Hey Everyone,

 

So recently I had 2 of my 4 hard drives fail which is always good times.  Originally when I built my Unraid server 2 years ago I bought 4 Seagate ST3000DM001 drives (3TB) and two of them failed within a week.  I had them replaced but now just two years later the other two have failed.

 

I want to replace those two, and eventually the other two as well but I'm convinced now that Seagate is incapable of making reliable 3tb drives now, especially after reading online reviews from so many places.

 

So, what are the best 3tb drives to use right now?  If I get WD-Reds they are only 5200 or 5900 (variable) RPM speeds, is that fast enough for a media server?  Anyone have recommendations for an equivalent drive to the Seagates?

My experience with the Seagates has been about the same as yours. I won't buy anymore. I've been using WD Reds for almost 2 years and haven't had any problems at all with them. Performance is good and the temps average about 5C lower than my other drives.

5400rpm drives especially those with 1TB platters will work very well for a media server.  They won't be as fast as your Seagate's were but they should still be acceptable.  They have been for me anyway.  The most reliable drives are HGST in my opinion.  HGST is what I'm buying now from B&H Photo.  But I have a lot of WD Reds as well (whole server of 4TB Red drives). I also have another whole server of your model Seagate's that I want to replace myself just haven't been able to yet.

So something like watching 1080p movies steamed via Plex using WD reds shouldn't really have any noticeable performance hits I guess.  If that's the car then WD is the way to go it looks like. 

I have a mix of WD Greens and Reds and all my movies are 1080p. I've never had an issue, even with multiple streams from the same disk. I also often have Plex streams out to family/friends without issue.

 

Nowadays I would buy Reds just because they are better NAS drives, but I've never had an issue with my Greens either.

 

OK thanks that really does answer my concerns. I'll get the reds from now on and steer clear of Seagate.

Seagate ST4000DM001s get an excellent score in the latest Backblaze report if you're looking for a larger drive (and why wouldnt you, take the chance to upgrade that 3TB drive). I run all ST4000VN000s in my servers spinning higher than the WD Reds at 5900rpm. These are the nas 4TB drives from Seagate. Think their bad rap is mainly down to the 3TB drives, the 4TB comes out well acrosd the board. Again ... the backblaze report highlights this as well.

 

hi 

i'm looking to replace my parity drive as it's given me smart errors.

all my drives are 7200 rpm and was looking to buy one WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive at 5400rpm.

would their be an issue due to the rpm not the same as the order disks running at 7200?

 

No, there would be no issues mixing drives of different speeds.

The only "issue" is that writes and parity checks / rebuilds will be slightly slower due to the parity drive being inherently slower

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My system is packed full of Greens and Now a Blue. Never had any problems stream, reading or writing. I use a Cache Drive for writing and a Mover set to run at night. 

I run Plex with multiple streams and a few other Dockers and unless I get an email from my machine its Business as usual in my house. 

 

I haven't avoided Reds just never warranted a need for them as of yet. 

Would go for the 3TB reds at the moment.

 

My data array consists auto of nothing but the 3TB WD RED's. They are not the cheapest but the best.  Best = quite, reliable, and come with 3 year warranty, that more then Seagates offer.

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I do have one 3TB seagate for parity though because the 7200 outperformances the WD's in any situation, witch is ideal in parity check.  

 

My setup, and advice for a Unraid setup designed for streaming from PLex/

 

Parity: Seagate

DATA: WD RED

Backup: Seagate archive

 

IMO thats a good setup.