New Hitachi 3 TB, 5400 RPM Drive - $129.99!!!


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What it comes down to in the short run is you will need to purchase two to see any benefit. One for parity and one for data.

 

I have sketched out 3 scenarios, all assuming a 2TB parity drive is in use (feel free to add your own your own or expand them to purchasing more than 2 3TB disks):

 

I disagree because you left out one simple common scenario.

 

You need a new disc and so buy the largest available to *replace* your parity drive.  The old parity drive is then used as your new disc.

 

You see the benefit by continuing to swap in larger and larger drives in the system over time *without* buying two at a time.

 

This makes a lot of sense to me.

 

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What it comes down to in the short run is you will need to purchase two to see any benefit. One for parity and one for data.

 

I have sketched out 3 scenarios, all assuming a 2TB parity drive is in use (feel free to add your own your own or expand them to purchasing more than 2 3TB disks):

 

I disagree because you left out one simple common scenario.

 

You need a new disc and so buy the largest available to *replace* your parity drive.  The old parity drive is then used as your new disc.

 

You see the benefit by continuing to swap in larger and larger drives in the system over time *without* buying two at a time.

 

This makes a lot of sense to me.

 

 

And it does make a lot of sense - if the price is reasonable.

 

Try and draw up a scenario where You would get an economic benefit either now or somewhere down the line after subsequent hd purchases. For now with just purchasing one drive, you're paying double the price of a 2TB drive and getting... 2TB.

 

I think the thing is the 2TB drives have come down further than top-of-the-line capacity has ever been at.

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As i said, I see how some people could be forced into 3TB now - but I looked up your rig from your signature and if the description is still accurate, I really don't understand why you would bother. I would rather invest in more SATA ports (and PSU if needed), even if it means bolting drives directly to chassis parts  :)  Or just upgrade the 500GB drives with 2TB's. But to each his own!

 

I do think You would be hard pressed to set up a favorable economic calculation on the 3TB drives, even with the above 69$ prices the 2TB's go for these days (I just paid 75 CDN plus shipping). Don't feel like you have to - I'm just say'n.

 

Yikes!  That was my server from 2008!  I've come a long way baby.  That server is now my backup server, and contains only 1T+ drives.

 

This is my new server.  It is about 1/2 full of 2T and 3T drives.

 

height=400http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/2705/dsc1572d.jpg[/img]

 

I understand where you are coming from.  You are right, the first drive of the next larger size becomes your "parity cost".  This is the cost of unRAID redundancy.  The prior investment is released and the capacity of your old parity available for use as data.  If you don't have at least 2 unRAID disks of the larger size, the add'l investment in parity is "wasted" until you add another large drive.

 

(There is a way, however, to use the full capacity of the next larger drive without having to buy two of them, and still have parity protection.  Stay tuned ...)

 

Ok - I will try to layout a scenario where investing in 3T drives makes sense now.

 

I have a case and motherboard that can handle no more than 15 drives.  One is parity, one is cache, rest are available to be data (13 possible data disks).

 

I currently have 11 data drives - 2 1T drives and 9 2T drives = 20T, and 2 empty slots.  I have no where near enough space and need to expand my array to hold the rips of Uncle Marty's extensive DVD/BluRay collection of horror movies from the 20s to today that I just inherited.  I need 4-5T.  (Poor Uncle Marty was found sliced and diced in his own recliner.  Freddy Krueger still at large :D)

 

Scenario #1 - I buy 3 2T drives at $75 each, removing one of my 1T drives.  Total cost = $225.  I now have 5T more of usable space.  A year later I am out of space again and want to add space.  3T drives now cost $89, and 2T drives are $69.  With no benefit of going larger, I go with the a 2T drive to replace my last 1T drive.  Total cost = $299.  Total increased capacity = 6T.  Cost per T $49.83.

 

Scenario #2 - I buy 2 3T drives at $129 each now.  Total cost $258.00.  I now have the 5T (only 4.2T now, but 5T soon) I need for the horror movies.  A year later I buy another 3T drive at $89 to replace one of my 1T drives.  Total cost = $347.  Total increased capacity = 7T.  Cost per T = $49.57.  

