Hard Drive Quality for RAID?

[Daphnis26]

Hi, I'm looking into buying a NAS or RAID system to store my project files, primarily video and 3D graphics files. I'd like to spend under $600 if possible. I've looked at quite a few options and hard drives. Some manufacturers seem to offer a line of hdds for various prices, but I'm not sure if I need higher grade hdds for what I'm trying to do. I'd rather save some money, but not at the cost of reliability or performance.

 

I'd like to have at least 8tb of usable space.

 

I'm considering something like this:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111149&cm_re=raid_one-_-16-111-149-_-Product

 

With 4 of these:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178338&cm_re=seagate_4tb-_-22-178-338-_-Product

 

Is this a good option or should I be considering higher grade hard drives for this type of configuration?

 

Any help or input is welcome! Thank you!

[RelentlessAF]

I heard WD Reds or Greens are great for NAS storage systems. I don't know much about SeaGate drives however.

[AlwaysFSX]

I heard WD Reds or Greens are great for NAS storage systems. I don't know much about SeaGate drives however.

Never buy a green, get the others instead

[RelentlessAF]

Never buy a green, get the others instead

Linus has a lot of Green drives lol I guess he doesn't know

[Daphnis26]

Hey thanks, yes I've been looking at the WD Reds as well. A 4TB WD Red costs around $200, so I'm wondering if the extra money is worth it. Seagate also has more expensive drives.

[AlwaysFSX]

Linus has a lot of Green drives lol I guess he doesn't know

He also wears socks with sandals, I'm not stop sure we can trust him at this point...

[wng_kingsley7]

Hey thanks, yes I've been looking at the WD Reds as well. A 4TB WD Red costs around $200, so I'm wondering if the extra money is worth it. Seagate also has more expensive drives.

Well you do get a good 3year warranty.

[RelentlessAF]

Hey thanks, yes I've been looking at the WD Reds as well. A 4TB WD Red costs around $200, so I'm wondering if the extra money is worth it. Seagate also has more expensive drives.

In my opinion yes, they are very reliable and are designed to be used in that environment and as previously mentioned you also get a 3 year warranty which basically ensures you a 3 year operation time or you get an entirely new drive.

[Daphnis26]

In my opinion yes, they are very reliable and are designed to be used in that environment and as previously mentioned you also get a 3 year warranty which basically ensures you a 3 year operation time or you get an entirely new drive.

Cool, do 4 WD Reds and that RAID device seem like a good solution to you guys?

[RelentlessAF]

Cool, do 4 WD Reds and that RAID device seem like a good solution to you guys?

Sounds good to me If you'd like a second opinion you could always just wait for another user to reply like @AlwaysFSX

[MrBucket101]

Never buy a green, get the others instead

This +1000

[madcow]

I vote for the cheaper Seagates, not to save money, but so that you can buy more of them.

 

For home storage I generally recommend getting more cheap drives for higher levels of redundancy, over getting fewer more expensive "higher quality" drives.

[Almercenary]

Reds IMO. Actually fuck it, just not greens.

[alpenwasser]

For home storage I generally recommend getting more cheap drives for higher levels of redundancy, over getting fewer more expensive "higher quality" drives.

^This is a very sound strategy.

Although I have had very good experiences with the Reds.

Seagate also make NAS drives, FYI.

[Xploda]

Reds aren't that great either, they're really overrated. They are "24 hour certified", but after all they're nothing more than consumer drives, meaning they aren't any better or worse than some other "non-24 hour certified" drives.

I have heard Greens are a disaster in RAID configurations. I'm running those 4TB Seagate drives you linked in a RAID5 myself (3 of them), and they are doing just fine.

 

I'd just say, go for the Seagate drives  .

[alpenwasser]

Reds aren't that great either, they're really overrated.

I wouldn't exactly call them great, but they've done the job I've

asked them to do so far. They're quiet, don't consume a lot of

power and I haven't had any issues.

One thing I noticed about both the Reds and the Seagate NAS drives:

They're certified to run at higher temps than other drives (even

the enterprise ones), up to 70 deg C IIRC. Presumably to make them

suitable for NAS enclosures with bad airflow?

But in the end, the Red primarily seems to be a Green with some

slight changes to the hardware and a different firmware, not the

reinvention of the wheel. Then again, unless you have some very

special requirements, an HDD is an HDD is an HDD for the most

part in today's market, the differences aren't really all that

significant in most consumer scenarios.

I have heard Greens are a disaster in RAID configurations.

Yeah, I'd estimate any drive with an aggressive spin-down policy

is really unsuited for being run on a RAID controller, as it's

too easily dropped from the array. I haven't really read about any

issues with software RAID yet though, would be very curious about

that.

[wpirobotbuilder]

Hi, I'm looking into buying a NAS or RAID system to store my project files, primarily video and 3D graphics files. I'd like to spend under $600 if possible. I've looked at quite a few options and hard drives. Some manufacturers seem to offer a line of hdds for various prices, but I'm not sure if I need higher grade hdds for what I'm trying to do. I'd rather save some money, but not at the cost of reliability or performance.

 

I'd like to have at least 8tb of usable space.

 

I'm considering something like this:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111149&cm_re=raid_one-_-16-111-149-_-Product

 

With 4 of these:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178338&cm_re=seagate_4tb-_-22-178-338-_-Product

 

Is this a good option or should I be considering higher grade hard drives for this type of configuration?

 

Any help or input is welcome! Thank you!

If you use RAID 5 or RAID 6, you'll want to use a NAS-certified drive like a WD Red or Seagate NAS. If you're just doing RAID 1 or RAID 10 you can get away with a Seagate Desktop, although I still would recommend a Red or NAS drive. For that enclosure, go with a Red or NAS drive.

 

If you end up with an enclosure with lot of drives (6 or more) very close together, you might want to start thinking about going with better quality drives, notably the WD Se series. You can certainly get away with dozens of Reds or NAS drives in close proximity, but it's not a recommended configuration. You should be fine with Reds or NAS drives.

[Atlantisman]

Never buy a WD green HDD for a NAS system. The have a power saving feature that will cause most NAS systems to spit them out, thinking they're dead way before they actually die.

 

Go with the WD Reds, you will thank us later. Reds run cooler, quieter, and last longer.