Posted August 26, 2014 I'm building a custom NAS with 4x WD Red HDDs. I was thinking on using 1T drives to do a Raid-Z but checking those drives I find WD has a 2.5" and a 3.5". The main differences between the two is the cache: 16Mb (2.5") vs 64Mb (3.5") and the power consumption: 1.4/0.6W (2.5") vs 3.3/2.3W (3.5"). Since the 4 HDDs would be mounted in the front of a Lian-Li PC-Q08 case, they would be partially or totally blocking the air pushed by the front fan. Having this in account and that the NAS is ment to be running 24/7, I was thinking on buying the 2.5", but I was wondering, is there any other fact that I should consider over the 3.5" HDDs? . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 26, 2014 I'm building a custom NAS with 4x WD Red HDDs. I was thinking on using 1T drives to do a Raid-Z but checking those drives I find WD has a 2.5" and a 3.5". The main differences between the two is the cache: 16Mb (2.5") vs 64Mb (3.5") and the power consumption: 1.4/0.6W (2.5") vs 3.3/2.3W (3.5"). Since the 4 HDDs would be mounted in the front of a Lian-Li PC-Q08 case, they would be partially or totally blocking the air pushed by the front fan. Having this in account and that the NAS is ment to be running 24/7, I was thinking on buying the 2.5", but I was wondering, is there any other fact that I should consider over the 3.5" HDDs? The only thing I can think of would be mounting options, and even then most cases support both sizes very easily. There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't. Just some helpful stuff: You're - You are, Your - Your car, They're - They are, Their - Their car, There - Over there. Folding @ Home Install Guide and Links | My Build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 26, 2014 The 2.5" drives only have a capacity up to 1TB so I'd go for the 3.5" and the air flow will be good enough. Mein Führer... I CAN WALK !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 26, 2014 if the system is just being used as a NAS the airflow should be fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 26, 2014 3TB WD Reds are best NAS drives atm My Server - Update 1 - Update 2 - Update 3 - Update 4 Gaming Rig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 26, 2014 with all that space i would go raid 10 Thats that. If you need to get in touch chances are you can find someone that knows me that can get in touch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 26, 2014 What CPU are you going to use on the NAS? lower end and low power parts don't need that much cooling, even if the hard drives block most part of the air, it's going to be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 26, 2014 Author What CPU are you going to use on the NAS? lower end and low power parts don't need that much cooling, even if the hard drives block most part of the air, it's going to be fine. Right now I have an i3-3220T (35W max TDP) and its around 50ºC with the stock cooler. I suppose since I'm gonna use a software raid, the CPU will take some extra work from it. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 26, 2014 Right now I have an i3-3220T (35W max TDP) and its around 50ºC with the stock cooler. I suppose since I'm gonna use a software raid, the CPU will take some extra work from it. Should be perfectly fine, if you live on a hot area or can't stand the noisy cooler you can always get a cheap low profile cooler, like a Gemini II M4. 3.5" is usually the way to go with NASes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 Author 3TB WD Reds are best NAS drives atm Comparing 3TB WD Reds vs 2TB and 1TB, is there any other reason despite Gb per euro/dollar ratio (3TB HDDs have the best ratio)? . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 Have you considered going with a raid-1 using 2 x 3tb WD reds? It still has the same capacity as 4 x 1tb WD reds in raid-z, it's cheaper for the 2 drives in most places and hardly requires any CPU performance. You also don't need as much RAM as zfs, but it is definitely slower in reading data. Main rig: i7 3770K @ 4.54, Sapphire R9 290, Sabertooth Z77, 16 GB Mushkin Redline 2133, Lian Li PC-P50R, Seasonic 860xp Platinum, Kingston Hyper X 3K 240GB freeNAS server: AMD Athlon II 170u 20W, 5 x 3TB WD Red in raid-z1 (12 TB) media centre: AMD A10-5700, crucial M4 (boot), running XBMC,4 x 3TB WD Red, 3 x 3TB WD green + 2TB green in FlexRAID (17 TB) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 Author Have you considered going with a raid-1 using 2 x 3tb WD reds? It still has the same capacity as 4 x 1tb WD reds in raid-z, it's cheaper for the 2 drives in most places and hardly requires any CPU performance. You also don't need as much RAM as zfs, but it is definitely slower in reading data. I haven't though of that, thanks for the tip! Also raid-1 should be faster in reading (not slower) than ZFS, isn't that right? Since it can read from the two drives instead of just one in the case of raid-z . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 Comparing 3TB WD Reds vs 2TB and 1TB, is there any other reason despite Gb per euro/dollar ratio (3TB HDDs have the best ratio)? nope, just get more for your money My Server - Update 1 - Update 2 - Update 3 - Update 4 Gaming Rig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 The 3.5' drives give you more for your money, with the 3TB model having the best $/GB at the moment. 2.5' drives are generally used where you need to get a lot more IOPS, because you have more spindles to read/write from/to. They have similar data density to the 3.5' drives, depending on the enclosure they're in (that's all changing very fast with the introduction of 6TB+ drives). I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo GalileiBuild Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 Why Red's? You guys are crazy. You know you guys are self-destructive. There's a funny farm somewhere and it's got your names written all over it. But I'm gettin' outta here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 Why Red's? cause they're the best NAS drives My Server - Update 1 - Update 2 - Update 3 - Update 4 Gaming Rig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 cause they're the best NAS drives It depends on what they're being used for. I been using Green's for at least 3 years in mine without any problems. If it's just for media storage and scheduled backups then I'd go WD Green. You guys are crazy. You know you guys are self-destructive. There's a funny farm somewhere and it's got your names written all over it. But I'm gettin' outta here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 It depends on what they're being used for. I been using Green's for at least 3 years in mine without any problems. If it's just for media storage and scheduled backups then I'd go WD Green. Can't use greens in RAID, Greens don't have TLER, platter spin-up/down increases read/write times...plus 5400rpms :blink: Reds are meant to be used in an always on environment. Servers, NAS, etc... list goes on My Server - Update 1 - Update 2 - Update 3 - Update 4 Gaming Rig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 27, 2014 I run 8 Greens in RAID Z (I know it's not the most efficient number of drives for Z) You can enable TLER on greens You can have them not spin down/park at all Speed is more than good enough for media storage and backups Red's are the "NAS drive" but not everyone needs them. EDIT: This is a good read... http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hacking-wd-greens-and-reds-with-wdidle3-exe.18171/#post-98858 You guys are crazy. You know you guys are self-destructive. There's a funny farm somewhere and it's got your names written all over it. But I'm gettin' outta here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 2, 2014 Hi there, It is true that the WD Reds are the most popular choice for NAS environments and that is because the RED line is designed for this kind of usage. The size and capacity of the drives is up to you. Personally, I would go for 3TB 3.5 drives.Talking about WD Green drives, Chris230291 has some point. They perform really good, if you use them for storage purposes and backups. I would not recommend putting them in a RAID. I am aware of the fact that there are some workarounds that claim to enable some features, needed for the normal functioning of the RAID, but it is also reported that these measures not always work as planned. Some users enable TLER with third party software, but eventually experience some annoying RAID drops from time to time. It is really great that some are not experiencing any issues, but if you plan to do a reliable and supported NAS, I recommend you to go with the WD Reds. http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1397 – Difference between Desktop edition drives and RAID edition drives Hope this helps WD Representative www.wdc.com/en/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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