Seagate Ironwolf 6TB NAS drive

[Fir]

Are these trustworthy for NAS use?
I want to try 8 of them in a QNAP box.
Don't feel like getting burned (by Seagate) again!
Even though will be running RAID6, it makes me a bit nervous.
At $189 a pop it seems like a decent price.

I've read that Toshiba X300 (desktop) drives are cheaper option but everywhere I read says I should use NAS drives due to firmware being RAID aware, etc. It would probably take a week to back up the data AFTER it's copied over and losing it is worrisome. Even having the original on the aging server the downtime would be a PIA.

 

[Lordhumungus]

Personally I will never trust Seagate for any long term storage. I've just had too many bad experiences with them. They also usually seem to come out last in reliability in the long term tests that I've seen, particularly Backblaze, which I feel is most relevant to my use of big storage drives.

What I would do (and have done) however is buy these, shuck, and profit. If you do go this route, make sure to read through the thread to understand the particulars about drive models etc (so you don't end up with something you can't use). I bought 12 from BB and all were 256MB Cache Thailand Red Drives, but I think that was far enough back that there were only 2 options (128MB Chinese Red being the other).

 

[Fir]

Thanks, I didn't realize they were putting those NAS drives in those enclosures and "shucking" looks easy enough. Stupid BB site won't let me order more than two online. I wonder if I can just go the store and toss 8 of them in a cart??? $160 for 8TB of NAS storage is a great deal!

 

[Lordhumungus]

At the time I purchased them, I bought all 12 at once in store (because I wanted to hand pick the made in Thailand models) and they didn't care.

I will STRESS once more to read and understand the situation on the drive models (particularly the 3.3v issue that can occur with some models) BEFORE you purchase so you don't end up with extra headaches. As long as you are careful and understand what you are buying it's the way to go IMO.

 

[Fir]

Yes I read the ones from Thailand assure a Red NAS drive with 256MB cache.
The 3.3V issue is what exactly? These are going into a NAS with a backplane.

 

[aigomorla]

note u lose warrenty on said drive the moment you "shuck".

 

[esquared]

Shucking the drives causes loss of warranty.

Do not discuss ways of fraudulently "fixing" these shucked drives so they can be RMAd for service.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[Fir]

Ah shucks, not trying to rip off anyone here!

So what I finally decided to do here is go with eight 10TB Ironwolfs. The helium ones. Microcenter had them for $309 each with no limit.

I upgraded the CPU in the QNAP TVS-871 to an i7 4790K and ram to 16GB. The reason for this is because I plan to run a virtual machine or two.

Anyway, the initialize is nearly complete on the 8 drives configured in RAID6.

Even though going the WD route would have saved a lot of money, the sweetness of the savings turns bitter real fast when a drive fails and there's no RMA. And testing the drives to see if there's an issue, etc.

 

[aigomorla]

make sure you verify RMA dates on website.

Seagate, one of the reasons i hate them with a passion is that the start of your warrenty begins on date the drive was made and not purchased like WD, HGST, and even Toshiba.

So that means if your Iron wolf which were on sale, were sitting in the locker for a year, you just lost a year off your warrenty.

 

[Fir]

I'm good, all drives were manufactured in December 2017.
I do miss 5 year warranties on Cheetahs.
Hopefully the Wolf can have a legacy the Cheetah did. Wishful thinking perhaps.
The drives do seem light. Must be the helium they filled them with!