 

Under scenario 1, if I need to expand further, I have to start pulling out 2T drives to replace with 3T (or maybe 4T) drives.  That will really hurt becuase the 2Ts are no where near their end of life.  What to do?  I am now considering a way to expand my array beyond 15 drives.  New case, new motherboard, new controller, $$$s.  :(

 

Under scenario 2, I still have a 1T drive in the array that can be upgraded to 3T (or maybe 4T) to gain 2T more disk space.  That's 3T bigger than the size I reached under scenario 1.  Maybe that gives me another 1-2 years, by which time 4/5/6T drives are available to upgrade some of my 2T drives.  Doesn't hurt as bad after getting several years use out of the 2T drives.  Maybe I should have starting buying the 3T drives even earlier. ;)

 

Hope that makes sense and demonstrates my point.  Larger drives extend the lifespan of your system AND disks so you benefit from them longer, and help avoid tendency to ever-expand the number of disks in an array.

 

BTW, to be able to use the full capacity of the next higher drive size, without having to buy two of them, use a RAID card (like the ARC-1200) in a RAID-0 configuration.  It will take the capacities of 2 disks, add them together, and make it look to unRAID like one physical disk. It'll be lightning fast too. :)

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This is my new server.  It is about 1/2 full of 2T and 3T drives.

I love it. Are those supermicros 5in3's in that server?

 

Yep, 4x SuperMicro CSE-M35T-1B (2 from old server and 2 new ones).  Was a bit of a struggle, but I'm very happy with the compactness, expandability, easy of mainteance, and aesthetics of this build.

 

Check out THIS POST for more info and pictures.  One day I'll get my UCD post completed including some of the info we exchanged in PMs about the Areca ARC-1200.

 

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Ok - I will try to layout a scenario where investing in 3T drives makes sense now.

 

I have a case and motherboard that can handle no more than 15 drives.  One is parity, one is cache, rest are available to be data (13 possible data disks).

 

I currently have 11 data drives - 2 1T drives and 9 2T drives = 20T, and 2 empty slots.  I have no where near enough space and need to expand my array to hold the rips of Uncle Marty's extensive DVD/BluRay collection of horror movies from the 20s to today that I just inherited.  I need 4-5T.  (Poor Uncle Marty was found sliced and diced in his own recliner.  Freddy Krueger still at large :D)

 

Funny, that happened to me too a while ago! Exact same thing. Took forever to rip all those discs.

 

Scenario #1 - I buy 3 2T drives at $75 each, removing one of my 1T drives.  Total cost = $225.  I now have 5T more of usable space.  A year later I am out of space again and want to add space.  3T drives now cost $89, and 2T drives are $69.  With no benefit of going larger, I go with the a 2T drive to replace my last 1T drive.  Total cost = $299.  Total increased capacity = 6T.  Cost per T $49.83.

 

Scenario #2 - I buy 2 3T drives at $129 each now.  Total cost $258.00.  I now have the 5T (only 4.2T now, but 5T soon) I need for the horror movies.  A year later I buy another 3T drive at $89 to replace one of my 1T drives.  Total cost = $347.  Total increased capacity = 7T.  Cost per T = $49.57.  

 

Under scenario 1, if I need to expand further, I have to start pulling out 2T drives to replace with 3T (or maybe 4T) drives.  That will really hurt becuase the 2Ts are no where near their end of life.  What to do?  I am now considering a way to expand my array beyond 15 drives.  New case, new motherboard, new controller, $$$s.  :(

 

Under scenario 2, I still have a 1T drive in the array that can be upgraded to 3T (or maybe 4T) to gain 2T more disk space.  That's 3T bigger than the size I reached under scenario 1.  Maybe that gives me another 1-2 years, by which time 4/5/6T drives are available to upgrade some of my 2T drives.  Doesn't hurt as bad after getting several years use out of the 2T drives.  Maybe I should have starting buying the 3T drives even earlier. ;)

 

Hope that makes sense and demonstrates my point.  Larger drives extend the lifespan of your system AND disks so you benefit from them longer, and help avoid tendency to ever-expand the number of disks in an array.

