HDelement upgradeability
by Mark Keck
on
Jul 23, 2008 at 6:07:50 pm
I'm looking at the HDelement and am wondering about upgradeability as opposed to expandability. If I get a 1T unit today, can I replace the drives in this a couple of years from now to upgrade it to 4T??? Or is my only option to buy another higher capacity unit??? Any warrenty issues that I might need to consider???
Re: HDElement Drive Module Upgradeability by Jon Schilling on Jul 23, 2008 at 7:31:46 pm
Mark,
The HDElement will only be sold populated, (as are all of our products), and pricing will be set at MSRP $0.99/GB. Product drivers and firmware are updated on a regular basis (available on our website) so that with OS upgrades your product(s) continue to function properly for you, (Single Vendor Support) without mounting problems or corruption of data issues that are common in a DIY scenario. Upgraded drive modules do need to be from CalDigit & will be available through our network of dealers.
What we generally recommend doing is to buy the highest capacity that your budget allows for initially, rather than to buy say a 1TB & then upgrade the drive modules later, at the additional cost, although being able to upgrade the drive modules is an option.
Jon Schilling | Director of Business Development
CalDigit Inc
phone 714-572-9889 X234
fax 714-572-9881
web www.caldigit.com
email jons@caldigit.com
skype cgijon
office 1941 Miraloma Ave. #B Placentia, CA 92870
Re: HDElement Drive Module Upgradeability by Mark Keck on Jul 23, 2008 at 8:18:55 pm
Jon… thanks for the quick reply.
For the most part I’m just asking if it’s possible??? I’m weighing the pros and cons of various systems and it seems to me that this would be desirable if you can’t afford the cadillac today. If I understand correctly, what you’re telling me is that it is possible, but not recommended. I can live with that. I guess the scenario I envision would be to purchase a 2T unit now, add a 4T unit when needed (say 12-18 months) and then upgrade the 2T unit to 4T at some point after that. I would hope that drive module prices would come down a little in about 2 years to offset the added expense of this type of upgrade path (one can hope, can’t one ). But then who knows… CalDigit might not still sell this in 2 years.
Another question for you… Is it possible to extend a RAID across 2 or more of the HDElements??? Your website implies this but doesn’t come right out and say it.
Re: HDElement Drive Module Upgradeability by Jared Picune on Jul 23, 2008 at 8:56:49 pm
The CalDigit RAID Card and the HDElement gives the use complete flexibility. You can configure your internal drives and you HDElements anyway you like. You can expand and migrate your RAID. You can even slice it if you want and all of this without loosing your data.
Re: HDElement Drive Module Upgradeability by Jon Schilling on Jul 23, 2008 at 11:51:42 pm
Mark,
Sorry about the over the top answer I gave previous, although I did answer your question, I could see how the answer was buried in what I replied to you with.
To add onto Jared's answer & simply answer your original question:
Yes the drive modules are upgradeable.
Jon Schilling | Director of Business Development
CalDigit Inc
phone 714-572-9889 X234
fax 714-572-9881
web www.caldigit.com
email jons@caldigit.com
skype cgijon
office 1941 Miraloma Ave. #B Placentia, CA 92870
Re: HDElement Drive Module Upgradeability by Mark Keck on Jul 24, 2008 at 2:34:38 am
Thanks Jared and Jon.
Jon, you answer wasn't "over the top". I just wanted to be clear. Compared to other solutions I'm looking at the HDElement and RAID card and it appears to me to be a really versatile and well engineered solution. I see from the forums here that most people that chose CalDigit are using the HDPro though. Is this just because it's been available longer or what??? Unless I'm mistaken the HDElement looks to be more scalable with a lower entry level cost for someone like myself. However, there seems to be a lot of similarity in cost of the mid tier capacities 2-4T... I really haven't looked at capacities higher than this. Anyone care to comment on their perception of when the HDElement or the HDPro might be the better choice???
