drives for a NAS box

[dacons]

So I recently upgraded my crappy NEtgear stora to a Thecus N3200XXX but one of my 2 Samsung F1 drives seems as though its failing so I think I need to replace them now I currently have a sammy F3 1TB drive and am considering getting another 2 but I also fancied get 3 2TB drives but im unsure whats good ive heard eco drives are a bad idea for NAS systems also it main purpose is movie streaming to my Boxee so I need it to perform quickly.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[BaMb1N0]

i'm happy with my RE4's (Model No: WDC WD2003FYYS) . what i personally definitely would avoid is that hitachi stuff. bad expierience only.

alternativly i'd think about a seagate constellation ES (the model with the sata interface). it does not perform as well as the RE4 but it's a little less pricey.

8 RE4's used in: QNAP TS-859 Pro+

 

[dacons]

whats the diff between these and the blacks they seem similar spec and price.

 

[BaMb1N0]

that's a good question. performance of the blacks and RE4's is roughly the same, although the RE4's are a tiny little bit faster. but i read a review where they stated that some of the mechanical parts are more endurable (RE4) and different memory chips for cache are being used. but the basic design elements seem to be more or less the same, which explains the more or less similar performance.

i personally thought about the blacks, too. but i decided to go for 24/7 drives, whatever the difference finally is. proper storage operation is absolutely crucial in my personal life as i keep almost no data on my pc's anymore. but the decision wasn't that hard because my better half paid for the drives while i paid for the appliance itself, all the network components and the electrician

i currently own several WD blacks, too. they are passing a lot of vibration to it's case. something i did not observe with the RE4's.

 

[dacons]

ok cool alot of people are suggesting the eco drive 5200rpm but I dont like the idea of having to wake it up.

 

[BaMb1N0]

yeah, most of the eco drives are also not recommended by some NAS manufacturers, such as QNAP. they pretty much say "they'll work but please do not freakin' use them" . i guess spin up time is not that good and in RAID levels such as 5 or 6 the delay of one drive spinning up will add enourmous latencies to the whole array. i couldn't live with that.... i even banned my WD GP (4K Sectors) from my PC. too freakin' slow.

what i forgot to say: you might want to have a look at your NAS's drive compatibility list. i guess it would be sufficient if a certain drive family is listed there to ensure that it'll be working just fine. does not need to be the exact model.

 

[dacons]

Yeah not a bad idea had a brief look when I shoved my F1 drive in and had issues samsung arnt listed although that wasnt the problem one drive is full of bad sectors but they did have a whole bunch of WD drives il check it out.

Looks like im gonna have to pay on these drives and wont get away with some nice £60 each drives oh well never mind.