What's the best 2Tb 3.5" SATA for NAS?

Irish_Tom

Irish_Tom

Irish_Tom

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Lo all,

I'm planning on getting a Drobo FS at the end of the month and I'm trying to gauge which HDDs to populate it with. Consider this a general NAS question rather than specifically Drobo if it helps.

I'm going to get two 2Tb drives to start off with but I can't decide what to get.

I've always been a fan of WD drives and I was very keen on the green version as it's got low power consumption.

However, I've read that there's an issue with these drives and Drobo which severely reduces their lifespan.

I understand there used to be issues with the 1.5Tb Seagate drives but I think this has been resolved now.

What would you get and why please?

Thanks.
 
Right, after further research I've decided on using the Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000.

I know that enterprise-grade drives would be more reliable in the long-term but I can't justify the ~£200 price tag.

I also know that the WD Caviar Black has slightly better performance over the Deskstar but it's an extra £30 per drive and I think the Drobo will be enough of a bottleneck to negate the speed benefits.

The reviews I've read all rate the Deskstar for reliability in RAID as well, although the Ultrastar is a bit more consistent.

Unless anyone can give me a serious reason not to, I'm going to get two of these to start me off (for the price of a single Ultrastar).
 
What about the Samsung F4EG? Decent transfer, relatively low heat and noise because its 3 platter, and can be had quite cheaply (I got mine for £65 about a month and a half ago). Performance is pretty decent too, one or two reviews I read rated it as almost a 7200RPM drive, with the benefits of a 5400RPM drive.

I know that obviously performance wont matter necessarily for NAS, but relatively low noise/power would.
 
Cheers for the suggestion Alex.

I had discounted these because of their EcoGreen status. I know the WD Green drives have a reduced lifespan because of 'header parking' or some other technical issue and I assumed it would be the same with all 'green' drives.

If this isn't the case and the F4EG are safe for RAID, these seem like serious alternative.
 
Excellent, thanks ringo.

I've been looking on the QNAP site (might get a TS-419+ rather than a Drobo) and they have the F4EG in the 'safe' list.

I am a bit concerned about the new firmware release for the F4EG though. I'm using a Macbook Pro so I don't really have any way of flashing the firmware.
 
I have a Synology DS211 - they are worth a look. I think QNAP and Syno are the two best bets. My disks are the old firmware I believe. I might have to update at some point though.
 
jamesfreddie said:
Cavair Green. Energy efficent. Low heat.
Click to expand...

As I said in the OP, the WD Caviar Green are renowned for dying extremely quickly (less than a year) when used in NAS-type devices. I would usually go with WD drives but in this instance it's just not a sensible buy.

The F4EG is still top of my list at the moment but I still have my concerns about the firmware. I wonder if there's any way of guaranteeing the new firmware is installed depending on where/when I buy them.

How quickly should one expect the new firmware to make it onto the market?
 
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