Need more space, but debating on these options

[dja2k]

Has anyone used the Western Digital My Book Studio II 6TB (3TB x2) drive before and is the Raid 1 on it reliable if the unit fails ? I am in need of more space and hard drives are expensive at the moment. I know it has Western Digital green drives in there but it has a 3-year warranty. The normal warranty on greens are 2-year. And well its a good all around unit that has esata which is what I would be using.

The other route to save money was to buy 2 Western Digital Green 3TB drives, mount them on my esata dual dock and manually do backups of one drive with the other. That would save me roughly around $80.00 but I will loose 1-year of warranty compared to buying the My Book Studio II 6TB.

I also saw that the Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 is faster than the Western Digital Greens, so I am leaning towards that and save money, but I will loose 1-year warranty compared to the Western Digital Studio Pro II

What do you think? Any ideas

dja2k

 

[fornoob]

If you want to save space and still have a good speed, consider RAID 5: you need at least 3 drives (same size), only a third of the total space is used for checksum, so basically in RAID 5, 3*2 TB HDD give 4 TB to use. Can be a good option compared to RAID 1 for the same data recovery ability.

WD green are HORRIBLY slow (consider you are ALWAYS at 5400 rpm...) and expansive. I would go for 3 of the Seagate and build a RAID 5. If you can afford it

 

[dja2k]

See the thing is I already have a Raid-5 enclosure, but I don't want to go that route because I am worried the unit will fail first before the drives and I don't want to spend another $250+ for another unit just to recover my files. Also the Raid-5 unit I have only gives me roughly 80 - 100 MB\s and that is with 5 Western Digital 640GB Blacks. They are running out of warranty too, so that's why I am looking for an alternative. I am looking into 2 Western Digital Reds 3 TB drives that have 3-year warranty and are a bit faster and more reliable than the Greens. Oh and I found out those Seagate's only come with 1-year warranty.

 

[fornoob]

Ok,

So if RAID 5 is not an option for you in this case, your main issue is also the choice of the HDD right?
I never tried WD reds, I don't know if they are worth it or not.
Yes, I would recommend to avoid the green: expensive, not really reliable, slow,...
Warranty seems to be a real concern for you. In my own experience, each issue I had with HDD were either as soon as I get it (dead HDD, defective, etc...) or in the 3-6 months. So basically, Seagate's warranty wouldn't be a problem for me. But I don't do any intensive use of my HDDs, so... maybe you're right, I don't know!

Seagate is your best option (speed, price) if you can afford a 1-year warranty (like I do). In other case, WD reds MIGHT be an option (I didn't test them so I cannot say), or WD blacks (really good, but so expensive right now...).

It is up to you to decide

 

[dja2k]

I want SPEED and QUIET, so that's why I want WD Red's because Black's are noisy. I still don't know if Red's will workout fine inside a desktop since they are mainly build for NAS. I did read reviews saying Red's are as fast as WD 1TB 7200RPM 64mb Cache Caviar Blacks. Still debating and well with Black Friday coming, still got some time to decide.

dja2k

 

[notJUSTguitar]

I have 2 Western Digital Black drives...both close to 2 years old, work great.
Yeah, they are louder then a lot of drives, but quieter then my fans so it doesn't bother me.
Friends have Seagate drives that work fine.

Samsung Spinpoints are quieter, but I'd never get one personally, as I've seen them fail.

 

[dja2k]

All my fans are 140mm silent and extremely quietly tuned, so any spinning and parking, I will be able to hear it. I sold my RAID box as I didn't want to keep 5 640GB drives in RAID-5 anymore. I figured that 2 3TB as RAID-1 are good enough at the moment inside my desktop. A NAS will knock me out $200+ more, so just want to through 2 HD's in RAID-1. I know this is way off from what this thread was started for, but after reviewing my options, this is what I am currently looking at.

dja2k

 

[txus.palacios]

RAID5 is the way to go. If you're concerned about the controller dying, build a cheap NAS box, get OpenIndiana there and enjoy ZFS goodness.

