ME - What Storage Amount? (1k - 64k)

[RealSketch]

Hello fellow members,
I'm my so close to finishing my ME Network, only a few ME cables and one storage item.
Now, I've looked at the 64k storage and I was going to work my up to this, but I am building new chests everyday! All full of at least 500 items or more!
So, when i looked at the crafting recipe for 64k, it seemed a...little, okay really, really pricy. And then I look at 16k, so much easier.
Now, a few things I know:
-Direwolf uses 16k in his LP.
-16k will be just affordable for me.
-64k will take around a week's worth of searching.
-You guys will probably help me out.

Edit: One quick question, if in the future I swap a 16k with a 64k or vise versa will I keep my items? (Dumb question I know.)

Thank you for reading this, I know my posts are tremendously long, I can't keep them short...or there not detailed...
Hope to see your replies soon

 

[Racemol]

16K is fine for most ME Networks. Just make sure you put the items where you have large amounts of in Deep Storage Units (like cobble and dirt etc). They have neraly infinite capacity but can only hold one item type per DSU. Just as with chests you can hook up a storage bus to make it part of your network.

 

[midi_sec]

i use a quantum chest AE network for mass storage of supplies, and i'm an oddball with my networks. i have 9 sub networks, and none of them have a drive over 4k.

the theory behind it is if you're pinging a massive network constantly, you've got a bigger footprint on the server than someone who has a network that is sectioned off and accesses what it needs to as it needs it.

 

[DepressivesBrot]

I like hybrid solutions as well, once you have the 10 (20, 30) most numerous items in DSUs and barrels (hooked up via storage bus), you can get away with very cheap cells in the 1-4k range for all the assorted junk.

 

[thestarlion]

I don't even find the need for cheap cells. When I had to migrate from log pipes to AE (due to server load and lag reasons - it was a big LP network) I just borrowed the default route idea. Anything there wasn't a barrel for, got put into a regular old Diamond Chest. Simple matter to get an empty barrel, ME Interface and hook up a new barrel for anything that needed it, and anything that didn't just stayed in that chest.

 

[rhn]

Dont waste resources on making 16k and 64k discs. Instead spend time on making multiple 1k and 4k discs and then format them to store single items. The storage efficiency is greater the fewer items you store on a disc:
http://ae-mod.info/ME-Storage-Math/
Then store the formatted discs in ME drives with higher priority.

Then make 2-3 ME chests with 4k discs with low priority for random items.

Once the formatted discs start getting full you will want to look into a means of automated disposal. Explained this too many times already so will link to one of the threads instead:
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/ender-chest-to-recycler.34245/#post-471191


For swapping out discs with larger ones, all you have to do is format the new one, put it in, take the old one out, place the old one in the ME IO port to import all the items from it into the network(into the new bigger disc).

 

[MacAisling]

For my primary system, I start with 4k's & put bulk items like cobble in DSU's (if I'm not voiding the excess). If I'm doing bees or anything else that involves a lot of types of unstackables, I may set up a separate system with 1k's. You can remove the storage bit from its housing by holding it in your hand & right-clicking with it, then use it to craft a larger cell. I think it will keep its contents when you do this, but you may want to test it before risking your entire inventory. It is all a question of how many types are you getting vs. how much of any 1 type are you getting. A cell will only hold 63 different types regardless of size. I usually run out of spaces before I run out of space, so I'll go ahead & start with 2 storage drives & fill them with 4k cells as I need or can afford them.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I tend to run only 4k drives. It's the best balance between capacity and storage space. I have yet to see a significant bonus to using 16k's or 64k's.

 

[rhn]

I tend to run only 4k drives. It's the best balance between capacity and storage space. I have yet to see a significant bonus to using 16k's or 64k's.

Yeah, I have only ever used a few 16k formatted for stuff like cobble and dirt. And that is purely because I sometimes go building crazy and spend vast amounts of cobble or dirt on building a mountain or filling in a sea or something. But for anything else you really don't need to store more than 127 or 508 stacks of items.

 

[MoosyDoosy]

I run 16k cells all the time because it's the perfect balance. Then I make 64k cells because I have too many resources.

 

[zilvarwolf]

+1 to anyone above who said offline or hybrid storage. I use 4k drives almost exclusively unless I'm making a specialized system. Cobble, dirt, stone, sand...all the 'wow, I really have 4000 of that?' items go into barrels with storage buses for control and access, with excess being run into the me version of a trash can (so that I can get matter balls or whatever else...I've found trash cans and other non-AE solutions can be overwhelmed if you have ridiculous input rates..like excess wood/saplings from tree farms).

I used to do the larger cells exclusively, but started scaling back when I realized that most of the time I was hitting 63 item types and 3 to 5K storage used.

 

[AlanEsh]

I'm in the camp of hybrid:
4k cells for general use
16k cells formatted for specific items i keep in large quantity
DSUs or JABBA barrels for mass storage because I'm a packrat and hate to throw stuff away

 

[MigukNamja]

I'm in the camp of hybrid:
4k cells for general use
16k cells formatted for specific items i keep in large quantity
DSUs or JABBA barrels for mass storage because I'm a packrat and hate to throw stuff away

I'm in the hybrid camp as well. I use something similar, starting from smallest stack size to largest:

1. Storage Bus on Diamond Chest for singleton things like bees and serums. Format ME Storage Bus to contents.
2. 4K or 16K storage cells for general purpose (no formatting)
3. 40x or so Jabba barrels for the highest-quantity item and definitely anything I'm auto-generating

I put the Void upgrade on my barrels to prevent overflow. If I *really* want 1M+ of any given item, I can make a DSU. However, I haven't found a need for more than a couple hundred thousand at a time, and that's to make Quantum Singularities.

