New NAS. RAID & HDD recommendation

[StormEye]

~EDIT 2015/08/03~

Decided to go with Red 6TB. Time to start looking.

 

~EDIT 2015/08/01~

1. What are the quiet / silent HDDs out there? Prefarably minimum 4TB. But I can go smaller since now I have 8 bay NAS and can probably just expand the volume if lower capacity drive will give me better advantage when it comes to noise issue.

2. Any significant difference if I use NAS optimized drives on desktop? If the new drive I am getting is silent and it happens to be optimized for NAS, wonder if I can use it for my desktop as well.

 

~Original Post~

I had been using Synology 2 Bay solution for NAS with 2 X 4TB HDD. I have no idea what the brand or model is as I didn't really care at the time and just shoved it in. The two drives are running in Synology Hybrid whatever, which basically acts like RAID 1 from what I can tell.

 

Recently, I have noticed that I am running out of space, and I started doing Virtual Machine stuff. So I went ahead and upgraded the NAS and am now considering to buy a more quality HDD for my NAS. The model is QNAP TS-853 Pro, which is an 8 bay model.

 

I may or may not reuse the current two 4TB I have in my old NAS depending on whether the new setup will be compatible with the new RAID array that I am doing, and/or whether I may use the old NAS for other purposes right away (eg. personal backup / storage solution for office PC).

 

Currently, the store near my place has HGST 6TB NAS HDD, which I have used recently to replace my old HDD on my desktop, and it is the only 6TB readily pickupable. 4TB, I have less restriction on choice as there are whole bunch.

 

So my main questions are two folds

1. What HDD (brand and model) do you recommend? Also, is it worth while for me to get 6TB instead of 4TB?

2. What RAID should I do? NAS model I have is QNAP TS-853 Pro

 

Thank you.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey StormEye,

 

If you are reusing your old drives I would recommend fist checking their health status and then get the same drives. Any differences between the speeds or firmware of the drives in a RAID array might increase the chance of drive dropouts and data loss. 

Other than that I would recommend checking out WD Red and WD Red Pro for a 8-bay NAS. Both models are pretty reliable NAS drives, good for RAID arrays and work pretty smooth and quiet. The WD Red Pro is designed for larger drive pools, has a higher rpm, transfer speeds and longer warranty. Here's a link:

WD Red: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=i48HzP

WD Red Pro: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=2ngzPp

 

For the RAID type I would say it really depends on what level of redundancy and how much storage space you are looking for. I'd say RAID5, RAID6 and RAID10 are good options, each offering a different level of speed boost and redundancy.

 

Captain_WD.

[StormEye]

-snip-

Thanks for the reply.

 

I could not find those HDDs you have mentioned and picked up instead the HGST 6TB NAS drives I have mentioned above. I sort of regret getting them since they are extremely loud when they are in operation. Never would have I thought that the drives could get this loud under load. Most likely gonna phase them out one by one over time to other drives that are much quieter. Have not really put much thought into the noise factor before since I have never really had a serious NAS solution until now.

 

For the RAID type, I have went with RAID 6.

 

Are those WD Red Pro drives really good and quiet? I think they have the max capacity of 4TB, so if I am going to replace the ones I have currently with this one you mentioned, I have to rebuild my RAID array (I think) since it is smaller in capacity than the 6TB I already have. Queit is now my new priority it seems.

 

Since I cannot find those at near my location, I will just have to look around more, or order them from overseas.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Regarding the sound of your current drives: you can look for some dampening or cushioning solutions that can reduce the noise a bit.

 

WD Red is more quiet compared to WD Red Pro but it has lower performance (general rule of thumb being the higher rpm and performance, the higher the noise level would be). It really depends on what level of quietness you are looking for. I would suggest to find somewhere both drives at operation and see how much noise are they actually making so you decide which one would be better. 

 

RAID6 is a good choice for such amount of drives in the pool. It gives you a good speed boost as well as two-drive failure tolerance. Nice pick!

 

Captain_WD.

[StormEye]

-snip-

I'm starting to think more and more that I do not require high performance and wanna just go for the quiet instead.

