Used SAS Hard drives with best performance per dollar?

[cbn]

One thing I like about using refurb workstations (I own two) is the ability to use cheap Server pull CPUs and RAM in them.

So I got to thinking about maybe (eventually) using Server pull SAS hard drives as well.

So which 15,000 rpm or 10,000 rpm models are the best deal these days? How do the prices compare to used Raptors (as a reference point) and new modern SATA consumer hard drives?

Are used SAS hard drives a good deal in the same way that used E5 Xeons and used ECC RDIMMs are compared to their consumer counterparts?

P.S. The Dell Precision T3600 (which I don't own yet) comes with only two enabled SATA ports (on the C602 chipset)* from the factory (yeah I know)....... but some shipped with a PERC H310 or PERC H710 card (see specs here) allowing for SAS drives to be used (Eg, the machine used in the Dell Precision T3600 Anandtech review had 2x Samsung HD256GM 256GB 10K-RPM SAS HDDs in RAID 0).

*Dell Precision T3610 (which uses E5 v2 Xeons) comes with six enabled SATA ports on the C602 chipset.

 

[XavierMace]

No. Just no.

They are hot, loud drives, and they aren't that cheap. $30 for a 300Gb 10k or $60 for a 600Gb 10k (so $0.10/gb). So, yeah, they're cheaper than an SSD which would be exponentially faster. But that's quite a bit more expensive than 7200rpm SATA drives ($0.03/gb). Plus, the drives are likely 4+ years old. Admittedly they're enterprise class drives, but still 4 years is 4 years.

 

[cbn]

They are hot, loud drives, and they aren't that cheap. $30 for a 300Gb 10k or $60 for a 600Gb 10k (so $0.10/gb). So, yeah, they're cheaper than an SSD which would be exponentially faster. But that's quite a bit more expensive than 7200rpm SATA drives ($0.03/gb).

I did find a Seagate Savvio 300GB 15,000 rpm drive for $16 free shipping (Guaranteed against DOA with 30 day money back).

Here is the picture from the ebay listing (It is 2.5" form factor):

Ebay seller has 100% rating from 555 feedbacks.

Here is a review dated March 24. 2014 . Specs from manufacturer here.

So this pricing appears to be better than average for what appears to be one of the more recent SAS models. (Seller does only have one drive though).

 

[XavierMace]

OK? Ignoring the fact I'd never buy a refurb drive, it's still more than a SATA drive $/gb. If you can get by with 300Gb or less, just get an SSD. Plus as you said, he only has one.

 

[cbn]

OK? Ignoring the fact I'd never buy a refurb drive, it's still more than a SATA drive $/gb. If you can get by with 300Gb or less, just get an SSD. Plus as you said, he only has one.

There is also a ebay seller (100% rating from 5155 feedbacks) who has some 450GB Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 (ST3450857SS) drives for $15 (OBO) free shipping. These are older 3.5" form factor drives, but still get 200 MB/s sequential transfer.

P.S. I would be thinking of RAID-0 for OS with a separate partition (for anything remotely important) which would be mirrored*. That way if one drive dies I only lose what was in the RAID-0 part.

*Assuming this is possible with a Dell H310 card (or Windows 10 software RAID).

.

 

[XavierMace]

So basically you weren't really asking if anybody thought it was a good deal, you just wanted people to tell you to buy them?

And no, you wouldn't be able to do that RAID setup with the PERC as it's a hardware RAID controller. You'd either have to reflash it an HBA (if possible on that particular card) or create a pair of single drive RAID0 arrays, then do everything with software RAID. Which defeats the purpose of having a hardware RAID card.

 

[cbn]

So basically you weren't really asking if anybody thought it was a good deal, you just wanted people to tell you to buy them?

No, that is not what I meant.

What I meant is if I bought two SAS drives (of any type) I would want to run them in RAID-0 and with a partition that is mirrored. (Intel Matrix RAID can do this, for example).

 

[XavierMace]

And hardware RAID controllers cannot. At least not any I've seen. The drive can only be a part of one array.

 

[cbn]

As a point of reference a while back I bought two used Western Digital WD5000AZLX 3.5" 7200 rpm SATA drives (32MB cache, 1TB 3.5" platter short stroked to 500GB, matching date with each drive having only 16 power on hours each) for $22 shipped. This for a project (Dell Precision T3500 Workstation) discussed in this thread. (Conclusion: the performance was really good)

I reckon the Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 450GB 3.5" SAS drives would probably get around the same Sequential Read and write......but out of curiosity I do wonder about how different the IOPS would be?

3.5" 7200 rpm 1TB platters (short stroked to 500GB) vs. 2.5"* 15,000 rpm 150GB platters? Which wins?

*Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 uses an undersize platter (it must be 2.5" right?) in a 3.5" chassis. (See picture below).

 

[XavierMace]

As a point of reference a while back I bought two used Western Digital WD5000AZLX 3.5" 7200 rpm SATA drives (32MB cache, 1TB 3.5" platter short stroked to 500GB, matching date with each drive having only 16 power on hours each) for $22 shipped. This for a project (Dell Precision T3500 Workstation) discussed in this thread. (Conclusion: the performance was really good)

I guess that depends what your point of reference is. Dave tried to explain that to you in that thread but you basically ignored him too.

 

[cbn]

I guess that depends what your point of reference is. Dave tried to explain that to you in that thread but you basically ignored him too.

Dave recommended a 240GB SSD as well.....is that what you are referring to?

But as I mentioned to him here and here it was over budget and the capacity too small for the parameters I set in the opening post. (ie, Game library in the range of 200GB to 400GB)

Or are you referring to his comments on the multi-tasking? I actually did buy the drives and did the testing (AV running Office and web open) he recommended. The drives worked well.

In any event, with 2 x WD5000AZLX in RAID-0 working so well I do wonder how 2 x Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 450GB in RAID-0 would stack up?

Short stroked higher density 3.5" platter @ 7200rpm (with 32MB cache) vs. small diameter lower density platter @ 15,000 rpm (with 16MB cache)....what works better for IOPs? For the multi-tasking Dave recommended? Could the 15,000 rpm drive actually be worse?