Sorry! I should've been more clear; my RAID comment was more
tongue-in-cheek; I was thining Drobo but heard bad things about it. I'm not
necessarily looking for RAID; just looking for drives that will be reliable
and last and not crap out on me and lose my data! Thoughts on what to go
with?
BINO
-----Original Message-----
From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com
[mailto:hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 6:23 PM
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Thoughts on 1TB HDs?
I'm running a RAID 5 array in my HTPC with 4 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 drives
(and about to add #5). I originally bought a 1 TB WD GreenPower drive to
move all the data off my old RAID array when I went to the new one and I did
have a problem with it. It never died, but it was flaky enough in the BIOS
detection and in the SMART reporting (for what that's worth) that I steered
away from those completely. I also went with a good quality hardware RAID
card (Areca 1220) instead of the onboard ones and it is well worth the
investment.
One very important thing to keep in mind if you are going to be building a
RAID array with these puppies - how long does it take your array to rebuild
itself? Because if you're running RAID 5 and a drive fails and another
drive fails in the middle of rebuilding the array, you're screwed. So you
need to do some calcs with your RAID adapter card specs to see if that's a
concern or not. Going to RAID 6 may help because it allows for 2 failures,
but then you have 2 1TB drives in the array just sitting there. And while
the drive may still be under warranty so you can get it replaced easily,
that doesn't help you get your data back if it broke your array.
If you are going with regular SATA drives, you may want to consider getting
the enterprise model instead of the consumer model. Or perhaps the WD
Caviar Black which is $20 more expensive but has a 5-year warranty and has
really good reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Links to reviews and roundups:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/1tb-hdd-roundup.html
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/597/1TB-Hard-Drive-Roundup-Update/
---------------------------
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation <http://www.secureworldfoundtion.org>
+1 (514) 466-2756 Canada
+1 (202) 683-8534 US
On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 9:05 PM, Bino Gopal <binogo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> What are your guy's thoughts on buying HDs nowadays? You can get 1TB SATA
> HDs for <$100 (sometimes even $80 on good sales) so the price/storage
ratio
> is so-sweet it's almost a no-brainer to buy like 5-10 and go into some
> crazy
> RAID setup!
>
>
>
> But I keep seeing reviews on Newegg and other sites about these things
> FAILING all the time (across all manufacturers), and that makes me
worried.
> I'd rather spend more and get something good that will definitely last and
> be reliable.so if I buy SAS drives, will they definitely fit that bill?
> Problem is they seem too expensive:
>
>
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE
> <
>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150014%2010
>
35917796&name=Serial%20Attached%20SCSI%20%28SAS%29<http://www.newegg.com/Pro
duct/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150014%201035917796&name=Serial%20Att
ached%20SCSI%20%28SAS%29>
> >
> &N=2010150014%201035917796&name=Serial%20Attached%20SCSI%20%28SAS%29
>
>
>
> (A guy at work was going to give me the adapter to use these btw, since
> they
> don't seem to sell them as much. :P)
>
>
>
> Or do you have to hunt and find the enterprise class SATA drives that are
> better quality than the general consumer ones, like this one?
>
>
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136313 (WD RE3)
>
>
>
> I've been looking at storagereview, but they don't seem to break down the
> more reliable class as a whole vs the cheaper stuff.thoughts?
>
>
>
>
> BINO
>
>
>
>