 

I vaguely remember that the HDD that I used to have on my desktop before swapping out to the HGST 6TB NAS (the same one that I am having noise issue at the moment), was a Seagate 5400RPM drive. I have no idea what exact model it was but it never really announced its presence even while my desktop is right next to me on a ear level.

 

If WD Red is as silent as it is advertised / recommended to be, I would love to give it a shot. Though, unfortunately I do not know of a place I can go and actually test and compare HDD sounds while on full load.

 

Anyway, would love to know other candidates, if there are any, if I am going to throw the performance out of the window for the sake of silence. And if there is something that strikes nicely between performance and quiet (more on the quiet side preferably) would also like to know that too.

 

So, my current questions are

1. What are the quiet / silent HDDs out there? Prefarably minimum 4TB. But I can go smaller since now I have 8 bay NAS and can probably just expand the volume if lower capacity drive will give me better advantage when it comes to noise issue.

2. Any significant difference if I use NAS optimized drives on desktop? If the new drive I am getting is silent and it happens to be optimized for NAS, wonder if I can use it for my desktop as well.

 

Thank you.

[AllstaRawR]

I use Reds and Red Pros. Both extremely quiet. Reds are actually better imho. They still do 150/150 R/W speeds and make no sound audible over your electronics in general. I've also had 2 3TB Reds in a RAID1 on 24/7 since February '14 and 2 4TB Red Pros in RAID1 since last month. Yet to have an issue.

[StormEye]

I use Reds and Red Pros. Both extremely quiet. Reds are actually better imho. They still do 150/150 R/W speeds and make no sound audible over your electronics in general. I've also had 2 3TB Reds in a RAID1 on 24/7 since February '14 and 2 4TB Red Pros in RAID1 since last month. Yet to have an issue.

 

Will there be any significant difference in the noise if I decide to get the 6TB models of Red, instead of the 3TB you have mentioned?

[AllstaRawR]

 

Will there be any significant difference in the noise if I decide to get the 6TB models of Red, instead of the 3TB you have mentioned?

 

If anything your sustained speeds should be faster, as the both have three platters but yours would have double the density. So you might get 180/180 or even 200/200. They would still be just as silent. Trust me, they work great in a NAS! I would have gotten 6TBs then if they were out.

[StormEye]

If anything your sustained speeds should be faster, as the both have three platters but yours would have double the density. So you might get 180/180 or even 200/200. They would still be just as silent. Trust me, they work great in a NAS! I would have gotten 6TBs then if they were out.

Thanks for the input.

I will eventually fill up the entire bay with 8 HDDs, or 7 HDD and 1 SSD for cache acceleration feature that the QNAP NAS has, which I am not sure whether it is worth it or not.

Would I have to worry more about disk failure by a significant margin that I should consider the use of Pro version instead, if I am pretty much set on the non-Pro for the silence and good enough performance?

[AllstaRawR]

Thanks for the input.

I will eventually fill up the entire bay with 8 HDDs, or 7 HDD and 1 SSD for cache acceleration feature that the QNAP NAS has, which I am not sure whether it is worth it or not.

Would I have to worry more about disk failure by a significant margin that I should consider the use of Pro version instead, if I am pretty much set on the non-Pro for the silence and good enough performance?

 

The non-pro should have a lower disk failure chance, it;s 5400RPM while the pro is 7200RPM. By its very nature the non-pro is more reliable.

[TheGeeker]

The non-pro should have a lower disk failure chance, it;s 5400RPM while the pro is 7200RPM. By its very nature the non-pro is more reliable.

Hey. Off topic question but I have 4 2tb Seagate drives that I want to use for a nas in raid 5. Is it a good idea? They have been used in  surveillance for about one year and then were retired. Is it better to down the road need to buy one more drive than to get 400-500$ of wd reds? 

[StormEye]

The non-pro should have a lower disk failure chance, it;s 5400RPM while the pro is 7200RPM. By its very nature the non-pro is more reliable.

Alrighty. Thank you

 

Gonna start looking around for it now.

 

Wil update with how satifsied/dissatisfied I am once I have gotten them and installed them. Probably gonna start out with 4, so that I can have 4 of the current drives and 4 Reds to compare side by side.

