My First Build, First Blood: Part 2 - Putting all the pieces together!

[spinbot]

Who better to get the approval from than a bunch of guys/gals that have already put things together and are running UnRaid.   I started, thinking I would use some old parts, but... they are just too old.  I figured for a minimal investment in some decent parts, I would have both a reliable machine and one that can be expanded a fair amount.   Here is what I have come up with, so I'd be interest in your opinions ( sorry, I could figure out how to get all the images from my shopping card to appear like others have ) 

 

This is what I want to purchase:

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

Item #:N82E16817139006

$114.99

(This is only $5 more than the 650W model, so i figured what the heck )

 

COOLER MASTER STB-3T4-E3-GP 4-in-3 Device Module Hardisk Cage

QTY: 2

Item #:N82E16817993002

$50.98 ($25.49 each)

 

COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black Computer Case

Item #:N82E16811119152

$69.99

 

GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Item #:N82E16813128342

$59.99

 

AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor

Item #:N82E16819103688

$69.99

( I just picked this as it was cheap and had lower Wattage than the other suggestions and it said "others who bought this board also bought this" )

 

Grand Total: $365.94 ( Canadian Dollars )

 

This is what I have already:

- OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P800R22GK

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3Gb/s 1TB Hard Drive ( ST1000528AS )

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache Ncq

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s 750-GB ( ST3750330AS )

 

I have a couple USB sticks:

1GB - Lenovo

256MB - SanDisk Cruzer Mini

 

I currently have the 1.5TB drive inside my Popcorn Hour A-110 running through Dlink HD Ethernet over Powerline Adapters.   I will likely remove this drive from the PCH and just get a SATA adapter put in and hook up a memory card so I can run some applications from it.  The PowerLine Adapaters are my bottleneck right now, however this will soon be resolved as I have some coworkers coming in to run cabling from my router to my TV room.   I am also thinking of locating the UnRaid server in the same room as the PCH and running it , the server, my PS3 and XBOX360 through a Cisco 5 port Giga-switch.  The Gigabit bandwidth is so I can transfer ISO's from my main PC to the server quicker.

 

What I still need to decide on:

- I have no idea who makes the Lenovo USB stick, however it has a lot more memory available.   So.. do I get my license on it or the SanDisk or should I run out and but another 1GB stick?

 

- I will want to purchase likely 2 more drives.  I have always been happy with Seagate ( they were always the ones with the sales on the bigger drives ).   Having the protection of UnRaid, as I will be running a Parity Drive, I am not less concerned about what brand I get, but would like to get the better one, for UnRaid purposes.

I have read conflicting information on what type of drive to get for the Parity drive.  One posting would say "It has to do more work than any other drive, so get a faster drive for it".  I've also read that "as the read/write process has to be done to both the data drive and the parity drive, the entire process will be as fast as the weakest link".   So, I am uncertain which is the better route to go.   Let's assume I want to buy 2 more drives to start, being at least 1.5TB.  Here are some of my options:

 

Western Digital WD15EADS Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA 32MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM

(WD15EADS) - $129

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1500GB 1.5TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive OEM

(ST31500341AS) - $130

 

Seagate Barracuda LP 1.5TB 3.5IN SATA 5900RPM 32MB Hard Drive ( ST31500541AS ) - $150

 

 

Wow... sorry for the long post guys.  Just a lot of information to get out and questions to ask.   I truly appreciate you reading to this point and hopefully providing me with some opinions

 

Thanks,

 

Charles

aka Spinbot

 

 

[hellbringer]

- Don't use the USB sick's you have, get a Sandisk Cruzer 4 GB at $15,- or even a 8GB at $22 if you want to use some addons you could use the extra space and these sticks are a lot faster than the ones you have.

 

- I would rather go for a 7200.11, its a 7200rpm drive in stead of 5900rpm for the LP so its faster.

The WD green drive is quiet but tend's to run between 5200 and 7200rpm, to make it, well, green. No a good choice if you want a fast drive.

If you want a reliable WD drive go for the RE3 (Max 1TB) or RE4 (only available in 2TB) series, they are meant for enterprise storage and have a longer warranty, they tend to use more power tho.

[PhilH]

You said some of your old parts were too old. How old are they? Some old stuff works pretty good..

