Inquiry on HDD for NAS - comments are welcome...

[lloyd_joy]

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^ noted bro... thanks

yeah, it would be good to use the Red for NAS but i cannot justify its price for my current application... i was reading some performance benchmark early this evening on the newer WD RE4 (WD2003FYYS) in particular, it kinda beat the WD VelociRaptors (10K rpm) at some point during the testing. now, my final decision on the WD RE4-GP is on halt... had ordered for 2x2TB this afternoon for the RE4-GP but the seller has no stock... i'll take it as a sign for me not to buy a pair yet... hehehe...

made a cost analysis again... "Kulafu mode"... hata2x lang sa ko ug palit ani... in my actual apps, even the Greens will suffice my planned set-up for RAID 1... i'll be using the on-board SATA and let FreeNAS do the software RAID. i'll ditch-out the planned RAIDZ2... it is an overkill for me...

by the way, my NAS will not be running 24/7. it will just operate whenever i'm here at home. only my entertainment PC would do such a 24/7 activity (daily) except when i'll be out here in the main land...

here's the result from TomsHardware regarding thhe WD RE4 (WD2003FYYS)...
Conclusion : 500GB Per Platter: Three Next-Gen 7,200 RPM Hard Drives

[lloyd_joy]

the problem man gud with green drives on NAS boxes is that the energy saving mode will cause the nas box to go haywire. At times, it will not detect the drive which is why the WD Red is recommended for them. You can use the blacks too but it's gonna be more expensive. Although i'm not sure if the Greens will be exhibit the same behavior on raid 0 or raid 1 levels.

In your case (soft NAS), it probably won't be the case but I really can't say because I haven't tried it yet (pc-based NAS).

good luck on your choice and setup. btw, i'm using reds on my nas box (qnap)

bro kaotep,

i was wondering on the performance of the Red drives. these are also the same as the Greens, regarding on the energy saving technology... the Red also used the WD IntelliPower in terms of their RPM. both are of the same pedigree (in terms of power efficiency)... basically, they are the same in terms of performance due to the WD IntelliPower implementation whenever the drives are in transition from idle to active state... the Red has NASware and a 24/7 support though... and were designed for SOHO NAS use...

price wise here, i saw one shop that sells the WD RE4 (WD2003FYYS) at a lesser price compared to the WD Red (WD20EFRX)... both are 2TB drives... between these 2, would it be better to buy the WD RE4, what do you think?

thanks...

[kaotep]

yo bro, either drive is really good. it's just that the red drive was designed for stand alone nas boxes because they couldn't handle the power saving feature of the green drives but is really designed for 24/7 use (similar to the enterprise drives).. there really is no comparison between the red and re4 drives as they target the different users. green vs red should be more appropriate. but ti would be safe to say that the re4 drives were designed for robust usage.

in your case (freeNAS), i think the green drive should be sufficient for your needs. i've also read somewhere that you can disable the powerdown on the wd greens via a tool. i really wouldn't suggest getting a red unless you have a dedicated nas box.

Critical Design Flaw Found in WD Caviar Green HDDs

[lloyd_joy]

bro kaotep,

thanks bro... yeah, it would be better for me to get the Green since, my purpose is just for storage (it can't be affected by its power saving function vs the OS and application incompatibility)... no "critical data" is involved... oh, the WD RE4 that i found from one online shop is almost the same as the price of the Green. the RE4 just cost 30 rmb more... 210 php approx... i'll contact the seller tomorrow if he has available stocks...

by the way, my WD Elements external 1TB drive here (almost 3 yrs old) is most likely had utlized the WD Green HDD inside. i observed that when i access the drive for data retrieval, it takes some time for the drive to respond or wake up from hybernation mode (idle state). i assumed that this would be almost the same response time that i'll get when i'll use the Greens in RAID1 in my NAS system. more or less, it should be fine though for storage purposes since the HDDs would only be used whenever the data stored in them would be accessed by me...

[crx]

Go for WD RED for reliability.
Go for the ordinary WD Green for budget.

Most of our NAS deployments we use WD RED very reliable and worry free.

[lloyd_joy]

^ thanks bro...

[lloyd_joy]

aborted the plan to purchase 2 x 2TB WD RE4... instead, bought a 2 x 2TB Toshiba (Hitachi) DT01ACA200 HDDs... i'll share the image once i'll receive the units... ETA would be w/in tomorrow...

[lloyd_joy]

as promised, here are the items...