Cache and parity drives

[atom]

What types of drives are recommended for cache and parity drives? For example, I'm planning on doing a 2 x 3TB array. Not sure yet if I should go WD Green's or Red's for those. But let's say I do WD Greens for the data drives. What drives are recommended for the parity and cache drives? WD Reds, 7200 RPM drives? Or just do WD Greens all the way around?

 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[BobPhoenix]

I've had bad luck with WD green drives lately.  Out of 4 3TB drives I have one working, one in the mail to retailer for RMA and 2 others that will be going back to WD for RMA.  The two from WD were RMA drives from WD themselves for earlier problems with 2TB drives.  Yes I got upgraded in the RMA process to WD.  I have 4 2TB RED drives that are working well so far no problems - but only had them a few days (2) to a few weeks(2).  I have about 30 2TB green drives now - 8 drives that are bad due to manufacturer I think and 12 others that I fried and am replacing as funds permit.  I never had a problem with green drives until a year+ ago.  I got 50%+ DOA rate on WD green drives for about a 6 month period until I switched to Hitachi.  The 8 manufacturer drive defects are all RawRead and MultiZone errors so not sure if I can get them RMA'd or not.  For all I know it could have been my fault on those too.  I just kept them for offline backups.  The 50% DOA rate is what concerned me and why I switched.  I switched from Seagate to WD when I got a similar DOA rate a couple of years before the switch to WD.

[lionelhutz]

Parity - same as the data drives unless writing to multiple disks at the same time and then a faster parity doesn't hurt.

 

Cache - whatever you want. You can get more speed on some systems with a fast drive.

 

The ex Hitatchi drives are starting to show up from the new owner Toshiba. Watch for them on sale. If the quality is as good now as back a year or so ago then they would be about the best 3T drive to buy.

[atom]

I've had bad luck with WD green drives lately.  Out of 4 3TB drives I have one working, one in the mail to retailer for RMA and 2 others that will be going back to WD for RMA.  The two from WD were RMA drives from WD themselves for earlier problems with 2TB drives.  Yes I got upgraded in the RMA process to WD.  I have 4 2TB RED drives that are working well so far no problems - but only had them a few days (2) to a few weeks(2).  I have about 30 2TB green drives now - 8 drives that are bad due to manufacturer I think and 12 others that I fried and am replacing as funds permit.  I never had a problem with green drives until a year+ ago.  I got 50%+ DOA rate on WD green drives for about a 6 month period until I switched to Hitachi.  The 8 manufacturer drive defects are all RawRead and MultiZone errors so not sure if I can get them RMA'd or not.  For all I know it could have been my fault on those too.  I just kept them for offline backups.  The 50% DOA rate is what concerned me and why I switched.  I switched from Seagate to WD when I got a similar DOA rate a couple of years before the switch to WD.

 

I decided to just do 3 WD green setup 2 data + 1 parity and possibly add a cache drive later. Since this is my first setup I'm not sure if it's needed. I do hope I have better luck with these greens than you..

 

Parity - same as the data drives unless writing to multiple disks at the same time and then a faster parity doesn't hurt.

 

Cache - whatever you want. You can get more speed on some systems with a fast drive.

 

The ex Hitatchi drives are starting to show up from the new owner Toshiba. Watch for them on sale. If the quality is as good now as back a year or so ago then they would be about the best 3T drive to buy.

 

Don't believe i'll be writing to multiple drives. This is just be for media storage. Things are just downloaded and then moved it needed. Also, didnt know that about the Hitachi drive nor have I seen them. Then again I haven't been looking.