Helium UltraStar Drives...Good or Bad?


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I've seen some talk about with people who use HGST drives, but haven't seen much in the way of saying "Yeah, these are great and fantastic" or "They work, but I'd recommend something else". Anyone have any words of wisdom to share, personal experiences, etc.?

Reason I ask is because I found some 10TB HGST Ultrastar SAS drives (HUH721010AL4200) I'm thinking about getting to replace my mixed 1,2,3TB WD, Seagate, Toshiba array in my 16 bay JBOD. They are used but have overwhelmingly positive reviews and purchases on eBay, with a 30 day warranty and testing 100%...and at $129 it seems like a steal that may be too good to be true.

Should I steer clear, or pull the trigger?

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25 minutes ago, Squeeth said:

at $129 it seems like a steal

I have a mix of Western Digital 8TB Red/White drives in my two servers.  Almost all are helium filled.  Two of them show up as Ultrastar drives.  In general, the helium-filled drives tend to run a few degrees cooler than the air-filled drives.

 

I would say that is a good price for 10TB drives (especially since that model # is an "enterprise" drive).  They are 7200 RPM drives so they may be a little warmer and noisier than 5400 RPM drives but that should be of little concern.

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5 minutes ago, whipdancer said:

I bought 2 SATA HGST (1 8TB, 1 12TB) used, no issues.  I have 1 that I bought new (10TB) that seems to run hot.

Thanks for your response! :) 

If you know and don't mind sharing, what temp was it at compared to the other drives and what kind of cooling/chassis were they in?

I'd be installing mine into a Chenbro RM41416 that has 5x80mm fans behind the drives and my existing drives sit around 32-35c. I'm just trying to gauge the temp difference and if I should maybe also consider ordering new and better fans along with the drives.

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16 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

I have a mix of Western Digital 8TB Red/White drives in my two servers.  Almost all are helium filled.  Two of them show up as Ultrastar drives.  In general, the helium-filled drives tend to run a few degrees cooler than the air-filled drives.

 

I would say that is a good price for 10TB drives (especially since that model # is an "enterprise" drive).  They are 7200 RPM drives so they may be a little warmer and noisier than 5400 RPM drives but that should be of little concern.

Thanks for the input, I greatly appreciate it! :) 
I'm hoping that with the chassis they would be going in not having any additional hardware besides the PSU's and an HBA with five pretty decent 80mm fans, that it won't be too big of difference and possibly cause any issues.

I think the skeptical part of me just sees "used" and combines it with the seemingly sparse amount of peoples experience with those specific drives and thinks, "Okay...the price is good, but it's probably because I'll have issues." 😅

Edited by Squeeth
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All of the spinning drives in my cheapo case are HGST - 8TB are He, 6 TB are not.  The 8TB were used, the 6TB were new (now about a year of service).  They all have worked great.  Run in the low/mid 30's to just 40C during a 14+ hour parity check.  3 are in the bottom slots of a mid-tower case, 3 are in a 4x3 cage.

 

They may not be the coolest, quietest, or lowest power consuming drives, but were priced well and seem to be very reliable.  I'm sold.

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On 1/12/2022 at 11:15 AM, Squeeth said:

I've seen some talk about with people who use HGST drives, but haven't seen much in the way of saying "Yeah, these are great and fantastic" or "They work, but I'd recommend something else". Anyone have any words of wisdom to share, personal experiences, etc.?

Reason I ask is because I found some 10TB HGST Ultrastar SAS drives (HUH721010AL4200) I'm thinking about getting to replace my mixed 1,2,3TB WD, Seagate, Toshiba array in my 16 bay JBOD. They are used but have overwhelmingly positive reviews and purchases on eBay, with a 30 day warranty and testing 100%...and at $129 it seems like a steal that may be too good to be true.

Should I steer clear, or pull the trigger?

DO NOT buy that ad on Amazon for tht 5 pack for $350. It is a SCAM. The vendor only sends one out, not 5. And there's nothing special about helium. It will work just as any drive and does not give the drive some amazing force. I have several HGST white label drives. I have a 15 drive array. 10 of them are enterprise 7200 RPM HGST white labels. I looked up what they mean by "enterprise" means superior parts of their cheaper drives and other manufacture drives of the same comparison. Unfortunately WD is ceasing the HitachiGST brand. Too bad.

 

Here is that SCAM listing from Amazon.

 

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On 1/12/2022 at 11:00 AM, Squeeth said:

Thanks for your response! :) 

If you know and don't mind sharing, what temp was it at compared to the other drives and what kind of cooling/chassis were they in?

I'd be installing mine into a Chenbro RM41416 that has 5x80mm fans behind the drives and my existing drives sit around 32-35c. I'm just trying to gauge the temp difference and if I should maybe also consider ordering new and better fans along with the drives.


I use an Antec Nineteen Hundred tower case.  Cooling is ok. By run hot, I mean I get log warnings from time to time - "Warning [BLUESMASTER] - Disk 5 is hot (46 C) HGST_HUHxxxxxxxxxxxx_VKxxxxxx (sdg)" during parity check.

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