peter_m Premium Member join:2005-07-13 Canada, QC |
peter_m
Premium Member
2013-Apr-9 8:46 pm
Choosing a new HD for my NASHello, I need a new reliable drive for my NAS. I will use it for automated backups of my personal files from 3 PCs and serve movies to my TV box. I am looking for reliability more then anything else.
Low end server class drives: WD: WD2002FAEX Seagate: ST2000NC001
High end server class: WD: WD2003FYYS Seagate: ST2000NM0033
Any preference, experiences or advice?
Thanks |
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KrisnatharokPC Builder, Gamer Premium Member join:2009-02-11 Earth Orbit |
WD Reds are designed for NAS applications. I've had two 1.5GB WD Greens in a simple NAS attached to a router, but I'll let Koitsu speak to how WD differentiates similar drives to different applications via firmware "features" (note quotes). |
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koitsu MVM join:2002-07-16 Mountain View, CA Humax BGW320-500
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to peter_m
The WD2002FAEX is fine, as long as you don't mind higher temperatures (the WD Black drives tend to run hotter than some of their other counterparts).
Avoid the ST2000NC001.
The WD2003FYYS is also fine, but expected even higher temperatures than the WD2002FAEX. The temperatures on this model of drive are generally extreme.
The ST2000NM0033 will "probably" be fine, but I have no experience with it.
In general I tend to recommend folks go with:
- WD Red drives if you want something that doesn't have crappy firmware features that cause grief, as well as lower temperatures, sacrificing a bit of speed (compared to the WD Black) and don't mind paying a little bit more,
- WD Black drives if you want slightly higher I/O rates than the WD Black, while sacrificing the lower temperatures of the WD Red,
Avoid any drive that has "power-saving" features (WD Green, any Seagate desktop drive, any Seagate drive that talks about "efficient power").
Other footnotes:
- The term "reliable" is more opinionated than you might think. Anyone who tells you "go with brand X" because "they've never had any problem with them" is giving you an opinion -- there will be someone else who has had nothing but failures with that same brand. There is no way to recommend you a drive that "will not fail" -- instead, buy whatever you want and just assume the drive will fail (do backups, etc.),
- "Server-class" drives are overpriced marketing-driven fluff, usually with the only added benefit of firmware features being disabled (compared to desktop drives) and having slightly better handling of vibration during operation,
I also use WD Red drives in both my FreeBSD box (which has 4 MHDDs and 1 SSD), as well as my Windows XP workstation. |
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peter_m Premium Member join:2005-07-13 Canada, QC |
peter_m
Premium Member
2013-Apr-10 7:05 am
"Avoid the ST2000NC001"
Why?
"Avoid any drive that has "power-saving" features (WD Green, any Seagate desktop drive, any Seagate drive that talks about "efficient power")."
You forgot to include WD red in that list?
Thanks man, I am confused! |
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I think some of the drives do quite a bit of spin down and head parking, and that 'feature' is missing from the Reds.
I have several Reds -- they have decent sustained DTR (roughly equal to comparable Blacks or RE4s) but their random I/O is roughly half of those. They also run very cool. |
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JoelC707 Premium Member join:2002-07-09 Lanett, AL |
to peter_m
Koitsu will of course correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is what he is referring to on the power saving issue: » koitsu.wordpress.com/201 ··· parking/And here is why the WD Red is not in that list: » koitsu.wordpress.com/201 ··· d10efrx/ Note, IntelliPower is not the same as IntelliPark (I made the same mistake). Not sure about the Seagate drive. I haven't looked it up to see what specific model it is but it could be a "power efficient" type drive too. |
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koitsu MVM join:2002-07-16 Mountain View, CA Humax BGW320-500
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to peter_m
ST2000NC001 -- the drive is advertised as having "power-saving features" despite being an ""enterprise"" drive. In my experience Seagate's drives are very aggressive about parking heads, which in turn emits a very loud/audible clicking noise, with no way to disable that behaviour. Quoting site: "Energy-efficient at under 8 watts (random read operating power) which averages 29% less than competing hard drives". Rather not risk it. As for the WD Red -- what both aurgathor and JoelC707 said are correct. Read (not skim) my blog posts for details. |
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CCatWe're all quite mad here MVM join:2005-12-06 Wonderland |
CCat
MVM
2013-Apr-10 8:50 pm
Just ordered a WD 3Tb Red from Amazon. Lowest price I've seen, $151.99 |
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1 edit |
said by CCat:Just ordered a WD 3Tb Red from Amazon. Lowest price I've seen, $151.99 Two weeks ago I bought a Synology DS713+. I installed two 3TB Reds in RAID1. I don't know if I could be any happier with my purchase! EDIT: originally said RAID0 when I have them in RAID1. Yay typing! |
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koitsu MVM join:2002-07-16 Mountain View, CA |
to CCat
That's a great price for 3TB given what the drives do/how they behave. Talk about a steal! |
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CCatWe're all quite mad here MVM join:2005-12-06 Wonderland |
CCat
MVM
2013-Apr-10 10:14 pm
said by koitsu:That's a great price for 3TB given what the drives do/how they behave. Talk about a steal! That makes me feel warm and fuzzy |
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KrisnatharokPC Builder, Gamer Premium Member join:2009-02-11 Earth Orbit |
I snagged a WD30EFRX for $139 at Newegg when they had a $30 off deal in late February. I don't think I've seen it go that low since then. And you're right, grabbing such a good 3TB drive for a steal gives you the fuzzies. |
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