Enterprise drive in a home file server - advice? noise, reliability, etc

Ceph92

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 17, 2019
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I'm looking at building a new home file server. It needs to be reliable, efficient and quiet. And not too expensiive. I don't think RAID makes sense for me, so it's going to be a single drive.

My existing server uses a single Seagate Constellation (es.2 or .3) which has been rock solid for 5 years (24x7) and is pretty cool and quiet, at least in that box. It's mostly idle, and mainly provides SMB and DLNA, but it gets occasional heavy use from backups or some other purpose.

I've looked at Seagate Exos, WD Red Pro, WD Gold, HGST Ultrastar He8, older HGST (new old stock from backblaze's list). One of the complaints I come across with those are the noise levels. I never had an issue with the constellation drives, but folks' descriptions of the noise makes me think I can't keep it running in a living space. Is that true?

Anything else I ought to consider? I've decided against "archive" and :surveillance"-type drives. I'd prefer high MTBF, but that may not deliver much value in a low-utilization machine.

Thanks.
 
Your budget dictates everything. You may want a quiet drive, but your budget may not allow it. Also, quiet is purely subjective to most people. I have WD cheap 4tb spinners in all my boxes, don't know the color or line.. just know I dont care, and they all work fine for me. In my environments, I never hear them much less care about them. Other folks may loose their minds with them. RPM speed will contribute to noise.. The 10k/15k drives are going to be louder then the 7.2s and the 5ks.

There is virtually no difference between most enterprise drives and the consumer version of the same drive other then firmware tweaks for what maybe considered an enterprise work load. Unpopular opinion, but enterprise drives are just extra pennies spent in your home environment that you are not really going to benefit you in consumer land. If you just really want them, then go for it.

Bunch of people are way more passionate about hard drive noise then I am and took the time to measure volume levels. If I was you, Id set my budget first, then find the quietest drive that fits that budget based on someone else's research.
 
For performance/value for server storage as you describe, I suggest looking into "Shucked" HDDs from WD EasyStore or WD Elements external drives, either 8TB or 10TB sizes. There are TONS of threads (including a sale/deal discussion thread on [H]) plus places like the datahoarder sub-reddit that describe these drives. They often go on sale for between 130-170 (depending on size, time of year etc) and each of these externals are essentially filled either with A) An actual labeled WD Red / Red Pro or B) A "white label" drive that equates exactly to a WD Red / Red Pro / Gold or HGST He8 model in terms of specs , for a fraction of the price. The particular drive IDs and serial numbers can tell you different things (ie Thailand made drives were 256mb cache, China were 128mb) and plugging them into CrystalDiskInfo will tell you if yours is a Helium (ie WD Gold, HGST He8 type) if "field 22" is positive (if I recall of the top of my head - could be something different).

This allows you to pick up a drive that would, sold as a bare drive, sometimes be in excess of $300+, for $130 so the value is unbeatable if you don't actually need the "real enterprise warranty". Of course, the warranty itself isn't bad - just be sure to keep the external enclosure to stick it back into if you need to RMA. Depending on what else you may need or value, definitely check into this avenue as its likely the cheapest way to get high quality storage.
 
I remember buying an Enterprise HDD a fw years ago. Huge mistake. It was like using a PC from 26 years ago noise wise.
 
plus u gotta always remember that chain is strong as its weakest point.. no matter what hdd it is, if psu is bad, going bad or smth happens.. it can insta fry ur hdd.. always get a good psu, keep it clean and get ups unit.. gives so much more time for your parts..
 
plus u gotta always remember that chain is strong as its weakest point.. no matter what hdd it is, if psu is bad, going bad or smth happens.. it can insta fry ur hdd.. always get a good psu, keep it clean and get ups unit.. gives so much more time for your parts..


When i build a new rig for myself it takes me a couple of hours to pick the parts. For the CPU/motherboard/RAM/Storage and GPU I can do that in about 20 minutes. The other 90 or so is picking a PSU.
 
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