Best raid configuration on a budget

[TBBZ8X8]

All right so I finally have some $ built up and it's time to add some redundancy to my media server. I have about 1.25tb of media and want to run a raid 5. I was thinking of running 3 Seagate barracuda 4tb drives. I know their not insanely reliable but that's what redundancy is for and they seem to be the best bang for the buck on Amazon rn. Thoughts? Anyone have any better ideas? I have a pretty good raid card already because it came with the server. Thanks for any help!

[RadiatingLight]

Seems good.

Also, I haven't heard anything about barracudas being unreliable.

 

2 HDDs for storage, and one for parity seems like the best option.

[ARikozuM]

RAID 5!

 

Also, be sure to make a full backup on another drive one day.

[CyberneticTitan]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-easystore-8tb-external-usb-3-0-hard-drive-black/5792401.p?skuId=5792401

 

Inside are 8TB Reds. Unbelievably a killer deal.

 

If you're on a tight budget, go RAID 1 for now and then expand later. Remember, RAID is not a backup and I would recommend having a cold and online backup for your precious data.

[seagate_surfer]

You may want to consider going with drives branded for NAS use. With environments like servers and NAS, where multiple hard drives are being stored and used close together in enclosures, there can be a lot of vibration generated which could potentially effect both the longevity and performance of the drives, and this is one of the main considerations taken into account from an engineering standpoint in drives rated for NAS, or usually red-labeled drives, such as Seagate IronWolf & IronWolf Pro.

The firmware on these drives is designed to detect and mitigate issues with these vibrations, in addition to being more robust than standard desktop drives. The BarraCuda, like most standard desktop drives, is rated for 8 hours a day x 5 days a week use, and pushing up to 55TB of data per year, whereas the IronWolf series is rated for 24x7 use, multiuser technology, and up to 180 TB of data per year, with the IronWolf Pro being rated for up to 300TB per year. The standard BarraCuda has a 2 year warranty, the IronWolf a 3 year, and the IronWolf Pro a 5 year with 2 free years of Rescue Services as well.

Thank you for considering Seagate, regardless of which drives you decide to go with in the end!