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4-5TB HD recommendation

U

UnknownSouljer

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Sep 24, 2001
Messages
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Purpose is for storing critical photography work (my profession). I care about reliability and cost over speed, although I will be working off of these drives, so being completely dog slow is not preferable.

Looking to spend about $150 a drive. I'd like 2 total (for redundancy). So $300 total.

Recommendations? I notice there are several options from Seagate and WD. Not sure if HGST and Toshiba are still around. I haven't been paying attention to all the acquisitions and merging as of late.
 
HGST 4TB NAS.
Reliable, relatively cheap and 7200rpm.
Win.

I cant recommend anything else, the above is the best. Dont go near Seagate.
WD own HGST/Hitachi now but the drives are still independent.
 
Okay I'll definitely check 'em out. I think what was getting recommend a while ago was 5TB Toshibas... might've been HGST's... honestly I can't keep it straight anymore.

Will they have degraded performance when not operating in a NAS? I know it's a simple question, but I also know they really optimize drives for specific purposes these days.
 
I will second the HGST NAS. But if you choose 5TB and up options, try to make 6TB your minimum because those drives have double the cache.

I run the 6TB version as a single drive. Only had it a few months but it is active daily and has had no hiccups. Just because they market it or optimize it for NAS doesn't mean it will lose performance as a single drive. I bought it for the increased vibration tolerance under long term operation and the RAID support. I will convert it to a chipset RAID 1 some day when prices fall some more.

However, I am also running 2x 3TB Seagate NAS drives in a RAID 1 and they have been terrific for over two years. I saw that Newegg had a promo code selling the 4TB version for $105, but it expired 2 days ago. The model number has "VN" in the middle of it. I know people bash on Seagate all the time, but I've honestly never had a single Seagate failure so I can't dock them, whereas two WD Blacks have failed on me.
 
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Also, if you're going to be working off the RAID, you should consider trying an SSD for Intel SRT if your platform supports it.
 
rastaban said:
Also, if you're going to be working off the RAID, you should consider trying an SSD for Intel SRT if your platform supports it.
Click to expand...

In a perfect world I'd be able to afford a Thunderbolt DAS w/ Raid 1, but that currently isn't in the budget. I'll be using a Thunderbolt dual-dock and use software to duplicate the information between drives.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
In a perfect world I'd be able to afford a Thunderbolt DAS w/ Raid 1, but that currently isn't in the budget. I'll be using a Thunderbolt dual-dock and use software to duplicate the information between drives.
Click to expand...

How much RAM are you running? I read that TB speeds really scale with memory.
 
rastaban said:
How much RAM are you running? I read that TB speeds really scale with memory.
Click to expand...

Currently 16GB. I don't have plans to move to 32GB. Maybe if it gets super cheap, but I'd have to replace all my RAM as all my slots are populated, raising cost. Last time I checked it was $300 for 32GB in 4x 8GB DDR3 SODIMMs.

Currently I have to say that running drives off the Thunderbolt Dock is imperceptible versus my internal HDs. Which of course is optimal.
 
Like everyone else here has said, go with HGST, they are the best and most reliable drives but if they are out of your price range than go with Toshiba. I have more than 100 Toshiba drives and every drive I have put into use has worked with no issues.

I want to clarify that most of my Toshiba drives have not yet been put into service but all of the Toshiba drives that I have used thus far have worked without issue.

I don't trust any WD drives except for the Red Pro's or their Helium drives and I certainly don't trust Seagate even though I have used many of the 4TB desktop drives without any failures (yet).
 
UnknownSouljer said:
Okay I'll definitely check 'em out. I think what was getting recommend a while ago was 5TB Toshibas... might've been HGST's... honestly I can't keep it straight anymore.

Will they have degraded performance when not operating in a NAS? I know it's a simple question, but I also know they really optimize drives for specific purposes these days.
Click to expand...
Drives specced as NAS are a quality tier higher.
They are designed to cope with being left on permanently.
You can use them however you like without penalty, except for say seeing how long a PC will last inside a nuclear reactor.
 
That's usually just PR-bs unless you're going for server-grade drives, I have dozens of Toshiba drives running in RAID-arrays and whatnot just fine and several ppl here and on other storage forums are using their HDDs just fine.
 
Well I guess that seals it. HGST it is. I think Samsung was the other one I was thinking of. Still might of been Toshiba.
I've been pretty lucky though. I've only ever had a few drives fail. 2 IBM Deathstars back in the early 2Ks. And one 250GB WD that was in service for over 7 years.

I'd rather not try my luck however, for obvious reasons.
 
diizzy said:
Keep in mind that RAID != backups.
Click to expand...

Technically I won't be running RAID, but similar to. I've heard the mantra, but I don't have another solution I can use to back anything up. I get the "concept" that true backup would include states previous to changes and alterations, but with the exception of getting a virus, there isn't going to be a need to have that kind of redundancy.
 
Only non-SSD drives I use are WD Black. Never had a single one fail in over a dozen builds. Newegg had a special on the 5TB, a few weeks ago. $175 shipped. Bought two for my current PC.
 
Seagate enterprise drives are actually robust.
I have some ES.3 drives that have been updated by Seagate to the V4 line.
I also have 4 HGST NAS drives for over a year and rock solid as well.

Enterprise drives will of course cost much more.

Stay away from Seagate consumer drives.
 
Where is the best place to buy? Is it newegg still, or should I go some place else? I live in SoCal so I could go to micro center or frys.

Also I guess there is Amazon.
 
I have some awesome old Toshiba drives that are 7+ years old and still work fine. I more recently purchased a 5TB Toshiba and I would not recommend it purely on the fact of how loud it is. It sounds like a 5 1/4 floppy being read if you know what that's like.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
Where is the best place to buy? Is it newegg still, or should I go some place else? I live in SoCal so I could go to micro center or frys.

Also I guess there is Amazon.
Click to expand...
Jet has some good prices, especially if you can use one of their 20% off coupon codes. I snagged an M.2 950 Pro 512GB for $237 from Jet several months ago.
 
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Everything dies, it's just a matter of time and how frequent it will occur ;-)
 
diizzy said:
Everything dies, it's just a matter of time and how frequent it will occur ;-)
Click to expand...

Correct. And the issue is too frequent and you're basically at best burning a bunch of time and at worst burning cash.
If one item lasts for a year and another lasts for 5 and the cost difference at most is $20, you'd have to be a fool to choose the former item rather than the later. Especially if any of the data matters to you in anyway shape or form.
 
HGST is a good brand to go for. I like WD or Seagate stuff personally, just don't go with Toshiba. They have had some problems they never took care of, so if you run into trouble that they caused, you are on your own.
 
heatshiver said:
HGST is a good brand to go for. I like WD or Seagate stuff personally, just don't go with Toshiba. They have had some problems they never took care of, so if you run into trouble that they caused, you are on your own.
Click to expand...
Please elaborate what problems Toshiba havent taken care of.
 
heatshiver said:
HGST is a good brand to go for. I like WD or Seagate stuff personally, just don't go with Toshiba. They have had some problems they never took care of, so if you run into trouble that they caused, you are on your own.
Click to expand...

Yeah.. do tell, i've heard nothing but good things about Toshiba desktop drives.
 
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