4TB Raid 5 Array. Suggestions on Drive purchase?

bud951 · Dec 27, 2009

Hi, I have an Areca 1210 controller card and I need to create a 4tb Raid 5 Array. I have been looking at 2 tb drives from WD and Seagate to build my array but I keep hearing bad things as far as running these drives in Raid config. Is anyone here running 2tb drives in Raid 5 or 6 with reliability? If so, what 2tb drives are the best for this purpose? Thanks and Happy Holidays to all!

Bo$$ · Dec 27, 2009

i think WD are the best drives, never had a failure from them

DirectorC · Dec 27, 2009

Buy an extra couple drives so that you're ready in the event of a failure or two.

WDs are also my favorite as far as reliability goes.

runnin17 · Dec 27, 2009

I have a Raid 5 array with 4x 1TB Hitachi drives. Been running perfect for two years now without any issues at all.

I know some people dislike Hitachi, but the new Hitachi drives are just as good if not better than WD and Seagate. If you can though, spring for the Samsung F3's. They are very nice drives for the price.

Skywalker12345 · Dec 27, 2009

+1 Wd

newtekie1 · Dec 27, 2009

The Western Digital Green drives don't work well in RAID configurations. The reason being the Green features, chaning drive RPMs and large number of head Parks, can lead RAID controllers to mark the drive as failed. This leads to a lot of rebuilds, and of course the array isn't redundant during a rebuild, so if I drive actually fails you loose all your data.

I put together a RAID aray using a Highpoint 2310 controller for a customer a few months ago, they insisted on the WD drives, though I used the 1.5TB Greens not the 2TB ones. Had nothing but issues, almost daily array rebuilds and false drive failures. Ended up switching them to the Seagate LP drives and havn't had a rebuild or false drive failure since.

The WD Greens are great drives alone, but definitely avoid them if you are building a RAID array.

bud951 · Dec 27, 2009

runnin17 said:
I have a Raid 5 array with 4x 1TB Hitachi drives. Been running perfect for two years now without any issues at all.

I know some people dislike Hitachi, but the new Hitachi drives are just as good if not better than WD and Seagate. If you can though, spring for the Samsung F3's. They are very nice drives for the price.

So you are getting 3tb of storage on that array? I have considered Hatachi and Samsung. I built a PC for my nephew 5 years ago with a Samsung 400gb and the memory gave out before the drive. I still use it as a spare.

bud951 · Dec 28, 2009

Forgot to ask in my post. Is it better, faster, cheaper, more reliable to have more smaller drives in the array? Say, 4 - 1tb or 1.5tb drives instead of 3 or 4 - 2tb drives? (my controller has 4 sata connections) It appears that the 1tb drives are more reliable than the 2tb drives according to reviews on Newegg.

DirectorC · Dec 28, 2009

Yeah. Less platters is faster too. That's why a lot of people strive for 1-platter drive arrays. I like mine

I was gonna do a RAID5 config, but I've decided the best thing for my system is to have two small drives in RAID0 for the system, two medium drives in RAID0 for incoming data, and two large drives in RAID0 for permanent storage, possibly later becoming 3 drives in RAID5, but I would need a board with 7SATA ports or a RAID controller for that (which can be had for cheap--the 'fake' ones, anyway, which is fine by me).

dir_d · Dec 28, 2009

1TB F3 Samsung Spinpoints

bud951 · Dec 28, 2009

Are there any single platter 1.5gb drives?

DirectorC · Dec 28, 2009

bud951 said:
Are there any single platter 1.5gb drives?

Last I heard they had just gotten into 500GB platters with 750 in the horizon.

[H]@RD5TUFF · Jan 4, 2010

bud951 said:
Hi, I have an Areca 1210 controller card and I need to create a 4tb Raid 5 Array. I have been looking at 2 tb drives from WD and Seagate to build my array but I keep hearing bad things as far as running these drives in Raid config. Is anyone here running 2tb drives in Raid 5 or 6 with reliability? If so, what 2tb drives are the best for this purpose? Thanks and Happy Holidays to all!

I am currently running a raid 5 of 2 tb drives, with wonderfull reliability, haven't had a drive failure or data loss yet. I am using Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB 5900 RPM, I was able to get them for $129 USD each brand new! I love them, I have not had a single problem. I know that the WD drive has better preformance, but if your considering a raid 5 your obviously more concerned about redundancy and reliability than speed. I personally despise WD, I had 3 of their hard drives die all at once in a gaming machine I owned about 3 years back, and I refuse to purchase from them again. I prefer seagate, as their RMA is speedy and efficient.
Now I would also recommend a Raid 6 in stay of a raid 5. But as my current raid card does not offer raid 6, I am using raid 5.