 

Since nobody has asked me to shut up, I'll play along a bit more. All in good humor, of course.

 

My first proposed route for the particular case described, let's call it scenario #3

 

Scenario 3  - Purchase 2 2TB drives now to fill up your two empty slots, getting you 4TB of usable storage right now. Cost so far $150. A year later when 3TB discs reportedly cost 129, buy two of those to replace your two 1T discs, getting you 3TB more for another 178. All in all over the next year 7TB usable storage for $328 or 46.9$/TB

 

That is more economic than either of your scenarios, and it DOES include 3TB discs (Graciously accepts the audience's applause)  :-)

 

The thing is, like your own scenario 2, after that point you'll be replacing 2TB discs with 3TB's and it will become less economical, as the next TB you want to add will cost you whatever the cost of a 3TB drive is at that time. So if they cost 89, you will be expanding at $89/TB from there. And I will stand down from speculating what 3TB drives will cost more than a year from now.

 

Since you have already brought out the crystal ball, I will bring out mine as well. I see 4TB drives at 129 a year from now. So, the even more future proof advice would be..

 

Scenario 4  - Purchase 2 2TB drives now to fill up your two empty slots, getting you 4TB of usable storage right now. Cost so far $150. A year later when 4TB discs cost 129, buy two of those to replace your two 1T discs, getting you 4TB more for another 258. All in all over the next year 8TB usable storage for 51$/TB.

 

Only a dollar more per TB than your proposal, and it includes conquering the 4TB upgrade barrier. As such, if you wanted more, you would be replacing 2TB's with 4TB at 64.5 $/TB, plus it would be more future proof.

 

The only snag that I can see is that you'll only get 4TB for the first year as opposed to 5TB in your proposals. I wouldn't worry about it - more than 20% of my uncle's movies turned out to be crap anyways... :-)

 

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Since nobody has asked me to shut up, I'll play along a bit more. All in good humor, of course.

 

My first proposed route for the particular case described, let's call it scenario #3

 

Scenario 3  - Purchase 2 2TB drives now to fill up your two empty slots, getting you 4TB of usable storage right now. Cost so far $150. A year later when 3TB discs reportedly cost 129, buy two of those to replace your two 1T discs, getting you 3TB more for another 178. All in all over the next year 7TB usable storage for $328 or 46.9$/TB

 

That is more economic than either of your scenarios, and it DOES include 3TB discs (Graciously accepts the audience's applause)  :-)

 

The thing is, like your own scenario 2, after that point you'll be replacing 2TB discs with 3TB's and it will become less economical, as the next TB you want to add will cost you whatever the cost of a 3TB drive is at that time. So if they cost 89, you will be expanding at $89/TB from there. And I will stand down from speculating what 3TB drives will cost more than a year from now.

 

Since you have already brought out the crystal ball, I will bring out mine as well. I see 4TB drives at 129 a year from now. So, the even more future proof advice would be..

 

Scenario 4  - Purchase 2 2TB drives now to fill up your two empty slots, getting you 4TB of usable storage right now. Cost so far $150. A year later when 4TB discs cost 129, buy two of those to replace your two 1T discs, getting you 4TB more for another 258. All in all over the next year 8TB usable storage for 51$/TB.

 

Only a dollar more per TB than your proposal, and it includes conquering the 4TB upgrade barrier. As such, if you wanted more, you would be replacing 2TB's with 4TB at 64.5 $/TB, plus it would be more future proof.

 

The only snag that I can see is that you'll only get 4TB for the first year as opposed to 5TB in your proposals. I wouldn't worry about it - more than 20% of my uncle's movies turned out to be crap anyways... :-)

 

 

Can I say "shut up" now? ;)

 

My crystal ball is showing that those 4T drives you are buying for $209- ($199- on sale) from Samsung will have track alignment issues due to the high areal density and low quality control, and requires a firmware update (which reduces performance) to address.  WD drives cost $229- and Seagates $249.

 

To be continued in a year to see who's crystal ball worked better? ;)

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