Hello ! I have a custom build NAS currently using 4x6TB hard drives in RAID10. I am looking for a capacity upgrade. My main focus are low power consumption and low noise (the NAS is in my living room / home office).
I can’t seem to find any 5400RPM HDD over 8TB in capacity anywhere. Is there any model with 10, 12 or more TB in existence ? If not, what could be the reasons ?
Is 5640 RPM acceptable? WD reds are all about 5400rpm and are basically the gold standard for NAS HDDs.
You can shuck them out of WD easy store drives sold at best buy. They’re white label drives from WD, but they’re all based on the red/red pro drives.
I suppose 5640 RPM wouldn’t make much of a difference compared to 5400, although I’ve never came across such hard disk. I will keep an eye on external drive options, thanks.
Just know that higher RPM doesn’t necessarily mean higher noise. In my experience Helium filled drives can be pretty quiet, and basically all really high capacity drives are helium filled.
I have an arm of shucked WD drives and while I can hear them from time to time, they’re not bad. Also your case makes a huge difference. Make sure the drives are on rubber isolators, and what they’re mounted on can’t vibrate to make any noise. The only noise I hear from these drives is when they first spin up after being idled.
According to 2.5admins shucked drives are not as good as the red/pro. They are the drives that didn’t meet the requirement for QA; so they go to external plug in drives, that the seller hopes the user doesn’t use them to the same rigourous performance of a true server daily requirement
I’m pretty sure that’s only a theory and not something that’s ever actually been confirmed. That said people on /r/datahoarder have raved about those drives for 5+ years at this point, and so far all 6 of my drives have been going strong after 6 years of constant abuse.
I can only relay what two server drive experts have explained. 2 of the guys in this podcast make their career on drive setup and performance.
https://2.5admins.com/
Also, remember when Seagate and WD tried to downplay SMR vs CMR disks in their NAS lineup but end users had their servers kicking out the SMRs from the pool? Sometimes in shucking you might get an SMR drive which sucks.
Anecdotal, but mine (a 4TB one) is running fine (knocks on wood) for 5+ years now. It’s in my server and doesn’t spin down. Low power usage as well. Very happy with it…
I’ve been using shucked WD Elements/EasyStore/MyBook drives in my 24/7 media server since 2018 without issue. I also have another as a torrent drive which has constant read/writes for around the same time again without issue.
I really don’t see the justification for paying nearly 2x the price just to get an actual red label sticker on the drive.
Yeah, I don’t diagree on Value, I just would not trust them on mission critical. If you listen to back catalog of 2.5admins they explain in detail about what you could encounter. On the flip side drives are supposed to last 10 years, I have a 13 year old one still chugging away.