 

[dja2k]

Yes I know Raid5 is the charm, but buying 5 - 3TB drives would kill me $$$. Maybe later though, not ruling it out. Just got 2 WD Reds from Newegg for $150 each (at this point, decision is based on 3 year warranty and price). I am going to run them meanwhile as mirror in my desktop.

dja2k

 

[fornoob]

But why would you go for 5 drives? That's the point I don't get. You only need 3 to build a RAID 5 array.

 

[dja2k]

Sorry yes you are right, still keep thinking I have my TowerRAID with 5 drive bays. 3 Drives will run me $450 average plus whatever cheap NAS box I can buy or build. I only got a small budget right now. The price was good for another one, but just couldn't do it right now. If the price goes even lower on Black Friday, maybe I will get a 3rd WD Red and see about a NAS Box.

Oh and damn I forgot to mention I don't have gigabit routers, so that would decrease sending data through Ethernet, most probably will have to look into eSATA or USB 3.0 port somehow.

dja2k

 

[notJUSTguitar]

How are the red drives?

Are they pretty quiet?

 

[txus.palacios]

I don't think their market is silence.

 

[dja2k]

I will get mine tonight and I would let you know how quiet they are. Check this website in the meanwhile...

http://www.silentpcreview.com/WD_Red

dja2k

 

[cw823]

Ok,

So if RAID 5 is not an option for you in this case, your main issue is also the choice of the HDD right?
I never tried WD reds, I don't know if they are worth it or not.
Yes, I would recommend to avoid the green: expensive, not really reliable, slow,...
Warranty seems to be a real concern for you. In my own experience, each issue I had with HDD were either as soon as I get it (dead HDD, defective, etc...) or in the 3-6 months. So basically, Seagate's warranty wouldn't be a problem for me. But I don't do any intensive use of my HDDs, so... maybe you're right, I don't know!

Seagate is your best option (speed, price) if you can afford a 1-year warranty (like I do). In other case, WD reds MIGHT be an option (I didn't test them so I cannot say), or WD blacks (really good, but so expensive right now...).

It is up to you to decide

Seagate should never bet the best option, it's like choosing which STD you want. I don't want any STDs personally. Hitachi > Samsung > WD > everyone else. Greens are NOT expensive, are no less reliable than any other drive, and slow doesn't matter if you're copying across gigabit. If it's a NAS, green drives can more than saturate gigabit lan via a single drive.

I have 2 Western Digital Black drives...both close to 2 years old, work great.
Yeah, they are louder then a lot of drives, but quieter then my fans so it doesn't bother me.
Friends have Seagate drives that work fine.

Samsung Spinpoints are quieter, but I'd never get one personally, as I've seen them fail.

I've seen hard drives from every mfgr fail, therefore, I never buy hard drives.

Yes I know Raid5 is the charm, but buying 5 - 3TB drives would kill me $$$. Maybe later though, not ruling it out. Just got 2 WD Reds from Newegg for $150 each (at this point, decision is based on 3 year warranty and price). I am going to run them meanwhile as mirror in my desktop.

dja2k

So you now have a RAID1, and unless you have a hardware raid controller or are using mdadm raid, you will not be able to migrate to a RAID5.

Sorry yes you are right, still keep thinking I have my TowerRAID with 5 drive bays. 3 Drives will run me $450 average plus whatever cheap NAS box I can buy or build. I only got a small budget right now. The price was good for another one, but just couldn't do it right now. If the price goes even lower on Black Friday, maybe I will get a 3rd WD Red and see about a NAS Box.

Oh and damn I forgot to mention I don't have gigabit routers, so that would decrease sending data through Ethernet, most probably will have to look into eSATA or USB 3.0 port somehow.

dja2k

You can more that recover your cost for some cheap NAS parts once you sell your old unit + the 5 drives. See my above comment, you need to decide your permanent solution BEFORE you create raid of any level on your 2x WD RED drives.

 

[dja2k]

Got the two drives today and they are super quiet, I can't even hear anything if I put my ear to them at idle or reading\writing data. The speed of this hard drives are great too.