Which drives for low end servers? (SATA)

ImNotDeadYet

ImNotDeadYet

Member
Reaction score
17
Location
USA
Traditionally we've used WD Black SATA drives in low end servers and 'workstation as a server' situations. You know, a budget machine with on board/software RAID and a simple mirror. Well we're not doing much of that anymore but I'm putting together a budget HP Microserver and need to choose a couple SATA drives for a mass storage mirror (Boot will be SSD). The WD Black drives have served us well from a reliability standpoint but man are they noisy and the performance has never impressed me. Over the past two decades I always seem to regret buying Seagates. Once in awhile I'll convince myself that Seagate's can't ALL be bad so I'll try one and it comes back to bite me.

Anyhow, it's been awhile since I've done a SATA RAID setup and rather than going with the good old WD Black drives I thought it would be worth asking what you all are having success with.

Thanks.
 
WD RE!

Not sure if they're any quieter, read the specs, but you want a drive that is specifically engineered for RAID (i.e. with TLER). I'd take slower performance and long life over noise levels. Had one or two cheap RAID HP servers where the cheap drives kept dropping out of the fake RIAD. Never again!
 
A second vote for the RE drives, or WD RED if you don't really need the speed. I don't really do budget servers, but small clients without a server... I'll certainly slap two 500GB drives in there with RAID1 as a precaution on the main workstation. The extra $150 or so is worth the minimized risk of down time.

I feel you on the WD Black noise level... did a RAID1 of those on the last workstation as I was somewhat regretting the speed of the WD REDs... man are they noisy. No more of that. They sound like enterprise drives but don't have loud fans to drown it out! To a client they just sound broken.
 
Why not stick with SSD..especially on the data volume. The data volume is where you want the speed, not just the OS drive. If I had to pick a pair of spindles and a pair of SSDs...I'd put the SSDs for the data..where the users of the network enjoy the speed. And I'd put the spindles on the OS..because, that's not used every day..or even every week...perhaps a few hours a month for shoving in Windows updates and a reboot..after hours.

I see that so much..SSDs on the OS drive of a server, who benefits from that? The IT guy once every month or three for an hour doing updates. Meanwhile the poor daily users on the network still suffer the sluggishness of spindle SATAs for the day to day usage.

Make both volumes SSD...or flip them around and give the daily users the benefit of speed.

Anyways..back to which spindles...WD RE are the highest spindle enterprise drive. WD Raptors are high performance 10,000 rpm drives and still enterprise..5 year 1.2 MTBF rating. WD Blacks in 3rd place.
 
My new "Blacks" are much quieter than my old ones and weigh about 40% less too for some reason.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Why not stick with SSD..especially on the data volume. The data volume is where you want the speed, not just the OS drive.
Click to expand...

This is a file server accessed regularly by two users and occasionally by a 3rd over gigabit ethernet or VPN. They have a lot of data and the budget is low so a 2TB hard drive array suits the need well and I don't think performance will be an issue. I like SSD's on the boot drive, especially when virtualizing because it helps for things to be snappy when the physical boot and virtual boot are both SSD. When we need to service things, merge snapshops, reboot the server, etc. it's fast. I love SSD's for boot drives when it comes down to knocking out maintenance quickly and getting things fixed quickly if there are issues.
 
One thing I'll note since nobody else has - when looking at spindles consider enterprise 2.5" drives - lower capacity, but IIRC latency on a 10k 2.5" is comparable to a 15k 3.5".
 
Same here we try and use enterprise drives if we can. I had heaps of problems with WD Red drives in Nas boxes and find normal Seagate drives last way longer. We normally use SSDs in everything. All servers are SSD and in the low budget desktop "server" maybe Samsung Pro drives. Replaced dead REDs with Seagate desktop drives and never had a problem.
 
Are there any definitive answers for the use of SSHD's? I have one or two servers out in the wild with 2x 2TB Hybrids, and they do seem quick enough. I have SSD everywhere else where 1TB storage+ is not required. Hybrid, Usually for data drives. SSD's for OS.
 
2.5" enterprise SAS drives seem to top out at 1.2TB, but there is a seagate 2.5" enterprise SATA model at 2TB. just FYI. Not exactly budget at $294 ea. though. With 3.5" drives, I don't think you get performance and quiet. This is the argument for SSDs, that's for sure.
 
I had read the HGST 4 TB drives (7200 rpm) had a decent record for reliability, including in 8 drive NAS boxes...

If someone wants reliable spinners, there is always WD Gold, right?
 
TurricanII said:
WD RE!

Not sure if they're any quieter, read the specs, but you want a drive that is specifically engineered for RAID (i.e. with TLER). I'd take slower performance and long life over noise levels. Had one or two cheap RAID HP servers where the cheap drives kept dropping out of the fake RIAD. Never again!
Click to expand...

No software /Winblows RAIDs....

Going to start hammering a FreeNAS rig (8 drives in RAID Z2, RAID 6 equivalent) with testing soon,then giving it to the office (max 10 simultaneous users) for sustained testing....
 
MDD1963 said:
I had read the HGST 4 TB drives (7200 rpm) had a decent record for reliability, including in 8 drive NAS boxes...

If someone wants reliable spinners, there is always WD Gold, right?
Click to expand...

HGST seems to have a consistent high ranking on Backblaze so that is what I have been using on my customer's Synology's

MDD1963 said:
No software /Winblows RAIDs....

Going to start hammering a FreeNAS rig (8 drives in RAID Z2, RAID 6 equivalent) with testing soon,then giving it to the office (max 10 simultaneous users) for sustained testing....
Click to expand...

FreeNAS is a software RAID. At least last I looked over the details. Remember that they specifically said not to use real RAID cards. That being said I've been running my own FreeNAS rig for some 6 years. Granted it's relatively low activity, most of the volume is TM backups. But I've been very happy, even using cr@ppy, cheap consumer drives.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

HCHTech
My month for hard drive failures plus head's up about Dell's outlet
Replies
13
Views
2K
HCHTech
HCHTech
Big Jim
Another server question
2
Replies
26
Views
4K
Big Jim
Big Jim
O
NAS for Backup
Replies
11
Views
2K
ohio_grad_06
O
OaksLabs
Rolling my own NAS, SATA or SAS, and what OS?
Replies
17
Views
3K
OaksLabs
OaksLabs
HCHTech
Temporary RAID repair
Replies
3
Views
779
Markverhyden
Markverhyden
Back
Top