Best 2TB SATA drives for RAID5?

[dchristey]

Hi all, I recently purchased a NETGEAR ReadyNas NV+ (Specifications) as I managed to get a fantastic deal.

My plan is to have a RAID5 setup with 4 x 2TB hard drives, leaving me with approximately 6TB of storage, could anyone give me any advice on what the best 2TB SATA drive would be for this solution? or any specs worth looking out for on the HDD's?

I have had a quick peak at the Hardware Compatibility list but I am not sure how up to date this is - http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=82

Thanks in advance.

 

[Surveyor]

I have two of the WD Caviar Green WD20EARS. I've had no problems with them and they're on the compatability list.

The new Samsung F4's look good but they're not on the list.

 

[dchristey]

I have two of the WD Caviar Green WD20EARS. I've had no problems with them and they're on the compatability list.

The new Samsung F4's look good but they're not on the list.

Thanks for the quick response! Do you see any speed issues with the WD Caviar Green WD20EARS having a low spin speed and would I notice a difference if I was to get a Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K2000 which has 7200RPM?

Also with RAID5 does the buffer size of the HDD come into play?

 

[Surveyor]

I use the WD drives as external storage over eSata. I've not measured the speed but they seem fine.

A 7200RPM drive will be "faster" but I doubt it will be significantly noticeable.

Buffer size will come into play however you use the disks but again I don't think we're talking a massive difference between say 32MB and 64MB.

7200RPM drives run hotter and some reviews say the Hitatchi drives as particularly noisy.

I would have thought that with 4 drives in a relatively small box (does it have any cooling?) the cooler running 5400RPM drives might be better for longevity.

 

[Surveyor]

Note the following from the Netgear website.

Recently, Western Digital has started releasing hard disks utilizing 4K sectors, and other disk manufacturers will be doing the same in the near future. The ReadyNAS will work with these 4K sector drives, however, we will not put these drives in the compatibility list due to the fact that partitions on the ReadyNAS are not 4K sector aligned, and thus write performance can suffer because of that. Rest assure that we are in the process of adding proper support for the 4K sector drives and will release firmware updates for all of our ReadyNAS systems to address this. However, because changes like this requires proper level of testing, we will take as long as necessary to ensure your data is not compromised.

In the meantime, please note that WD has released the 4K sector drives under the same base models as the 512-byte sector drives. For instance, the WD20EADS drive are available in both 512-byte and 4K sectors. You will need to look carefully at the notes in the compatibility list where we specifically state the full model number, include the suffix after the dash “-”. In the case of WD20EADS, we will put in the notes that the model that passed qual is WD20EADS-00R6B0. This is the 512-byte model. Whenever a suffix note is mentioned, refrain from using drives with a different suffix. We advise that if you cannot verify the suffix from the disk retailer, either avoid purchasing the drive(s) from there or ensure that the retailer has a quick return or exchange policy.

UPDATE (July 7, 2010): x86-based ReadyNAS now fully supports 4K sector drives with RAIDiator firmware 4.2.12+. See RAIDiator 4.2.12 Release Notes.

Added support for 4K sector drives. If you have already installed 4K sector drives with 4.2.11 or earlier, you can replace each disk one by one, allowing it to complete resync, and all your disks will be 4K aligned, and your performance should be on par with similar 512-byte sector drives.

 

[dchristey]

I would have thought that with 4 drives in a relatively small box (does it have any cooling?) the cooler running 5400RPM drives might be better for longevity.

Yeah it has an inbuilt 92mm fan, think I have a spare aftermarket laying round somewhere but I doubt that will make a lot of difference - maybe on the noise front - but I plan to store it out of ears reach anyways.

 

[dchristey]

Note the following from the Netgear website.

Recently, Western Digital has started releasing hard disks utilizing 4K sectors, and other disk manufacturers will be doing the same in the near future. The ReadyNAS will work with these 4K sector drives, however, we will not put these drives in the compatibility list due to the fact that partitions on the ReadyNAS are not 4K sector aligned, and thus write performance can suffer because of that. Rest assure that we are in the process of adding proper support for the 4K sector drives and will release firmware updates for all of our ReadyNAS systems to address this. However, because changes like this requires proper level of testing, we will take as long as necessary to ensure your data is not compromised.

In the meantime, please note that WD has released the 4K sector drives under the same base models as the 512-byte sector drives. For instance, the WD20EADS drive are available in both 512-byte and 4K sectors. You will need to look carefully at the notes in the compatibility list where we specifically state the full model number, include the suffix after the dash “-”. In the case of WD20EADS, we will put in the notes that the model that passed qual is WD20EADS-00R6B0. This is the 512-byte model. Whenever a suffix note is mentioned, refrain from using drives with a different suffix. We advise that if you cannot verify the suffix from the disk retailer, either avoid purchasing the drive(s) from there or ensure that the retailer has a quick return or exchange policy.

UPDATE (July 7, 2010): x86-based ReadyNAS now fully supports 4K sector drives with RAIDiator firmware 4.2.12+. See RAIDiator 4.2.12 Release Notes.

Added support for 4K sector drives. If you have already installed 4K sector drives with 4.2.11 or earlier, you can replace each disk one by one, allowing it to complete resync, and all your disks will be 4K aligned, and your performance should be on par with similar 512-byte sector drives.

Thanks for that, I failed to spot that, looks like I should be OK though as long as I update Firmware's.

 

[Caustic]

I don't know if people are still looking at this topic but ...

It is worth noting that if you are using an advanced format drive (4k sectors) and an NV+ you must install the latest beta firmware (currently 4.1.7 T49). The NV+ is sparc based NOT x86 based, so that post doesn't quite apply.

However, I am using a WD20EARS drive in my NV+ with no issue.