 

I have a old PIII 1ghz that I built on a whim & a year later it is still running serving my 4 year olds movies. Surprised the heck out of me..

 

So sometimes old isn't too OLD... 

[spinbot]

It's a PIII (not sure of speed), but issues I have with it are:  no SATA ports and no PCI-E slots, so if I get a SATA card for it, it will be slow to move data through.   I could not get it to boot to USB stick, only a few bays in the case , etc.    I figured I might as well just buy some new parts and consider it an investment   I've spend thousands of dollars on DVD's/BluRay, so $300-$400 for a new case, CPU, motherboard and PSU I can live with 

 

As for the response regarding USB sticks, I thought i read elsewhere that 1GB is more than enough to run UnRaid and many applications.   Although, finding smaller USB is getting more challenging.

 

I'm located in Canada, so practical places to get the USB Flash drives are retails stores like Staples, Bestbuy, Futureshop ( stores with retail fronts ) as shipping is prohibitive for a single cheap item ( can be as much as the USB drive ) OR getting it from where I am ordering my other hardware: DirectCanada.com .   Compared to NewEgg.ca , I can save a fair amount buying from here.  NewEgg.ca's total with tax/shipping is $823.60 where as DirectCanada is $658.02  ( DirectCanada is not in my province, so I save the 8% provincial tax and DirectCanada also has free shipping )

 

DirectCanada sell the "Kingston DataTraveler 4GB USB2.0 Flash Drive" for $9.99 ( http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=1241138929F&vpn=DTI/4GB&manufacture=KINGSTON ) , which I see listed on the Hardware Compatibility page , assuming the "2" just means USB2.0.   It's not one of the Lime Technology suggested ones though.

 

 

DirectCanada also has one called "Kingston DataTraveler High Speed 8GB USB2.0 Flash Drive Black"  ( http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=1241185107G&vpn=DTI/8GB&manufacture=KINGSTON ) for about $20.  I wonder if "High Speed" really equates to any speed difference over the other one.

 

Staples has some Lexar Drives, but not the recommended "Lexar Firely".  They have:

Lexar 2GB JumpDrive Retrax

Staples also has the:

SanDisk 2GB Cruzer Micro M2 USB Flash Drive

It's about double the cost and half the storage of the Kingston Drive, but it is one of the Suggested ones by Lime Technology.   

Being new to this, I figure going with this suggested drive is probably the most logical option ( as I am going to guess they have done read/write tests and whatever else to ensure its the best tool for the job ) 

 

QUESTION:

I was considering the Western Digital "Green" HDD , even though until now I have always gone with 7200RPM Seagates.    Correct my logic if its flawed, but is their really much savings ( in terms of power consumption ) if you have your server set to spin the drives down that aren't in use?  If their isn't, then wouldn't the performance of the 7200RPM speed drives we preferred for UnRaid?

 

[PhilH]

I was just giving you a hard time about the old hardware.. 

 

On the PIII I had to add a PCI sata card. I only have 3 drives in it. It's the free version. I get parity checks in the 40,000k range. I couldn't boot from a USB memory stick also. I made a CD kicker disk & it boots up just fine..

 

My main unRAID server is a P4 3.0ghz & it has 16 drives in it.

 

Just have fun & welcome to the forums...

[Joe L.]

Initially, when unRAID was first being sold, it was supplied on a 128 Meg flash drive that was physically pretty small.  Lime-technology sold the flash drives loaded with the software.   The three criteria I remember were

1. Size was big enough  (today, you would have a hard time finding something as small as 128Meg.  Back 4 years ago, the 128 Meg size was common as the 4Gig size today.

2. It booted at USB 2.0 speeds  (slower drives worked, but it took 10 minutes or more to boot)

3. It had a serial number that was unique to the drive.

 

Later, when Lime-technology changed their business model to allow users to download and use their own flash drives the same three criteria exist.

The complications with *some* flash drives were:

1. The geometry on the flash drive was not recognized by the BIOS as one that was bootable

2. The drive did not have a unique serial number.

3. The drive had a "U3" hidden partition that would not let it be properly recognized by unRAID

4. The drive did not have an "MBR" record that would let you "boot" from it.

 

We've since learned that the "HP" formatting tool set the geometry to one that would be recognized by most BIOS as bootable.

