I've noticed the 7200rpm drives have started to dip and have actually reached the same price point as the slower drives. My server supports up 15 drives.

 

The Seagate ST2000DL003 5900rpm at $119  (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST2000DL003/dp/B004CCS266/ref=sr_1_120?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335078879&sr=1-120)

While the Seagate ST2000DM001 7200rpm is also $119 (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-ST2000DM001-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B005T3GRN2/ref=sr_1_121?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335078923&sr=1-121)

 

First question - Will my Corsair 500w psu support 15 7200 rpm drives or should I stick with the green drives?

My psu -  CMPSU-500CXV2 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W2T2U6/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i01)

 

Technically it would only be 12 7200 drives as I already have 3 of the 5900 green drives and have no intention of replacing them unless they were to fail.  Second question - If my psu can support the beefier drives I'm assuming it would be in my best interest to swap out my current parity for a faster 7200 rpm drive? 

 

 

My server is strictly used for storing content for my HTPC media center.  So I wouldn't even consider going for the 7200 drives over the slower green drives but since they're exactly the same price it seems like the way to go. Unless of course my psu can't support them or if those drives have a higher failure rate then I wouldn't be interested.  Thoughts?

 

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Hard to say without knowing what else your PSU is powering.  The difference in power use varies slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer, but for your example:

 

Seagate Barracuda launched a line of 5900 RPM "Green" drives that still get decent savings over another of the same brand—the green version uses 5.4 watts during read/write and 4.8 when idle to a similarly specced Barracuda XT's 9.23 during read/write and 6.39 when idle.

 

Add that up, along with however much else your system uses and see where you end up.

Have you checked?

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12219.0

Your power supply has a single 34A rail.

http://www.corsair.com/builder-series-cx500-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html

It would be marginal for 15 green drives! Not counting fans.

 

15 * 2 + 4.5 = 34.5A

 

Don't be fooled,  a system that works today will change due to the life of it's components. The drives WILL require more start up current as the drive ages (lubricate dries up, mechanical parts wear). The motherboard and power supplies' electrolytic capacitors age and start to draw leakage current. Fans draw more current as they age, (lubricate dries up, mechanical parts wear).

Hmm, that's interesting info regarding components requiring more power as they age.  I was unaware of this.

 

Yea I have read that thread, that's actually where I got the idea for my current PSU. 

You'll notice it was the suggested PSU for a 10-15 drive server  -

"CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 (CMPSU-500CX) 500W

- 34A, supports up to 15 green drives or 9 7200 rpm drives

- recommended for medium servers, 10 - 15 drives"

 

Now you've got me questioning whether or not I should try and return this and go with a 650w....

 

I really wish the green drives would drop in price as the 7200rpm drives have, it would take away my desire to even consider it as I really don't think I would stand to gain much (if anything) by running 7200rpm drives over the slower greens considering what my server is being used for.  Now I'm seeing a 2TB 7200rpm even cheaper at $109...

I'm replacing the 500w psu with a 650w, the math makes me nervous that at full capacity (15 drives) I could potentially be short on power.

 

I'm now debating on whether or not I should go ahead and grab a 7200rpm drive and swap my current parity with it and turn the current parity into another data drive. Since all of my drives are 5900rpm green drives and the price point on this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL042412&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL042412-_-EMC-042412-Index-_-InternalHardDrives-_-22148834-L01B) is actually less than the 5900 drives I figured why not.

 

The fact that the ST2000DM001 drives have a 1 year warranty where as the slower ST2000DL003 drives have a 2 year, plus the average rating on the slower 5900 drives are higher has caused some concern though... I'm not too interested in increasing write speed at the cost of increased failure rate.  Especially since my serer is exclusively used for media storage for my HTPC.

 

What are some of you guys thoughts on this? Should I stick with 5900 green drives, or would it be best to start grabbing some 7200 drives since they're actually cheaper at the moment and when my new psu gets here it will be enough juice to handle them.  Keep in mind what my server is being used for and that reliability is most important to me.  I only really care about being able to stream (hard wired) to my HTPC with no latency, writing to these disks is not a huge concern of mine as I can simply walk away and allow the data to transfer over.

What are some of you guys thoughts on this? Should I stick with 5900 green drives, or would it be best to start grabbing some 7200 drives since they're actually cheaper at the moment and when my new psu gets here it will be enough juice to handle them.  Keep in mind what my server is being used for and that reliability is most important to me.  I only really care about being able to stream (hard wired) to my HTPC with no latency, writing to these disks is not a huge concern of mine as I can simply walk away and allow the data to transfer over.

 

$/GB if the 7200rpm is cheapest get it. unRAID has spin down!

what is better faster or slower for unraid

I have 14 Western Digital 2TB 7200 RPM drives using a Seasonic X660 power supply. When I used a meter on it, it didn't really come close to using all the power. It idles very low too.