New HDDs - so many options!

[Raduque]

I'm pretty lost now, lol. Been a while since I bought HDDs - as in actual spinners - and there's half a million options.

Right now I have a mixture of 2, 3 and 4 tb HDDs, internal and external, in my file server. A total of around 18tb. I'm looking to get rid of the power-wasteful external drives and replace them all with internal drives.

But the choices! Reds, Blues, Purples, Wolves, Barracudas, Hawks, N300, X300, Deskstar.

My server runs 24/7 and is used for video transcoding and streaming and file backups and storage. I need at least 18-20tb, so what would be my best options here?

Thanks!

 

[13Gigatons]

If your going to raid them then the WD reds are pretty good for NAS server but they are slow on their own. Otherwise I would look at faster drives such as the WD black or other performance drives.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-eas...-3-0-hard-drive-black/5792401.p?skuId=5792401
These are suppose to be WD RED drives. Guys buy them and then crack them open.

 

[Raduque]

Not gonna RAID them. I use WHS2011 and Stablebit Drivepool.

Wow those WD 8tb drives are cheap! Why are external drives cheaper than internal drives?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Not gonna RAID them. I use WHS2011 and Stablebit Drivepool.

Wow those WD 8tb drives are cheap! Why are external drives cheaper than internal drives?

Economics. (Bulk purchases, etc.)

And because mostly it's DIYers and Enthusiasts that buy internals at retail, so we gotta pay the price.

Anyway, basically it's Seagate, WD, and Toshiba, and they sell different drives for each task. (NAS, Video Camera systems, backup, primary storage use.) So you really just have a choice between WD's NAS drives (Red), Seagate's NAS drives, and Toshiba's NAS drives. It's not all that scary.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Also using WHS-2011 and Stablebit Drivepool. Up to this point, my storage needs were more modest than the OP's, and I'd rebuilt the server in 2014 with 4x 2TB Seagate NAS drives.

Did anyone mention Hitachi? Oh. That's now "HGST." I see some 6 and 8TB Ultrastar He8 models. I'm still sitting on my server-rebuild project, almost ready for OS installation. Windows 2012 R2 Essentials will replace WHS-'11, and I'll continue using Stablebit. So I should be able to simply migrate my storage pool of four drives to the new hardware and Stablebit will pick up the pool without a hitch.

Raduque -- how much longer will you continue using WHS 2011?

 

[EXCellR8]

buying 3.5" mechanical hard drives is really rather simple. just filter by this criteria:

usage
capacity
interface
spin speed
cache size
brand

that will narrow it down to just a handful, usually.

 

[Raduque]

Raduque -- how much longer will you continue using WHS 2011?

As long as I can, lol.

When it stops working, I'll probably look at migrating to something based on Linux, as long as I can use PLEX and a drive pool and easily share it to Windows desktop machines.

That was my main reason for picking WHS2011 - ease of network sharing with Windows. I've always had problems getting Linux to network with Windows.

 

[Elixer]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-eas...-3-0-hard-drive-black/5792401.p?skuId=5792401
These are suppose to be WD RED drives. Guys buy them and then crack them open.

Most are reds, some are whites.

The white ones need the 3.3V volt "fix" / a PSU that supports the latest SATA standards.
It isn't that difficult though.