So I was wondering, is it possible to create a custom RAID just out of a PC enclosure box filled with hard drives? I know this is a bit of a NOOB question but how would one go about doing something like this?
You need a good RAID card. The RAID card can either go into a PC or a Mac. The only thing is that the RAID card will need to take in SATA or IDE from the PC box through SATA or IDE cables. The hard disks will have to be powered either independently or by the "main" PC or Mac. Limitations apply of course.
Otherwise, you may be able to find a RAID card to put into the PC box that will then "output" a firewire800 or eSATA (for PC)...
Alternatively, if your PC is functioning well as a standalone PC, you could use the onboard SATA RAID function of the motherboard and then just link the PC via Gigabit Ethernet into your network. This way it is kind of a RAID NAS. Maybe run Linux on that standalone PC box, otherwise WinXP2Pro is not that bad. Only thing the PC box is consuming more power here because it is running a full computer, not just the drives.
If your PC enclosure box has around up to 500GB of storage the easiest method is to put a RAID card in that PC, run a RAID 5, install XP2Pro, connect to network eg. Airport Extreme via Gigabit Ethernet. This is as per the last method mentioned above.
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Otherwise, you may be able to find a RAID card to put into the PC box that will then "output" a firewire800 or eSATA (for PC)...
Alternatively, if your PC is functioning well as a standalone PC, you could use the onboard SATA RAID function of the motherboard and then just link the PC via Gigabit Ethernet into your network. This way it is kind of a RAID NAS. Maybe run Linux on that standalone PC box, otherwise WinXP2Pro is not that bad. Only thing the PC box is consuming more power here because it is running a full computer, not just the drives.
If your PC enclosure box has around up to 500GB of storage the easiest method is to put a RAID card in that PC, run a RAID 5, install XP2Pro, connect to network eg. Airport Extreme via Gigabit Ethernet. This is as per the last method mentioned above.