Best array drives out of these three.

RimBlock · 27 Dec 2010 at 07:54

Hi,

I am looking at a 4-6 drive array. No redundancy is needed as the data is mainly static and will be backed up to another (set of) drive(s) anyway.

Raid0 - software based via Linux

Samsung 1TB 7200 F3 eco green
Seagate 1TB 7200
WD 1TB 7200 Blue

The Samsung is the cheapest by $15 per drive but the Seagate and WD are both about the same price. Would like to steer clear of 4k sector drives if possible.

Thanks
RB

droyden · 28 Dec 2010 at 11:22

For storage or performance?

jrwagh333 · 28 Dec 2010 at 15:26

Please can I ask the reason that you want to avoid 4K?

The Halk · 28 Dec 2010 at 15:59

All are unsuitable for a 4-6 drive array. You will regret it later as the array will fail.

jrwagh333 · 28 Dec 2010 at 19:43

The Halk said:
All are unsuitable for a 4-6 drive array. You will regret it later as the array will fail.

Be a good idea if you said why

The Halk · 28 Dec 2010 at 20:05

They'll drop out of the array causing rebuilds. They aren't designed for RAID so I'd recommend against even a 2 drive array. 4-6 is asking for trouble.

You need to use drives that are designed to be used in RAID arrays.

rpstewart · 28 Dec 2010 at 23:09

I've had two 8 disk arrays and at least four different 2 disk arrays over the years all using standard drives only. Never had a disk drop out of the array unless it's died full stop.

Justintime · 28 Dec 2010 at 23:51

Same with my own stuff. Had a few issues with WD RE drives dropping out!

Zarf · 29 Dec 2010 at 00:52

rpstewart said:
I've had two 8 disk arrays and at least four different 2 disk arrays over the years all using standard drives only. Never had a disk drop out of the array unless it's died full stop.

My 8drive Samsung F1 RAID5 array has been fine for almost 3 years now. Had a couple of deaths over the years but it's always rebuilt fine.
Certainly no random drop outs.

RimBlock · 29 Dec 2010 at 01:56

As some people will be aware, I am building a NAS box.

It is for home and completely over powered but it is what it is now so I will finish it and find other uses for it.

I have 5*WD CG 1.5TB drives. They are advanced format 4K drives and CentOS 5.5 does not natively support them (need to do a bit of hacking around to try and get them partitioned and formatted in order to not loose a large chunk of performance). Even with Fedora 14 installed I am feeling they are a bit slow and have concerns about the disk parking cycles highlighted all over the internet with these drives and arrays.

To this end I am exploring other drives to use in the consumer arena rather than moving to enterprise drives.

The data will be mostly static (movie rips, music, photos) and will be backed up nightly to 2TB WD Green drives.

I am now looking at possibly just building a 4TB array. I will stick with Raid0 as I have nightly backups and I can live with a few days downtime if it all goes pear shaped. The server will be doing some other processing so I would like a fast 'working area' away from the array.

I have two LSI 1068e controllers (only raid0 or raid1) which along with the motherboard SATA ports will connect all 20 hotswap bays of my Norco RPC-4120 server case.

Current thoughts are;
WD Scorpio Black 320TB (boot)
WD Scorpio Black 320TB (working)
(the case has mounting places fro 2*2.5" drives as well as the hot swap bays).

4 WD Black 1TB drives (data)

I am favouring WD at the moment as I have used their RMA process here in Singapore and it doesn't require me to keep a receipt and is pretty easy.

Using another retailers prices who stock all the drives, the cost comes to;
Scorpio drives: 45*2 = 90
Black 1TB drives: 64*4 = 256
Total = 346

I would love any suggestions of a better set-up for the same goals and same approx price.

I will be likely adding drives as the needs arise and moving from my 1TB archive of ripped AVI converted movies to full ripped ISO files.

Thanks for any suggestions
RB