frny

I have been using version 14 of the BIOS for the past ~3 years. Just saw that the current to use is P19 any reason why I should upgrade?

cainer, still not decided yet even though the samsung will prob be my choice. I currently own 4x2TB F4s, 2x2TB F3s, 1x1.5TB F3? (all 5400 rpm) and 2x1tb f3s (7200 rpm). I had one 1.5TB fail (just died one day within the 1st year of ownership, thankfully was in raid1 so no data loss) the firmware rev to apply to the F4 2tB is a real pain though. as you are most likely aware, Samsung sold their drive division so we'll eventually have to find another vendor at some point in the future but for now I believe they are the best choice. FYI, stay clear of the 2TB F3s (not even sure if they are still sold), they are noisy and vibrate a lot more than the 2TB F4s.

I was keeping clear of the 3TB because I thought that on top of unraid, I also needed a special bios, mb, and disk controller. I haven't bough any of these core components so I could go that route but I am concerned that 3TB disks might add too much aggravation.

I am planning a new server build with 10 to 20 2TB drives. I now need to choose which model to go with. I already have 4 samsungs and like them (outside of the firmware debacle). I have no experience with Hitachi and do not like Seagate (for a lot of reasons - too many to type here) reliability and noise are most important - I do not care about performance. Samsung: noise is ok, the ones I have are still going after 6 months (even though one of my 1TB samsung died after 1 year), performance is ok - big minus is warranty and support now that the HD business was sold. wd: I heard that it is the best noise wise so I would love to hear how they are vs the samsung / I do not like the parking issue and did not hear too many good things about their reliability. any other thoughts? thanks