(Took care of #1 above)

 

We've learned to use the "-ma" option to syslinux to mark the UNRAID partition as "bootable" and "active"   

(Took care of most of the issues in #1 and #4 above)

 

We've learned how to remove the "U3" software... by using tools supplied by U3 and others...

 

That only leaves #2 as the biggest hurdle in selecting a flash drive.  Today, most will work.  Now, you want a "reliable" drive... (you don't want the floor-sweepings some Chinese manufacturer used to make a bargain drive to hold the OS of your server.  It might work this week... and not next month...)

 

A "small" physical drive is still desirable, especially if the drive is plugged into the back of the server.  A longer USB drive is more likely to snap if the server is moved and the drive physically crushed against the wall or side of your desk.  Unlikely to be broken if you lean on it accidentally as you go to plug in a cable.

 

So... today, unless you are going to be loading every add-on possible, and more... a 1Gig drive is plenty, a 2 Gig drive overkill, and a 4 Gig drive will be mostly empty.  If you can get a 4Gig drive for the same cost as a 1Gig was a year or so ago... fine...  Otherwise, get a name-brand drive with as long a warranty as you can find.  Odds are it will be fine. 

 

Joe L.

PS.

I've only got a 1 Gig drive, and I have about 10 different releases of unRAID on it, and lots of development tools and packages, and most all of the add-ons, and it is still only 3/4 full...  remember, add-ons can be on any data disk you don't have to keep them on the flash drive, the files on the flash drive are only those needed when the array is booting or off-line.  For most people, even today, that same 128 Meg flash drive I started with originally 4 years ago would be more than sufficient space... just nearly impossible to purchase, as they stopped selling them that small.

 

[spinbot]

Thanks PhilH... i'll be sure to keep my eye on you!  Thanks for the welcome

 

Joe L. ... none of your criteria really make mention to the speed of the flash drive ( aside form being USB 2.0 ).   I've found some old comparisons on Tom's Hardware and another site showing big variations in read/write speeds between different USB drives.    If the drive is just used for booting and maybe the odd application ( I hear UnMenu is one I will want ), then I guess I should be fine with the $10 "Kingston DataTraveler 4GB USB2.0 Flash Drive" ?

 

Assuming I have put the USB drive to rest, I just wanted to re-ask the other item I am questioning:

 

I was considering the Western Digital "Green" HDDs , even though until now I have always gone with 7200RPM Seagates.    Correct my logic if its flawed, but is their really much savings ( in terms of power consumption ) of the Green Drives over standard 7200RPM drives ( especially if you have your server set to spin the drives down that aren't in use)?   If their isn't, then wouldn't the performance of the 7200RPM speed drives be preferred for UnRaid?

 

I seen a review on the WD 1.5GB Green drives and it said the following ( should I be concerned ):

Be careful if you use these in RAID set ups. WD recommends against it, for good reason. The low power features of the drive make the R/W heads set very often, and within months the drive could be past the limit of load/unload cycles and start showing as old to SMART monitoring tools.

If you are set up to use SMART monitoring, keep an eye on your load cycles and you may see them rise ridiculously fast, especially in RAID environments.

 

There was a tool, wdidle or some such that WD gave out to some people who had to deal with this problem, that allowed you to tweak the amount of idle time before the drives set the head. Using it essentially cuts down on the load/unload cycles by not unloading in as short an idle time as they are made to do, undoing some of the green power technology's savings.

[Joe L.]

Thanks PhilH... i'll be sure to keep my eye on you!  Thanks for the welcome

 

Joe L. ... none of your criteria really make mention to the speed of the flash drive ( aside form being USB 2.0 ).   I've found some old comparisons on Tom's Hardware and another site showing big variations in read/write speeds between different USB drives.    If the drive is just used for booting and maybe the odd application ( I hear UnMenu is one I will want ), then I guess I should be fine with the $10 "Kingston DataTraveler 4GB USB2.0 Flash Drive" ?

For $10, it is a great choice... A name brand, and way more space than you'll ever need.

 

The USB flash drive is usually only rated for a limited number of "writes," and an unlimited number of "reads."  Fortunately, the only time unRAID writes to the flash drive is when you make a configuration change, or when you start or stop the array. (to track the shutdown status)   The only time it is read (normally) is when you boot from it.

