drive caddies with fans on the front. So there's a big 120mm fan blowing over each drive. The only issue is putting more than 4 drives in there comfortably. I wouldn't like to have the drives sat on top of each other with no airflow possible. It would severely knacker the cooling capabilities of the case.

Yes, having a central server and access to my files over the network would be the best way, however I would need to install a gigabit network otherwise there simply wouldn't be enough bandwidth to do what I want.