[AllstaRawR]

Hey. Off topic question but I have 4 2tb Seagate drives that I want to use for a nas in raid 5. Is it a good idea? They have been used in  surveillance for about one year and then were retired. Is it better to down the road need to buy one more drive than to get 400-500$ of wd reds? 

 

Well, they'll be striped and have parity so you should theoretically get decent speeds and redundancy in case one fails. It'll probably still be slower than a set of Reds though, as they are disturbingly fast for 5400RPM. It's not a bad idea to just add another drive, but in that case I'd add two and go RAID6... you'd lost a bit of performance instead of gain a bit, but you'd be so much safer. If speed is what you're after I'd getting different drives from the start.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Each drive should have their noise levels in their spec sheets, regardless of the brand so you can compare that. Also there should be examples on the internet of the noise levels so you can at least check that. As @AllstaRawR pointed out, both the WD Red and WD Red Pro are great drives to use in a NAS or a RAID setup.

 

@TheGeeker I'd check each drive's S.M.A.R.T. values first to make sure their health is in good-enough condition to trust your data to. Using non-NAS/RAID drives in a RAID array increases the risk of data corruption or drive dropout, but could still work.

 

Captain_WD.

[TheGeeker]

 

Each drive should have their noise levels in their spec sheets, regardless of the brand so you can compare that. Also there should be examples on the internet of the noise levels so you can at least check that. As @AllstaRawR pointed out, both the WD Red and WD Red Pro are great drives to use in a NAS or a RAID setup.

 

@TheGeeker I'd check each drive's S.M.A.R.T. values first to make sure their health is in good-enough condition to trust your data to. Using non-NAS/RAID drives in a RAID array increases the risk of data corruption or drive dropout, but could still work.

 

Captain_WD.

 

Yeah. Ill see the drives are in good shape. But its kinda hard to go out and get wd reds for 450$ when you have 4 drives right in front of you. I know they are not the best but Ill run tests and if they are fine Ill be prepared when one dies. I am going to be backing all my pcs to the nas, backing up the nas to the cloud and my buddy is making a nas so I will offsite backup to him when he is done as well. Slowly Ill replace with wd reds but we will see. Its alot of cash of a teenager to spend of hdds. 

[AllstaRawR]

Yeah. Ill see the drives are in good shape. But its kinda hard to go out and get wd reds for 450$ when you have 4 drives right in front of you. I know they are not the best but Ill run tests and if they are fine Ill be prepared when one dies. I am going to be backing all my pcs to the nas, backing up the nas to the cloud and my buddy is making a nas so I will offsite backup to him when he is done as well. Slowly Ill replace with wd reds but we will see. Its alot of cash of a teenager to spend of hdds. 

 

Yeah, but give selling them a thought. I know, for me at least, I'd buy some random 2-4TB used drives purely for data storage for things that I could afford losing. For the things I absolutely can't afford losing, I have Reds.

 

I actually have had one of the 3TBs fail on me... but that's because I dropped it. WD over-nighted a new one to me and gave me a label to send the other back, no cost. The warranty on them is quite serious.

[StormEye]

-snip-

 

-snip-

Thank you both for helping me out.

 

I got four 6TB Reds and I am VERY satisfied with them. Its so damn quiet, as I wanted it to be, to the point where my NAS is now the one thats making more noise.

 

Man, I really should have resisted my urge on getting the drives right away after a new NAS upgrade. Oh well, I now have 4 extra 6TB drives I can use as cold backup. LoL

[AllstaRawR]

Thank you both for helping me out.

 

I got four 6TB Reds and I am VERY satisfied with them. Its so damn quiet, as I wanted it to be, to the point where my NAS is now the one thats making more noise.

 

Man, I really should have resisted my urge on getting the drives right away after a new NAS upgrade. Oh well, I now have 4 extra 6TB drives I can use as cold backup. LoL

Could you run a crystaldisk mark on one of them to tell me the speeds, or are they not in a good position to be put in a desktop?

[StormEye]

Could you run a crystaldisk mark on one of them to tell me the speeds, or are they not in a good position to be put in a desktop?

Unfortunately they were all instantly loaded into my NAS and its on the backup duty of my old NAS.