System Name	Making Love
Processor	Intel SandyBridge 2600K
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7
Cooling	Corsair H70 Liquid Cooler
Memory	8 GB DDR3 Corsair Dominator 1600
Video Card(s)	Saphire Radeon 6970 2gb + XFX GeForce 8800GT 512mb Hybrid PhysX
Storage	Crucial 128 GB SSD for os and games + WD 2TB for storage
Display(s)	Samsung SyncMaster T260 LCD 26"
Case	Thermaltake Shark Mid Tower (plus Vasoline to make it all fit!)
Audio Device(s)	Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 + Logitech Z-5500 Digital THX Speakers
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200
Software	Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64

System Name	Desktop \| Server
Processor	Intel i7 2700k @ 4.6GHZ \| AMD 5350 @ 2500MHZ
Motherboard	Asus P7Z77-V Pro \| Asus AM1I-A
Cooling	Corsair H60v2 \| Stock Air
Memory	Crucial Ballistix 2x8GB CL8 1600MHZ \| Corsair Vengence 2x4GB CL9 1600MHZ
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX 1060 6GB \| PNY GTX 750Ti
Storage	Samsung 840 EVO 250GB + 4TB WD Red \| 2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB
Display(s)	Samsung S27D390H + Asus VE276Q \| Headless
Case	Fractal Design R5 \| CM Elite 110
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar D1 w/Otone Stilo 5.1 and Creative Fatal1ty headset
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova 850 G2\| Corsair CX430M
Mouse	Razer Imperator 2012
Keyboard	Corsair K90
Software	Windows 7 SP1 X64 \| Ubuntu 16.04LTS

System Name	-= Son of a Whore =-
Processor	E8400 @ 4.0GHz (445 x 9)
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Memory	3GB Corsair XMS2
Video Card(s)	EVGA 8800 GT 512
Storage	74GB Raptor + Caviars in RAID0
Display(s)	I-Inc 19" LCD 1440x900
Audio Device(s)	Audigy SE & Logitech X-540
Power Supply	Corsair 750TX
Software	Win32 v6.1.7600
Benchmark Scores	Logitech KB & Sidewinder X3

System Name	Will of D
Processor	Intel 980x
Motherboard	EVGA Classified E759 Limited Edition
Cooling	Water bitches
Memory	6GB Corsair Dominator GTX2!!!!!
Video Card(s)	2x EVGA 580 Superclocked
Storage	40GB Kingston V-series SSDx2 in RAID0, 500GB Seagate 7200.10
Display(s)	NEC 3090 and 2x NEC P221w's
Case	Custom (mountain mod like)
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar D2X
Power Supply	Anter 1000W TruePower Quattro
Software	Win 7 x64 Pro

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

4TB Raid 5 Array. Suggestions on Drive purchase?

bud951

New Member

Bo$$

Lab Extraordinaire

DirectorC

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runnin17

Skywalker12345

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

bud951

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bud951

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DirectorC

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dir_d

bud951

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DirectorC

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[H]@RD5TUFF

System Name	4k
Processor	AMD 5800x3D
Motherboard	MSI MAG b550m Mortar Wifi
Cooling	ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240
Memory	4x8Gb Crucial Ballistix 3600 CL16 bl8g36c16u4b.m8fe1
Video Card(s)	Nvidia Reference 3080Ti
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB
Display(s)	LG 48" C1
Case	CORSAIR Carbide AIR 240 Micro-ATX
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar STX
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 650W
Software	Microsoft Windows10 Pro x64

System Name	White Boy
Processor	Core i7 3770k @4.6 Ghz
Motherboard	ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe
Cooling	CORSAIR H100
Memory	CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB @ 2177
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX 680 CLASSIEFIED @ 1250 Core
Storage	2 Samsung 830 256 GB (Raid 0) 1 Hitachi 4 TB
Display(s)	1 Dell 30U11 30"
Case	BIT FENIX Prodigy
Audio Device(s)	none
Power Supply	SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W Modular
Software	Windows Pro 7 64 bit \|\| Ubuntu 64 Bit
Benchmark Scores	2017 Unigine Heaven :: P37239 3D Mark Vantage