Server Drive Questions

[raksasas]

I have a two questions. Are there any server rated terabyte drives? Is there an easy way to determine if a drive is server rated?

I have someone who stated that there are no server rated terabyte drives. So since,I am wanting to request a few terabyte drives I will have to go through this person to order these drives.

 

[Dangman]

The quickest way to know if a drive is a server class or not is to look at the name

Just a small example:
- Seagate: Barracuda ES and ES.2 series
- Western Digital RE and RE2 series drives.

And yes there are server class 1TB drives out there.

 

[nitrobass24]

Yes there are plenty and in SATA and SAS(seagate) versions

WD also has RE3's and now RE4's although the 4's are brand new and may be really hard to find for a while.

Any reason you need *server rated*?
Only reason I ask is because there is really no difference.

 

[The Spyder]

Yes there are plenty and in SATA and SAS(seagate) versions

WD also has RE3's and now RE4's although the 4's are brand new and may be really hard to find for a while.

Any reason you need *server rated*?
Only reason I ask is because there is really no difference.

Im sorry but I completely disagree with that last part. They are server class for a reason. They are designed, engineered, and tested with 24/7/365 for 5+yrs of hard use in a raid environment. Not the typical home user where they can spin down, write a file here and there, and be shut off for a period of time. Higher quality components and better firmware are not uncommon for these drives.

 

[Yoda4561]

Looking over seagate's selection they seem to distinguish between their 1TB ES series "mainstream enterprise use" drives and Cheetah/saavio "mission critical/server" use. Their cheetah/saavio server rated drives max out around 600GB, which they claim are the largest in their class.

 

[Old Hippie]

So since,I am wanting to request a few terabyte drives I will have to go through this person to order these drives.

Sounds like "this person" may want to charge you a premium for server rated drives.

Don't purchase those untill he buys that ocean front property in Arizona you've been wanting to sell!

 

[[LYL]Homer]

Are server class drives actually built differently, with higher quality components, or do they just have better support?

 

[Syntax Error]

Are server class drives actually built differently, with higher quality components, or do they just have better support?

The drive manufacturers claim higher MTBFs and such, and that they are "optimized for RAID functionality and 24/7 operation", but I'm not exactly sure how true that may be.

SATA drives I've used have usually been on for long periods of time and I've had no issues, though the Enterprise drives seem to have better RAID card support, probably a form of price discrimination to charge enterprise buyers more because they can.

 

[nitrobass24]

Are server class drives actually built differently, with higher quality components, or do they just have better support?

The drive manufacturers claim higher MTBFs and such, and that they are "optimized for RAID functionality and 24/7 operation", but I'm not exactly sure how true that may be.

SATA drives I've used have usually been on for long periods of time and I've had no issues, though the Enterprise drives seem to have better RAID card support, probably a form of price discrimination to charge enterprise buyers more because they can.

Well I dont know about HDD's in particular, but my brother in law works for Texas Instruments and they make all kinds of silicon for various applications.
He told me that their *higher grade* products come some the same batch as consumer products but they give a guarantee, and better support/warranty.
He told me that the same chips they put in $40 dollar calculators, the will charge NASA in the thousands for each unit.

Mechanically there should be no difference in the drives.
Why would there be?

Why would you intentionally make a shittier product for consumers? That is just illogical

Its kind of like business class internet vs residential. Its the same internet, with the same hardware, they just * guarantee* it with a SLA.
Thats the only difference.