So what hard drives does everyone like to use in unRAID over the last year.  I have a mixture of drives and looking to buy a few more and just wanted to know what people like and don't like.

Big fan of the WD Reds.. what ever size you need. I've heard a few reports of DOA's but I've been 9 for 9 so far. Fast, quiet, reliable.

For 5400 RPM I use WD RED or Seagate NAS

I have a number of the 7200rpm Seagate 1TB/platter drives. They are incredibly fast for spinners, but are also a bit overkill for a NAS. They will generate a bit more heat and their awesome speed is somewhat negated by the gigabit connection, which is the bottleneck. There are certain instances where I think they excel, like fast internal transfers, or if you had bonded Ethernet links for greater than gigabit speeds, or as a parity drive. I've had zero issues with mine. 

 

Having an array comprised entirely of these drives also makes for blazing parity check speeds.

Definitely agree with using NAS drives -- either the Seagate NAS units or the WD Reds.

 

They are very fast (1TB/platter areal density);  run VERY cool; and use notably less power than their 7200rpm cousins.    The Seagate NAS units are marginally faster than the Reds, but both are excellent.    I'm looking forward to the 5TB Reds, which are due by the end of December.

 

I have Hitachi's, WD, Seagate, Toshiba drives in my arrays.  I do have them segmented - as in one drive type per server.

I was looking at the RED drives but I read that they are only good if you use 5 or less and if you use more than that you should use WD SE drives.  Any truth to that?

I was looking at the RED drives but I read that they are only good if you use 5 or less and if you use more than that you should use WD SE drives.  Any truth to that?

Marketing hype.  I have 16 3TB WD Red drives in one of my servers - works great.  Since the SE drives are an enterprise drive they are a better quality than the Red's so that might be of value but everything else is BS.

My favorite are the best price ones. I rarely if ever have problems with Hard Drives. Lucky I guess.

From the older ones, I like WD black series and Samsung 2TB (HD203WI). I have some 1TB black series running now for 38,600 hours and Samsung 2TB, (6 total) running for 34,000 hr.

Form the newer ones, I'm not sure yet.

I have a number of the 7200rpm Seagate 1TB/platter drives. They are incredibly fast for spinners, but are also a bit overkill for a NAS. They will generate a bit more heat and their awesome speed is somewhat negated by the gigabit connection, which is the bottleneck. There are certain instances where I think they excel, like fast internal transfers, or if you had bonded Ethernet links for greater than gigabit speeds, or as a parity drive. I've had zero issues with mine. 

 

Having an array comprised entirely of these drives also makes for blazing parity check speeds.

 

I'm with the dirtysanchez on this one. 

 

I use the 3TB 7200RPM 1TB platter drives for parity and data on servers that I need fast read/write access.

 

I use the 4TB 5900 1TB platter drives for archival storage.

 

I do not use the Red & NAS drives.

By the time the drive is having issues, I've either outgrown it or the most current technology is better and worth the upgrade for me. I probably don't consume as much space rapidly as others.

I have a number of the 7200rpm Seagate 1TB/platter drives. They are incredibly fast for spinners, but are also a bit overkill for a NAS. They will generate a bit more heat and their awesome speed is somewhat negated by the gigabit connection, which is the bottleneck. There are certain instances where I think they excel, like fast internal transfers, or if you had bonded Ethernet links for greater than gigabit speeds, or as a parity drive. I've had zero issues with mine. 

 

Having an array comprised entirely of these drives also makes for blazing parity check speeds.

 

I'm with the dirtysanchez on this one. 

 

 

So am I.

 

I started replacing all my older drives (mixture of WD Greens and older Seagates) with the ST3000DM001 3TB drives a year ago.  I have been buying two at a time, over time - just in case this model turned out to be a lemon and to minimize bad batch problems.  To date, there have been zero failures (probably shouldn't say that - tempting fate ). 

 

They run cooler than the drives they replaced and are much faster.  If I get three to four years out of them, I will consider it a total success.  I see the helium drives are just around the corner.  By the time my next replacement cycle starts, this new technology should be proven out or not, reducing risk.

