Need help choosing 1TB HDD for a RAID 1 (mirror). Already made a big mistake.

[Matt_Stevens]

Okay, so despite all my reading, I had no clue that Western Digital has pretty much poopood RAID on their Hard Drives, unless you spend stupid money. So the two Caviar Black 1 TB drives I just purchased are no good for RAID.

I called NewEgg and they agreed to take both drives back for an exchange. No restocking fee. Thanks, New Egg. :thumbsup:

But what 1 TB drive to replace them with? I'll have $175 in credit to play with and cannot go any higher (remember, that is for one HDD x 2, so two of the same drive). I'm tapped out building this new system.

So far I like (and in nor particular order)...

HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.C HDS721010CLA332 (0F10383) 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache UPDATE: Scratch this one. Too many reports of early failure

Now my OS drive is an Intel 120GB SSD installed on an MSi P67A-GD65 (B3) motherbord (i7 3.4GHz) and I will be using two 500GB Samsung Spinpoints in a RAID 0 on this setup. Or at least I hope I can use the Samsungs. If so, maybe going all Samsung on this system is a good idea?

I value your opinion. Give it to me.

 

[Blain]

If you're creating a RAID 1 array and don't want to take any chances on drives being dropped out of the array, Buy Samsung F3R or WD RE4 hard drives.
They are designed for RAID usage.

 

[w0ng3r]

Care to share why WD's blacks are no good for RAID?

 

[hennessy1]

Because the newer blacks lack the TLER function most raids rely on. Without that the disks can drop from the raid.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

What he said.


Okay, so the I see the Samsung. The WD's are just too expensive. The question is... will I have trouble with my non Samsung's that do not have an R in their name if I put them in a Raid 0???

I had no clue that you had to have special hard drives for a RAID. I never have before. Not ever. Just matched the drives and I was good to go.

 

[Blain]

Because the newer blacks lack the TLER function most raids rely on. Without that the disks can drop from the raid.

When did the WD Blacks ever have the TLER feature?

 

[hennessy1]

The blacks manufactured before I believe the fall of 2009 had the ability to have that feature toggled on or off with the WD TLER utility before that was no longer made available.

 

[Emulex]

RE4's are good man. i use mine for D2D2D and now i even run vm's on them. i have to say although they are slow as dirt (compared to savvio/cheetah's) they go the distance. i'm using them well above their rated 30% duty cycle

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Too pricey. I will get two Samsungs for the RAID 0 and wait on a mirror for DATA until the summer. Meantime I will use my Green Drive (WD) for data and run constant backups to my external drives.

 

[Blain]

Too pricey.

A pair of the Samsung F3R drives are only about $180 shipped.

 

[Diogenes2]

Re ' Too pricey ' - He was referring to the WDRE4's...