Quest for storage

[Dorkenstein]

I need storage for my pc, I was thinking a Western Digital Green 2tb drive. If anyone has feedback on those drives that would be great to hear. It's pretty much for only archive/storage, not for OS or apps at all. I see that the elusive Samsung F3 (out of stock almost everywhere I looked) is really fast, that's a tempting drive because I love fast storage, but it only comes in the 500gb and 1tb variety. I'm guessing the 500gb variety is the faster of the two but 500gb is too small per drive and I don't want to fill my case to the brim with more hard drives.

So, in essence:

1) Western Digital Green 2TB for high-capacity storage, yes or get something else?

2) What could I use a Samsung Spinpoint F3 for if not for OS or storage? Apps/Games?

Thanks for any guidance.

 

[pjkenned]

1) Yes.
2) Storage?

Or just buy the best $/GB and buy multiple drives do raid 5 and have both storage and speed.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

$199 for the 2TB WD Green.

Or,

$109 for the 1.5TB WD Green.
-- But you get two of them $218, and you have 3TB. Or more importantly, you mirror them and you have 1.5TB of redudant storage for the same cost of the single 2TB.

The 1.5TB is the best gig/$ ratio. Look at this (for WD):

1TB - $84
1.5TB - $109
2TB - $199

Go twin 1.5TB and mirror them for storage; that's your best bet if you want storage with some redundancy; that way if one fails, ever, the data is safe on the mirror. Or, if that's not a worry, you get 3TB of storage for the same cost of 2TB.

Storage drives don't need to be fast. I wouldn't waste a fast Spinpoint as a storage drive. I'd use a spinpoint for OS/Games and applications (like an adobe scratch disk).

Very best,

 

[Rifter]

yeah 1.5Gb is the sweet spot right now for $/GB.

I just purchased 3 Seagate LP 1.5TB drives for $99 CDN each and have them setup in raid 5, so 3TB of data that can sustain 1 drive failing and lose no data. For $297.

 

[Blain]

3 x 1.5TB HDs in a RAID 5 array is a very effective path to follow for redundant mass storage at a reasonable cost.
Personally I would buy the HDs from different vendors, just in case of a bad lot.
It may cost a couple of bucks more, but it gives you some diversification.

 

[Rifter]

i know, everyone hates seagate now. I always have had good luck with them though. Im running alot of the 7200.12 series drives in various systems and they are all working fine, ill let you know how the LP's work out for me.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Hmm, three of those 1.5gb drives will probably fill my case with heat. I can probably remove one of my existing drives to make it a tiny bit better. Will my motherboard raid controller work ok for raid 5?

 

[Rifter]

Get 5400rpm drives if you dont need the array to be super fast, this will cut down heat/power, and try to get a case with hdd cooling, i have 2 120mm fans cooling my 6 hdd bays, if you case doesnt have intake fans in front of the hdd see if you can mod it.

As far as your mobo i dunno, what mobo do you have?

I am using linux software raid.

 

[Blain]

Will my motherboard raid controller work ok for raid 5?

Lay your hand on the MB...
Concentrate on the model number...

I will look through the expanse of time and space and conjure up your MB model number.
After that we can all take a look at your MB specs and tell you if it supports RAID 5 or not.

 

[pjkenned]

Just as a FYI... HD's generally use <10w. An i7 920 at stock speeds can use 130w. GPU's can use much much more. Less than 10 HD's aren't going to add that much heat to your case, unless you are using a uITX case.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Ok, so if these hard drives are packed in there like sardines, like 3 in the same drive cage, the heat won't do them much harm? My motherboard is a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P.

 

[VERTIGGO]

I don't know what that $200 nonsense is about, you can easily find 2TBs for ~$160: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136506

Also, these green drives are ridiculously cool. I run 4 in RAID, and even before they had any airflow, and were "packed like sardines", they never broke 39C. Of course I wouldn't recommend that as a long term temp, but a little airflow is plenty for them.

 

[MalVeauX]

Ok, so if these hard drives are packed in there like sardines, like 3 in the same drive cage, the heat won't do them much harm? My motherboard is a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P.

Heya,

HDD's are not meant to run at sub-arctic temperatures. They're designed from the ground up to work in hot conditions (just not crazy hot). Drives hovering in the 50c area is not uncommon. Hotter even. I use WD green drives and I have several of them all together. They stay in the low 40's C during load and drop down very cool when idle. I can't recommend them enough at this point.

-- Oh, and I wouldn't buy a recertified drive. Ever.

BestBuy has the WD 2TB on sale on their website right now for $170.

Very best,

 

[Dorkenstein]

Are the green drives slower RPM or slower in some other way? And is my motherboard raid controller enough? I listed my motherboard build a few posts up. Thanks.

 

[MalVeauX]

Are the green drives slower RPM or slower in some other way? And is my motherboard raid controller enough? I listed my motherboard build a few posts up. Thanks.

Heya,

Yes, the green drives are 5400rpm drives instead of 7200rpm drives. They're a bit slower than the fastest drives out there. I still use them though because they still transfer data faster than gigabit networking throughput actually allows, so there's no reason for me to need faster than that. For mass storage, I'd rather have cooler, quieter, cheaper drives. So I use 4 of these greens (1TB and 2TB flavors).

Very best,

 

[pjkenned]

Been buying a "few" drives for the new WHS build/ upgrade. Got 8x 1.5TB WD greens for $95 each, and, thus far, 2x Hitachi 2TB drives for $130 each (Fry's). I'll probably pick up 2-3 more Hitachi's tomorrow. And yes, these will all be joining the Seagate 1 & 1.5TB raid 6 farm.

Shop around for drives... remember, more spindles means more points of failure, but the opportunity to increase speed, capacity, and redundancy.

 

[Blain]

My motherboard is a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P.

And is my motherboard raid controller enough?

My Crystal Ball shows me that your MB does indeed support RAID 5 arrays.

Invest in a new case (or get creative with your current box), to make sure drives have adequate cooling.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I have an Antec Twelve Hundred full tower right now. I might look into a new case, but I think I might be okay on cooling. Thanks!

 

[Blain]

I have an Antec Twelve Hundred full tower right now.

Then why would you have said...
"Ok, so if these hard drives are packed in there like sardines, like 3 in the same drive cage, the heat won't do them much harm?

 

[TemjinGold]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2036618

BAM!

 

[Blain]

What's the "BAM" for?

 

[Dorkenstein]

Then why would you have said...
"Ok, so if these hard drives are packed in there like sardines, like 3 in the same drive cage, the heat won't do them much harm?

I said it because I already have 4 hard drives and an SSD in there.

 

[pjkenned]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2036618

BAM!

I felt compelled to pick up another two today... they sold well over 100 at the location I went to both days in the 24 hour period. Down to about a dozen drives by 1pm.

Thank goodness my WHS NEEDED to get 20TB more raw storage this week...

 

[ShawnD1]

I need storage for my pc, I was thinking a Western Digital Green 2tb drive.

My server boots from a 1TB WD Green and I do not recommend green drives. They're incredibly slow. It'll work, but seriously I would rather just pay the extra 20&#37; and get a Caviar Black.

 

[Blain]

I said it because I already have 4 hard drives and an SSD in there.

You can use cheapie 5.25" to 3.5" drive adapters and locate some of the HDs to optical drive bays.