 

I have a number of the 7200rpm Seagate 1TB/platter drives. They are incredibly fast for spinners, but are also a bit overkill for a NAS. They will generate a bit more heat and their awesome speed is somewhat negated by the gigabit connection, which is the bottleneck. There are certain instances where I think they excel, like fast internal transfers, or if you had bonded Ethernet links for greater than gigabit speeds, or as a parity drive. I've had zero issues with mine. 

 

Having an array comprised entirely of these drives also makes for blazing parity check speeds.

 

I'm with the dirtysanchez on this one. 

 

I use the 3TB 7200RPM 1TB platter drives for parity and data on servers that I need fast read/write access.

 

I use the 4TB 5900 1TB platter drives for archival storage.

 

I do not use the Red & NAS drives.

By the time the drive is having issues, I've either outgrown it or the most current technology is better and worth the upgrade for me. I probably don't consume as much space rapidly as others.

 

In complete agreement. Not worth it for me to pay the premium for the NAS drives because I get rid of my drives so quickly. I try to swap my drives out every 2 years or less. Less lately because they've gotten so large and I don't run out as quickly. Almost time to get rid of my 3TB drives I must say....

I have a number of the 7200rpm Seagate 1TB/platter drives. They are incredibly fast for spinners, but are also a bit overkill for a NAS. They will generate a bit more heat and their awesome speed is somewhat negated by the gigabit connection, which is the bottleneck. There are certain instances where I think they excel, like fast internal transfers, or if you had bonded Ethernet links for greater than gigabit speeds, or as a parity drive. I've had zero issues with mine. 

 

Having an array comprised entirely of these drives also makes for blazing parity check speeds.

 

I'm with the dirtysanchez on this one. 

 

 

So am I.

 

I started replacing all my older drives (mixture of WD Greens and older Seagates) with the ST3000DM001 3TB drives a year ago.  I have been buying two at a time, over time - just in case this model turned out to be a lemon and to minimize bad batch problems.  To date, there have been zero failures (probably shouldn't say that - tempting fate ). 

 

They run cooler than the drives they replaced and are much faster.  If I get three to four years out of them, I will consider it a total success.  I see the helium drives are just around the corner.  By the time my next replacement cycle starts, this new technology should be proven out or not, reducing risk.

 

Only 2 year warranty though, no?

 

Realistically how much faster do you think parity calc is?

Only 2 year warranty though, no?

 

Realistically how much faster do you think parity calc is?

 

Yes, they do have a shorter warranty (I believe 2 years but would have to check), but in my experience if a drive survives the infant mortality stage it will last for at least 4 years, if not longer. While a longer warranty would be nice, the additional cost of that longer warranty is not justified IMHO. Of course, YMMV. What works for me doesn't work for everyone.

 

Well, the parity calc/check speed is almost entirely dependent on drive speed (with modern hardware at least) so the faster the drives, the faster parity calc/check speeds will be. To use my system as an example, with 2x 3TB and 2x 2TB drives, a parity check takes just over 6 hours (typically 6:01). This equates to a parity check average speed of roughly 139MB/sec. Also, keep in mind my parity check speeds are slower than they would be if I had all 3TB drives. 

Only 2 year warranty though, no?

 

Realistically how much faster do you think parity calc is?

 

Correct on the warranty.

 

Your parity check speed is going to be limited by the slowest drive in your array.  When I got rid of the last 2TB WD Green drive from my array the time dropped from 8:30 to 7:15.  I still have two older Seagate ST3150034AS drives in the array.  I expect a sizeable reduction in parity check times when those two drives are replaced with a single 3TB drive.  I am watching for a deal for this BF weekend.

 

[update]

Newegg has the ST3000DM001 3TB drives on sale now for $99.99 - Limit 5 -  I ordered the last two drives I need.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844

Only 2 year warranty though, no?

 

Realistically how much faster do you think parity calc is?

 

Yes, they do have a shorter warranty (I believe 2 years but would have to check), but in my experience if a drive survives the infant mortality stage it will last for at least 4 years, if not longer.

 

I do seem to recall something called the bathtub reliability curve for electronics and it generally holds true in my experience. This says that the likelihood of failure is significantly higher in the first 10% and last 10% of it's life. Naturally, we want the start of the end curve to be as far out as possible :-)