 

[Dodge34]

We use a variety of storage cells, on our main base we even have done 1 4M storage cell because we had too much stuff, I know its useless but still we have it (its from extra cells mod if you don't have it, you won't find the 4M storage cell) but most of our stuff is either on 4k or 16k storage cells. we never ever formatted them yet, I plan on moving some of our largest content to DSU (cobble, smooth stone, sand, dirt, gravel and other stuff)

 

[rhn]

I'm in the hybrid camp as well. I use something similar, starting from smallest stack size to largest:

1. Storage Bus on Diamond Chest for singleton things like bees and serums. Format ME Storage Bus to contents.
2. 4K or 16K storage cells for general purpose (no formatting)
3. 40x or so Jabba barrels for the highest-quantity item and definitely anything I'm auto-generating

I put the Void upgrade on my barrels to prevent overflow. If I *really* want 1M+ of any given item, I can make a DSU. However, I haven't found a need for more than a couple hundred thousand at a time, and that's to make Quantum Singularities.

I used to do this as well in the past. Using factorization barrels to store all kinds of items. But I really didn't use the barrels directly, I went to the ME access terminals always. And when I looked at it the storage bus was not cheaper than a 1k disc. The storage bus consumes a lot more power than a disc(disc doesn't consumes power, but the ME drive does, but its consumption is spread out over 10 discs). And then there is of course the space requirement.
So since I have just stored everything on discs.

 

[AlanEsh]

...The storage bus consumes a lot more power than a disc(disc doesn't consumes power, but the ME drive does, but its consumption is spread out over 10 discs). And then there is of course the space requirement.

When I'm running a set of quarries and storing the cobble and other junk blocks, I'm pushing tens of thousands of items into about a dozen DSUs. If I instead pushed those items straight into my network, each item that goes into the system eats a bit of power being converted to energy. So even with the storage bus using more power than a drive, I feel like I'm saving quite a bit of power when I'm actively quarrying.

I don't know exactly how much power is used for the M >> E conversion, but:
When I am just starting out with an ME Network and it is running on a very limited power supply, I can quite easily run my poorly powered ME Controller out of juice by shift+doubleclicking on cobble and dirt stacks in my inventory when my inventory is full. This tells me that the energy cost of converting tens of thousands of items from quarry processing is a significant power drain, so I'm not really convinced that the storage bus + DSU method is a loser to ME DRives when it comes to overall energy efficiency.

 

[Skyqula]

I tend to run only 4k drives. It's the best balance between capacity and storage space. I have yet to see a significant bonus to using 16k's or 64k's.

Energy efficiency. 2.4mj/t for a ME drive filled with 4k vs 4.4mj/t for a ME drive filled with 64k. Youd need 38.4mj/t to get equal storage capacity.

 

[rhn]

When I'm running a set of quarries and storing the cobble and other junk blocks, I'm pushing tens of thousands of items into about a dozen DSUs. If I instead pushed those items straight into my network, each item that goes into the system eats a bit of power being converted to energy. So even with the storage bus using more power than a drive, I feel like I'm saving quite a bit of power when I'm actively quarrying.

I don't know exactly how much power is used for the M >> E conversion, but:
When I am just starting out with an ME Network and it is running on a very limited power supply, I can quite easily run my poorly powered ME Controller out of juice by shift+doubleclicking on cobble and dirt stacks in my inventory when my inventory is full. This tells me that the energy cost of converting tens of thousands of items from quarry processing is a significant power drain, so I'm not really convinced that the storage bus + DSU method is a loser to ME DRives when it comes to overall energy efficiency.

I was referring to standby power consumption. Any movement of items within the network will consume further power. Don't think it is the "converting" as much as is it the "movement" of items. Importing, exporting, transferring from one storage to another etc will consume power. So on that account I dont think it matters which choice you make.

But yes if you for example pipe off cobble directly into a barrel/DSU before you pipe the quarry products into the ME network, you can save a substantial amount of power.

 

[IMarvinTPA]

I'm in the Barrel + smaller drives camp. I also have excessive power generation, so I don't worry about the cost of my expansive system. I have a youtube video of a tour of what I had a year ago. It is a little bigger now than then. I have also moved off of Factorization barrels and to Jabba barrels. I have one DSU for iron. My cobble has a large (16 or 64k) drive and an ender chest.

IMarv

 

[Larmonade]

Dont waste resources on making 16k and 64k discs. Instead spend time on making multiple 1k and 4k discs and then format them to store single items. The storage efficiency is greater the fewer items you store on a disc:
http://ae-mod.info/ME-Storage-Math/
Then store the formatted discs in ME drives with higher priority.

Then make 2-3 ME chests with 4k discs with low priority for random items.

Once the formatted discs start getting full you will want to look into a means of automated disposal. Explained this too many times already so will link to one of the threads instead:
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/ender-chest-to-recycler.34245/#post-471191


For swapping out discs with larger ones, all you have to do is format the new one, put it in, take the old one out, place the old one in the ME IO port to import all the items from it into the network(into the new bigger disc).

Ever since that conversation, I've used basically the same method for my own storage. The "hands-on"-ness of all the drives and formatting and blinking lights is gratifying to me, but the simplicity of "one drive per item" and the compactness of it all basically speaks to why I use AE in the first place.

I strongly second this system for its simplicity, expand-ability, and customize-ability. 10/10 would build again.