 

unMENU reads from the flash drive when you click on a plug-in link... but it does not write to the flash drive unless you are editing a configuration file, so it will not wear out your flash drive.   I know some have installed add-ons that "log" to the flash drive... If the logging is done very frequently, it might shorten the life of the drive.

Assuming I have put the USB drive to rest, I just wanted to re-ask the other item I am questioning:

 

I was considering the Western Digital "Green" HDDs , even though until now I have always gone with 7200RPM Seagates.    Correct my logic if its flawed, but is their really much savings ( in terms of power consumption ) of the Green Drives over standard 7200RPM drives ( especially if you have your server set to spin the drives down that aren't in use)?   If their isn't, then wouldn't the performance of the 7200RPM speed drives be preferred for UnRaid?

I guess the answer depends on your pattern of use.   In my house, most of the drives are spun down most of the time.  A "green" drive not spinning will tend to draw pretty close to the same power as a non-green drive.  When spinning the "green" drive spins slower, or spins up to speed slower, reducing the power used.    If you don't have many platters spinning, the actual power used over the course of a year will probably be close, regardless of the drives.

 

If your drives are almost always spinning, then the 7200  RPM droves would use more power.   Either drive will be fast enough for home media server needs.

I seen a review on the WD 1.5GB Green drives and it said the following ( should I be concerned ):

Be careful if you use these in RAID set ups. WD recommends against it, for good reason. The low power features of the drive make the R/W heads set very often, and within months the drive could be past the limit of load/unload cycles and start showing as old to SMART monitoring tools.

If you are set up to use SMART monitoring, keep an eye on your load cycles and you may see them rise ridiculously fast, especially in RAID environments.

 

There was a tool, wdidle or some such that WD gave out to some people who had to deal with this problem, that allowed you to tweak the amount of idle time before the drives set the head. Using it essentially cuts down on the load/unload cycles by not unloading in as short an idle time as they are made to do, undoing some of the green power technology's savings.

Yes, the biggest danger to any drive is when it is loading or un-loading the heads...  The more cycles, the more wear on the mechanical...   I would set the spin-down to something between 1 and 4 hours... depends on your usage...  (on unRAID you can set the spin-down time in the web-interface ... per-drive on later releases)

 

Joe L.

[lionelhutz]

The parts look good. The only comment is that board is limited to PCIe slots which limits which cards you can use to expand. A board with say 3 or 4 PCIe slots could use a bunch of cheap 2 SATA port cards (~$25) each to expand 6 or 8 drives.

 

As for the hardware, check out NCIX as well. Also saves the 8% Ontario sales tax (money grab lol).

 

Peter

[spinbot]

The parts look good. The only comment is that board is limited to PCIe slots which limits which cards you can use to expand. A board with say 3 or 4 PCIe slots could use a bunch of cheap 2 SATA port cards (~$25) each to expand 6 or 8 drives.

 

Peter.  Considering the case can only hold 12 drives, with the cages, I guess the motherboard only having 2 PCI-e slots is ok ( as I can use 4-port SATA cards ).  I think once I get to the 12-14 drive level, I will have my main PC's motherboard to use.

 

DirectCanada is owned by the same people that run NCIX and Memory Express and when buying multiple parts, it has always had a cheaper final price ( as they give free shipping on purchases over $300 ).

 

Joe L. .. thanks for your comments again.  Considering your post count, I consider you an expert ( or some real dumbass who asked over 3000 questions ) .. now I'm just kidding about the later! 

 

Regarding hard-drives, I really think I am going to prefer the 7200RPM models as I will be doing a lot of uploading and if helps with that, all the better.  I am also thinking of "the future" when I replace my 1.5TB drives with 6TB drives ( or whatever the future has in store ).  If  I move the 1.5TB into my main system, where performance is more important, then I will be happy I picked the quicker drives. 

 

Are their still concerns with the Seagate drives?  I contacted Seagate about my drive and they said "don't update the firmware if you aren't experiencing any problems".  If the firmware did fix the problem and new drives don't have it, I would still buy Seagate ( as I have run the crap out of my current drives and they've been rock solid...knock on wood )

 

CASE QUESTION for those that have the CoolMaster 590:

 

I have read the thread on airflow ( moving air over the drives, taping some holes and venting out the top ), however I didn't notice if the fans that come with the case are enough or if I should get extras or upgrade the one's included?  If you could be specific I would appreciate it ( directcanada.com is definitely my store i am buying from this week ).

