1TB or 2x500Gb?

RichieM · 13 Feb 2008 at 11:04

I can't be arsed to do the math, but do you get more space from a 1TB drive or 2 500Gb drives?

fobose · 13 Feb 2008 at 11:18

I would have thought it was the same? Get 1 TB drive unless you want to RAID 1 then get 2 500GBs.

Eddietop · 13 Feb 2008 at 12:24

you will prob save money getting the 2x 500g.

semi-pro waster · 13 Feb 2008 at 12:49

fobose said:
I would have thought it was the same? Get 1 TB drive unless you want to RAID 1 then get 2 500GBs.

If you want the hard drives for the space then Raid1 is the wrong option since it just mirrors the drives to give you approx 500gb space (more like 465 after formatting), Raid0 is striping.

In both cases the drives will almost certainly be judged by the manufacturers as taking 1000MiB as 1GiB(to use correct terminology) rather than the 1024MiB that everyone else uses. So the space provided should be exactly the same or near enough as makes no odds, as mentioned though the two drives will probably be cheaper than one large one.

fobose · 13 Feb 2008 at 13:28

Physical space in cases are usually a problem, thats why I said to get the 1TB drive, I think it works out around £20-30 more expensive than 2 500GB's (if getting seagates). I think RAID 1 should always be considered, redundency saves a lot of hassle, however very costly with two 1TB drives

rpstewart · 14 Feb 2008 at 08:55

fobose said:
I think RAID 1 should always be considered, redundency saves a lot of hassle

I'd tend to disagree with that. RAID1, in a domestic situation, provides one benefit and one benefit only - the ability to keep operating in the event of a single disk failure. Unless you spend a lot of money on a controller card then there is no performance benefit and in my experience a performance degredation over a single drive. You still need a backup anyway because you have no protection against accidental or malicious deletions, data corruption or the less obvious fire, flood and theft risks.

fobose said:
Physical space in cases are usually a problem

Strokes PC343B - 11 HDDs mounted, space for 18 more

fobose · 14 Feb 2008 at 13:41

rpstewart said:
Strokes PC343B - 11 HDDs mounted, space for 18 more

:| I can fit 7 in my akasa mirage, 9 with the "extra" caddy but with the CPU cooler I have I cant use it. I could put some 3.5" -> 5.25" bay convertors in behind my scythe kama bay though.

Finally purchased a 2.5" 320GB WD HDD with a icybox for external backup/extra storage. One has to with the free delivery and this week only on the HDD :rolleyes:

frankmcg · 26 Feb 2008 at 09:50

How are getting on with the icybox and the WD drive? I'm having a problem with the AAK5000 that I put in mine that the drive will never spin down.

Seems to be a common problem and spent ages on the german nas4200.org forums but trying to read everything through google translator is doing my head in!

HighlandeR · 26 Feb 2008 at 17:00

Might as well go for the 1TB less heat/noise factor but yeah would be saving 20-30 quid going 2x500gig.

But depending on what files and downloads u might do or simply if u want it long term go for the 1TB.

Am thinking of just getting 2X1TB and be done with it

fobose · 26 Feb 2008 at 17:19

frankmcg said:
How are getting on with the icybox and the WD drive?

Good, not had any problems using e-sata, just acts like a normal hard drive. I have to use a program called "hot swap" (recommended by rpstewart) to disconnect the drive due to (even though I am running AHCI mode) there being no "safely remove hardware" option, this little app just acts like it and even has the same icon but a red arrow instead of a green one.

I also get about 52Mb/s average on HD tune, which is pretty darn good for a 5200rpm drive! Will try usb on my laptop later.