Get a single 500GB drive now?

D

drizzt81

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
12,361
Hiho:

I am currently running a 4-disk R-5 array in my Domain controller. I have filled 420 of the 440 GB of space and am thinking that I will soon need more room. Considering my abysmal HD-tach performance (average read is 61 MB/s) and the fact that I don't particularly like my Promise SX4-M controller (it's PCI-X yet my dell only has PCIe slots) I am thinking that there are a lot of good reasons for getting a WD5000YS:
  1. One (or two in the near term) drive(s) consumes less power than 4
  2. Zero raid controllers consume less power than 1
  3. a single disk/ raid-1 volume is less complex than raid-5, less likely to fail
  4. less heat in the case (I think 2 of my drives have died from heat already :()

However, the 500 GB drives are pretty expensive. Considering that I can get the 750 GB Seagate from a forum member for 50 cents/ GB that would be cheaper than the WD option. I looked at Anand's benches and the temperature (http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2760&p=11) it appears to be a "cooler" investment to get the WD drive.

What do you guys think? Should I sink $375 into the Seagate or $260 + s/h into the WD solution? In the future I will likely move back to R-5 on a PCIe card though.
 
drizzt81 said:
What do you guys think? Should I sink $375 into the Seagate or $260 + s/h into the WD solution? In the future I will likely move back to R-5 on a PCIe card though.
Click to expand...

I do not know alot about hard drives. It was hard to understand some of your post :rolleyes:

I do say go for the 500GB WD drive. The Caviar RE2 WD5000YS or Caviar SE16 WD5000KS

Seems like the WD5000KS is .2 seconds slower than the WD5000YS in Average Seek Times.

My dream hard drive setup would be
WD 150GB raptor (OS drive)
WD 500GB, 16MB cache (storage drive)

Good luck :)
 
Would you eventually be moving the disk into an array, or just using it standalone?

Either way, the 500 would be my choice over the 750 - I don't plan to buy any perpendicular drives until they've been around a few more years. Who knows what kind of data reliability problems they have?

 
unhappy_mage said:
Would you eventually be moving the disk into an array, or just using it standalone?

Either way, the 500 would be my choice over the 750 - I don't plan to buy any perpendicular drives until they've been around a few more years. Who knows what kind of data reliability problems they have?

Click to expand...
eventually it'd be going into a -to be built- array.. probably sometime this fall/ winter, depending on my cash flow and needs.
 
drizzt81 said:
a single disk/ raid-1 volume is less complex than raid-5, less likely to fail
Click to expand...
Yes, but a drive failure containing all of your data is a lot more catastrophic. How can you not consider this possibility?
 
xonik said:
Yes, but a drive failure containing all of your data is a lot more catastrophic. How can you not consider this possibility?
Click to expand...
You do have a good point, however I have a couple of ideas:
  • all my 'important' data is actually copied over to a second DC that is at my brother's place in germany via windows FRS. While it'd probably take a day or two to download the whole chunk (he has 256 kbit DSL) they would not be lost
  • I am considering a RAID-1 array here as well, but not sure if I want that
  • i have a via board that I could hook up my old SATA controller too and use some form of incremental nightly backups, though that would defeat the reduction in power consumption idea, unless I have the via box startup just for this task and shutdown when done.

another question: Should I get the KS or the YS model... :/

the difference is ~$40 and the YS I can only get at newegg.
 
Can anyone recommend me a place that has these in stock, for a reasonable price BESIDES newegg?
 
so I just ordered one from The Egg. I guess I should run WDs tools across it a ton of times before trusting it with my data, huh?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top