5400 vs 7200 drives

[TODDLT]

I'm sure this has been discussed before but did a quick search and didn't come up with much.

 

I have a 9 disk array + two parity drives.  2 - 500 GB SSDs and 4 - 3 TB  HDD's and 3 - 6 TB HDD's.  All the HDD's are 7200 RPM.

It's time to upsize a little, and replace the older 3 TB drives in doing so.  

 

I find myself questioning the need to stay with 7200 RPM drives over 5400, based on the current price difference.   Any thoughts one way or the other.  

• I know read speeds for 7200 are irrelevant for a media server in this discussion
• Are unRaid write speeds appreciably different with 5-15GB files if both data and parity are 7200 RPM
• Are parity checks appreciably faster with 7200 RPM drives and then might see a slowdown with introducing a 5400?  (right now there is the tail off as i approach 3 TB and then it speeds back up, but I wouldn't want the whole process to slow down over 2 drives).

 

Any suggestions or insight is appreciated.

 

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by TODDLT

[JonathanM]

Rotation speed is a red herring, physical data density effects throughput more dramatically.

[TODDLT]

I might not be remembering this correctly but thought when unRaid writes to the drive it's actually a multi-step write-read-write, and that's why the drive speed helped overall write speed.  Acknowledge I'm a rung or two above my head in knowledge base so just making sure I'm clear.

[Lolight]

On 10/12/2021 at 12:30 PM, TODDLT said:

I find myself questioning the need to stay with 7200 RPM drives over 5400, based on the current price difference.

Which models of drives?

[TODDLT]

9 minutes ago, Lolight said:

Which models of drives?

Currently:

 

https://www.newegg.com/red-plus-wd60efzx-6tb/p/N82E16822234465?item=N82E16822234465&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL101121&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL101121-_-EMC-101121-Index-_-DesktopInternalHardDrives-_-22234465-S4A4A&ignorebbr=1

 

https://www.newegg.com/toshiba-n300-hdwg460xzsta-6tb/p/N82E16822149792?quicklink=true

[Lolight]

On 10/12/2021 at 12:30 PM, TODDLT said:

I find myself questioning the need to stay with 7200 RPM drives over 5400, based on the current price difference.   Any thoughts one way or the other. 

i doubt you'll see much of real world speed differences in the NAS environment.

I think what would be more of interest is a difference in their load/unload cycle ratings:

Edited October 15, 2021 by Lolight

[Lolight]

[TODDLT]

5 hours ago, Lolight said:

Interesting, thanks for this.