 

Thanks again guys!

[lionelhutz]

One other thing - I believe the Corsair 450W and 550W would both easily power 12 drives. I bought the Corsair 400W power supply and will power at least 8 drives from it if it becomes necessary (I'm expanding as I need to).

 

The Seagate 1.5T LP drives are rated to draw 2A at startup maximum. The 400W Corsair power supply is rated 30A on the 12V. The 740g chipset boards run at about 45W into the power supply with the drives spun down, which is just less than 4A on the 12V worst case - more than likely it's about 1A to 2A on the 12V rail. A lot of thfe input power will be going to the 3.3V and 5V rail to power the motherboard. So, the power supply has at least 26A available on the 12V rail for the hard drives which is enough for 13 hard drives. So, that measely 400W Corsair could power 13 Seagate LP drives if the rest of the hardware is not a power pig.

 

As for operating power, all the new drives are below 10W in any mode so that's less than 1A operating. More likely about 0.5A in most cases.

 

Peter

 

[lionelhutz]

CASE QUESTION for those that have the CoolMaster 590:

 

I have read the thread on airflow ( moving air over the drives, taping some holes and venting out the top ), however I didn't notice if the fans that come with the case are enough or if I should get extras or upgrade the one's included?   If you could be specific I would appreciate it ( directcanada.com is definitely my store i am buying from this week ).

 

Thanks again guys!

 

It comes with a single 120mm fan in the back. I would purchase 2 higher airflow 120mm or 140mm fans if you can find them.

 

I actually set my 590 case up with filters on the fans on top with them blowing in. I blocked off all the vents so the air has to go out the front through my drive cages where I reversed the fans on them. I put the power supply in upside down so it's not sucking from the floor. The fans move enough air into the case that the power supply and the drive cages are not starved for air.

 

Peter

 

[spinbot]

The reduced power (aka Green) Seagates weren't the one's I was considering.  I'd just go with the same type I have now:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1500GB 1.5TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache Ncq Hard Drive Oem

 

The power supply seems to be one of those items of different opinions as I read through the forums, although it does seem to be of consensus the Single-Rail PSU are the way to go.

 

My PSU options are:

Corsair VX550W 550W ATX 12V 41A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan  - $61 (after $33 MIR) (not sure what the "VX" means)

Corsair TX650W 650W Atx 12V 52A 24PIN Atx Power Supply Active Pfc 120MM Fan  - $93 ( after $11 MIR )

Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan  - $106 (after $11 MIR)

 

For the $45 difference, if their is any doubt, I'd rather just pay the $45.

[WeeboTech]

CASE QUESTION for those that have the CoolMaster 590:

 

I have read the thread on airflow ( moving air over the drives, taping some holes and venting out the top ), however I didn't notice if the fans that come with the case are enough or if I should get extras or upgrade the one's included?  If you could be specific I would appreciate it ( directcanada.com is definitely my store i am buying from this week ).

 

Thanks again guys!

 

 

 

It comes with a single 120mm fan in the back. I would purchase 2 higher airflow 120mm or 140mm fans if you can find them.

 

I actually set my 590 case up with filters on the fans on top with them blowing in. I blocked off all the vents so the air has to go out the front through my drive cages where I reversed the fans on them. I put the power supply in upside down so it's not sucking from the floor. The fans move enough air into the case that the power supply and the drive cages are not starved for air.

Peter

 

This has me curious. What are you using for hard drive mounts?

Maybe I'll re engineer my setup.

[PhilH]

I have the 550w Corsair in my main unRAID box & it runs all 16 drives great.

[lionelhutz]

The Seagate 7200.11 1.5T drives are rated maximum 2.8A at start-up. The 550W Corsair could in theory handle 13 to 14 of these drives, assuming all start at the same time which would only occur on power-up if even then.

 

Peter

 

[spinbot]

This has me curious. What are you using for hard drive mounts?

Maybe I'll re engineer my setup.

 

I'm going to use: Coolermaster STB-3T4-E3 3X5.25IN to 4X3.5IN Drive Bay Convertor Silver Black W/ 120MM Fan

 

Case fans... CoolMaster has their own brand of them and they are reasonably priced at $7.00.

