whipdancer Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 Does anyone ever consider using laptop (2.5 in) hard drives? This last Christmas season, I saw several instances of 4TB portable externals for approximately $8 to $15 more than their full-sized equivalents. My thoughts center on power usage and number of drives in a case. I can run 2x laptop drives off a single sata power connector and I can fit 2x laptop drives in a single 3.5in slot. I'm curious about the trade-offs that this might present. I'm not acquiring 6/8TB drives yet because they are still above my per/drive budget. Anyone else considered this? Thanks, Whip Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 1 hour ago, whipdancer said: Does anyone ever consider using laptop (2.5 in) hard drives? This last Christmas season, I saw several instances of 4TB portable externals for approximately $8 to $15 more than their full-sized equivalents. My thoughts center on power usage and number of drives in a case. I can run 2x laptop drives off a single sata power connector and I can fit 2x laptop drives in a single 3.5in slot. I'm curious about the trade-offs that this might present. I'm not acquiring 6/8TB drives yet because they are still above my per/drive budget. Anyone else considered this? Thanks, Whip They would work fine and have the advantages you mention. However, they are slower compared to the 3.5" variety. And lower capacity. Try to find an 8T, 10T, 12T 2.5" drive. Not even sure 6T exists. More drives = more complex array = a bit higher risk. Quote Link to comment
HellDiverUK Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 Most 2.5" external drives aren't a SATA drive with a USB adaptor. They have the USB connection on the controller board, so are probably useless as a shuckable drive for use in unRAID. Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 2 hours ago, HellDiverUK said: Most 2.5" external drives aren't a SATA drive with a USB adaptor. They have the USB connection on the controller board, so are probably useless as a shuckable drive for use in unRAID. May vary by manufacturer. This one is a sata drive. https://www.servethehome.com/seagate-4tb-2-5-sata-hdd-124-get-ready-density/ 1 Quote Link to comment
c3 Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) FYI: 2.5 inch drives (like 3.5 inch drives) are not all the same height (z). This may foul your plans to put x many in y space. The large capacity drives are not actually laptop drives, and dont fit in many laptops. Just something to watch for. Edited January 31, 2018 by c3 Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 43 minutes ago, c3 said: FYI: 2.5 inch drives (like 3.5 inch drives) are not all the same height (z). This may foul your plans to put x many in y space. The large capacity drives are not actually laptop drives, and dont fit in many laptops. Just something to watch for. Looks like there are two basic standards: 9.5mm and 12.5 mm. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2.5-inch-12.5-mm-9.5-mm,2623.html Quote Link to comment
c3 Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) 10 minutes ago, SSD said: Looks like there are two basic standards: 9.5mm and 12.5 mm. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2.5-inch-12.5-mm-9.5-mm,2623.html Today, many laptops only fit 7mm (your link is from 2010). This drive is 15mm Seagate 4TB BarraCuda ST4000LM024 This drive is 7mm Western Digital 1TB Blue WD10SPZX Edited January 31, 2018 by c3 Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 2 minutes ago, c3 said: Today, many laptops only fit 7mm (your link is from 2010). This drive is 15mm Seagate 4TB BarraCuda ST4000LM024 This drive is 7mm Western Digital 1TB Blue WD10SPZX Interesting. That Seagate is actually available in a 5T size. That is biggest 2.5" I have seen. Yes - and looks like it is 15mm. So you are right and they getting wider over time. Still don't think it is a not a big deal to leave a margin for airflow / growth in a rack of some kind and be relatively future proof. Quote Link to comment
c3 Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) 10 minutes ago, SSD said: Interesting. That Seagate is actually available in a 5T size. That is biggest 2.5" I have seen. Yes - and looks like it is 15mm. So you are right and they getting wider over time. Still don't think it is a not a big deal to leave a margin for airflow / growth in a rack of some kind and be relatively future proof. Yes, there in lies the problem. You think you are leaving an airgap as (2) 7mm laptop drives fit in a 3.5in space (nominal z is 1in=25mm), but (2) of the 12.5mm or 15mm do NOT fit or leave air gap.All 2.5in drives are not laptop drives, and may not fit in the planned space. Edited January 31, 2018 by c3 Quote Link to comment
BobPhoenix Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) I use 4 laptop drives attached to a 4 port MB controller passed through to my WHS v1 VM on my Norco 4224 OS drive shelf - yes they are loose because I have two SSDs mounted below them on the shelf too. They just fit in the space as they are 9.5mm or less (Toshiba 1TB model 2.5"). Edited January 31, 2018 by BobPhoenix Quote Link to comment
whipdancer Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 Thank you for the feedback. It is genuinely appreciated. I'm aware of the height issues and even at 15mm (wasn't aware of that height) they still easily double stack in my existing 3.5in bays. I doubt they would fit well in my 3-x5 adapter. If I went down this path, I would likely replace that one with one of the 2.5in in 5.25in space specific converters I've seen come out in the last few years. Re: drives not being SATA - I've shucked 8 or so of them so far (mostly older ones to use for experimenting) and all but one have worked with my existing hardware. I can't speak for longevity because all my tests were a few days powered up & connected, running preclear, and seeing if I encounter errors during shutdown/start up. Re: Speed - how much speed do I need? I run plex and some complimentary apps. I'm curious what functions/apps show a marked difference, because other than the cache drive where my dockers reside - all the other drives are for storage. Just FYI, I run a mix of WD green, red, white, blue and their toshiba, seagate, hitachi equivalents now. $/gb is my deciding factor right now. Any other thoughts on topic? Thanks again, Whip Quote Link to comment
pwm Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 I have run quite a lot of systems with 2.5" drives. Often as mirrored system drives (in my case that means home directories, dockers, ...) or mirrored data drives. But basically for drives I want spinning continuously with low electricity cost. I have had quite good track record with both Seagate and WD blue and black drives for 24/7 use. Right now, I only install 2.5" drives where I know there will be a very large number of TB of lifetime writes, where I would have to either buy very expensive SSD or replace them regularly. Or where the size needs makes SSD too expensive. Quote Link to comment
whipdancer Posted February 7, 2018 Author Share Posted February 7, 2018 Thanks all! The feedback is very much appreciated! Quote Link to comment
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