[Solved] Desktop Use Raid 1 HDD Question

[John Strasser]

Hi Folks,

 

While there's lots of great info here I haven't quite found anything (here or anywhere else) to convince me one way or the other.

 

Scenario:

Desktop computer; minimal gaming (old games); productivity type stuff.

I want to set up a Raid 1 (mirroring) with 2 drives to be my primary go-to data drive. OS is on another drive. It would be set up with software raid. I'm running linux as my primary os.

 

I'm trying to figure out if I would be better off using desktop drives (WD Black / Seagate Barracuda) or if if NAS drives would be better in this application, such as WD Reds or Ironwolf drives.

 

So it's not so much about backup (I have a NAS and cloud and etc). It's just about having that level of redundancy with my day-to-day working drive.

 

And since there are differences in how the drives work I figured I'd check here with the experts

 

Thanks for the advice

 

 

 

[Streetguru]

8 minutes ago, John Strasser said:

Hi Folks,

There's really no point in using RAID 1 for a gaming PC, RAID isn't a back up solution anyways, just keep things backed up to an external hard drive, or pay for a back up service if you run something like a business.

[Catsrules]

33 minutes ago, John Strasser said:

Hi Folks,

 

While there's lots of great info here I haven't quite found anything (here or anywhere else) to convince me one way or the other.

 

Scenario:

Desktop computer; minimal gaming (old games); productivity type stuff.

I want to set up a Raid 1 (mirroring) with 2 drives to be my primary go-to data drive. OS is on another drive. It would be set up with software raid. I'm running linux as my primary os.

 

I'm trying to figure out if I would be better off using desktop drives (WD Black / Seagate Barracuda) or if if NAS drives would be better in this application, such as WD Reds or Ironwolf drives.

 

So it's not so much about backup (I have a NAS and cloud and etc). It's just about having that level of redundancy with my day-to-day working drive.

 

And since there are differences in how the drives work I figured I'd check here with the experts

 

Thanks for the advice

 

 

 

Both Blacks or Red drives will work. Red drives are designed for RAID but I don't' see a reson why blacks won't work. Personaly I would go with Reds and they are cheaper but Blacks will give you a longer warranty and usually are slightly faster then the reds

 

Just stay away from any power saving or eco friendly drives. For example the WD Green drives were horrible raid drives because they would power down when not in use and the raid would freak out. But software RAID is a little bit more forgiving.

[Bacon soup]

RAID gives 24/7 performance. Do you have hot swap bays? Do you have a spare disk ready? Drives only die once, so do you really need to keep this drive running while you are working, or can you afford to stop work and replace the drive? Lastly, are you really using your disk so much that it will die at any moment? I have a drawer full of old disks. All ran out of capacity before they died. I have had laptop drives die, and in that case I simply swap them out for the backup drive. The work I lost between my backup and the time the drive died was retrieved from cloud.

[Bacon soup]

1 hour ago, John Strasser said:

I'm trying to figure out if I would be better off using desktop drives (WD Black / Seagate Barracuda) or if if NAS drives would be better in this application, such as WD Reds or Ironwolf drives.

 

WD says blacks are good for two drive arrays. Any more drives and you need the NAS drives.

[John Strasser]

22 hours ago, Streetguru said:

There's really no point in using RAID 1 for a gaming PC, RAID isn't a back up solution anyways, just keep things backed up to an external hard drive, or pay for a back up service if you run something like a business.

Thanks for the reply. I guess I wasn't clear...this really isn't what most people think of as a "gaming pc" (even though it's specs would have qualified back in the day). With 2 exceptions, every game I play I purchased on CD or floppy back in the 1990s (I still have my original DOOM v1 floppy disks that I purchased from ID directly).

 

And I already have off-site backup via external drives, a paid backup service AND external NAS, with the uber-critical stuff archived on SSDs in my bank safety deposit box.

 

So it's really just about having that level of redundancy with my day-to-day working drive.  When you have lost as much stuff as I have over the years you get paranoid

[John Strasser]

22 hours ago, Catsrules said:

Just stay away from any power saving or eco friendly drives. For example the WD Green drives were horrible raid drives because they would power down when not in use and the raid would freak out. But software RAID is a little bit more forgiving.

Thanks

[John Strasser]

21 hours ago, Bacon soup said:

WD says blacks are good for two drive arrays. Any more drives and you need the NAS drives.

Do you mind if I ask where you found that? Because I haven't seen it anywhere (from either WD or Seagate)

[Bacon soup]

5 hours ago, John Strasser said:

Do you mind if I ask where you found that? Because I haven't seen it anywhere (from either WD or Seagate)

it was on the WD site but i cant find it

[John Strasser]

Thanks Soup. I'd heard that elsewhere too and haven't been successful at locating it.

 

Appreciate the help

[John Strasser]

Solution:

 

Based on a great  discussion with  @seagate_surfer  it looks like the desktop class drives will work (in my case BarraCuda Pro - 5 yr warranty). To summarize the salient points:

 

Quote

From @seagate_surfer

1. Will I be using this computer more than 5 days a week in schedules longer than 10 hours? Get the basic BarraCuda if the answer is no. If yes go on. 

2. Will I need more the transfer rates than storing data for long periods of time? If no, get the BarraCuda Pro. If yes go on. 

3. Will I be accessing the stored files quite oftenly or will they be stored and only accesed some very few times? For long periods of storage get the Seagate Constellation and for faster access get the IronWolf. 

 

So thanks to everyone involved.

[seagate_surfer]

You are welcome! The usage projected is definetely a thing. The normal BarraCuda is an entry HDD manufactured with office computers in mind, computers that run on schedules of 8 hours a day and 5 days a week. When other devices can support more than that they will usually say in the specs sheet that the power-on hours equals 8760 which is the total of hours in a year, in other words, devices that comply with the 8760 power-on hours feature are projected to be working 24/7. Devices like the IronWolf can do that or also the Pro version of the BarraCuda but not the most basic one. The good thing about the IronWolf is that it is not only made to store data for longer periods because those drives are usually slower like the Seagate Constellation but it also has one the most faster transfer rates so it complies with data storage in NAS environments features but also in situations where data storage is not the most important thing and you need higher transfer rates for data that's more frequently accessed. 

I personally believe that you will need a 24/7 device but not a NAS drive, so my guess too is that the one that suits you better is the BarraCuda Pro.