Cooler Master Neon Blue LED 120MM Case Fan 3PIN 22DBA 1220RPM 42.734CFM 3PINS

 

 

 

These seem like a reasonable choice?

 

Will I likely need to get new SATA cables that are longer than the standard one's that come with motherboards?

 

I'd like to make sure I have all the "little stuff" too, as I don't have a good ( reasonably priced ) local store to get stuff from.

[spinbot]

Double Post ( I know ), but different item, so best to keep it separate from my last question.

 

The USB drive I wanted is now not available, so my other options, from the Compatibility list are:

 

Corsair Flash Voyager Mini CMFUSBMINI-4GB 4GB USB2.0 Ultra Compact Flash Drive for $16.66

(although the compatibility page doesn't mention the word "Mini" with the Corsair)

 

OR

 

4GB CRUZER MICRO BLACK USB 2.0 FLASH DRIVE US#M72543 for $24.24

 

Corsair has 10 year warrant and Sandiisk may have a lifetime warranty.

 

Corsair , although being called "Mini" be ok you think?  If I can't get the UID from it, it would be a pain to return ( mail-order ).

 

[WeeboTech]

I bet either of these will work. It will just depend on how they are formatted.

Check with the manufacturer to see if they are bootable and defined as hard disks, floppies, zip

 

FWIW, I used an SD card and a card reader.

[spinbot]

I bet either of these will work. It will just depend on how they are formatted.

Check with the manufacturer to see if they are bootable and defined as hard disks, floppies, zip

 

The Corsair Spec sheet ( http://www.corsair.com/_datasheets/CMFUSBMINI-4GB.pdf ) says:

USB Bootable: Yes

Supports:

- Linux Kernel 2.4.2 or higher

- ECC 13-bit Error Correcting Codes, BCH

- Wear Leveling Static wear leveling

 

It doesn't say anywhere if its "defined as hard disks, floppies, zip ".

[WeeboTech]

linux and bootable is fine.

[spinbot]

Thanks.  I am about 95% of the way to making my order for parts!  I'll get the cheap/flashy fans ( as they are at least made for the case ).

 

I think my final two items to decide on are:

 

1.  Am I going with 1.5TB Seagate's (Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1500GB 1.5TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache Ncq Hard Drive Oem ) or 1.5TB WD Green ( Western Digital WD15EADS Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA 32MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM  ) drives - $130 for either.

 

AND

 

2.  Do I need longer than the standard SATA cables, due to the size of the case.

 

 

I wish NCIX, DirectCanada or NewEgg would just put one of the hard drives I am looking at on sale and make my decision for me 

[WeeboTech]

(Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1500GB 1.5TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache Ncq Hard Drive Oem )

 

Get the seagte 7200RPM drive for parity.  The others only matter as to how fast you need to access many files.

 

 

>> 2.  Do I need longer than the standard SATA cables, due to the size of the case.

I've used standard sized cables without issue.

[spinbot]

Considering the average file being transferred across my network from main PC to Server are going to be 4.3GB in size, will going with a 5400RPM drive over a 7200RPM drive affect the total transfer time?  I've always leaned towards "faster"

 

The power consumption on the WD versus other drives I've deemed a non-issue, especially when the drives not in use will be spun down.

The heat from a faster drive I've also not too concerned about as I will have decent cooling in place.  Plus.. I'm a Canadian... its always cold here! 

 

Once I figure things out better, I believe a cache drive takes some of the stress off the drives too.

 

That being said, I really think running all Seagates is the best way to go ( $130 CDN each ).

[Joe L.]

Considering the average file being transferred across my network from main PC to Server are going to be 4.3GB in size, will going with a 5400RPM drive over a 7200RPM drive affect the total transfer time?   I've always leaned towards "faster"

When writing to the array, the rotational speed of the disks involved (both parity and the data disk) will usually be the limiting factor.  Each block written must first be read from the drives involved and then THE PLATTER MUST SPIN AROUND, AT LEAST ONCE, TO GET THE DISK HEAD BACK TO THE SAME SECTOR TO WRITE IT.

 

Faster rotational speed disks will be faster overall, assuming there is no other bottleneck.  For many, the PCI bus speed might limit performance... Those with newer MB will have PCI-e, or PCI-X, so that will not be an issue.

 

You already know the "con" side.  More heat, and more power used.

 

Joe L.