• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

RAID6: Samsung or WD?

Which 1TB laptop (2.5", 9.5mm) drive to use for 8x RAID6 volume?


  • Total voters
    15
  • Poll closed .

Albuquerque

New Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
55 (0.01/day)
System Name The Desktop
Processor i7-3930k C2 @ 4.5Ghz (125bclk)
Motherboard Intel DX79Si FW430
Cooling Zalman CNPS9900 Max
Memory 8 x 4Gb Mushkin Redline 1600Mhz 8-9-8-24 1T
Video Card(s) ATI Radeon 7970 @ 1200/1575
Storage 6 x OCZ Agility 3 240GB RAID0 using HighPoint 2720SGL
Display(s) Dell U2711 Rev.08
Case ThermalTake Armor+
Power Supply Kingwin Lazer 1KW Platinum
Software Windows 7 64-bit Professional EFI
Your opinion counts :)

I'm building a new 2008 R2 server that will act as a VM host for a plethora of boxes, to include a WHS 2011 instance, another 2008R2 instance for hosting some online games (MineCraft, some old Telnet games), and some other nonsense. Because the box will be running 24/7 and will only occasionally get "busy", I'm going to spec it out with equipment with good idle power characteristics. And because it will be serving as the backup instance for all my other home Windows devices thanks to WHS, I need to make sure that data doesn't go off the deep end.

I'm going to stack it all up using laptop drives: a pair of WD Scorpio Black 320GB drives in RAID1 + Z77 caching SSD for the OS and apps volume, and then eight 1TB 9.5mm laptop drives all connected to a Highpoint 2720 SGL in RAID6 for the data volume.

The question is: which 1TB laptop drives to use? You decide :)
 

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
25,776 (3.79/day)
Location
Alabama
System Name Rocinante
Processor I9 14900KS
Motherboard EVGA z690 Dark KINGPIN (modded BIOS)
Cooling EK-AIO Elite 360 D-RGB
Memory 64GB Gskill Trident Z5 DDR5 6000 @6400
Video Card(s) MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage 1x 500GB 980 Pro | 1x 1TB 980 Pro | 1x 8TB Corsair MP400
Display(s) Odyssey OLED G9 G95SC
Case Lian Li o11 Evo Dynamic White
Audio Device(s) Moondrop S8's on Schiit Hel 2e
Power Supply Bequiet! Power Pro 12 1500w
Mouse Lamzu Atlantis mini (White)
Keyboard Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Akko Crystal Blues
VR HMD Quest 3
Software Windows 11
Benchmark Scores I dont have time for that.
which one do you like better?
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
4,267 (0.70/day)
Location
Sanford, FL, USA
Processor Intel i5-6600
Motherboard ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s) Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s) LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC892
Power Supply Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse Logitech G700s
Keyboard Logitech G110
Software Windows 10 Pro
The cheapest ones? :)

Seems a bit elaborate for what you need. Not that I'm against such things, but sometimes the more practical solution wins out - like 5-6 drives on the motherboard controller. When that's outlived, then I'd expand to another controller.
 

Albuquerque

New Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
55 (0.01/day)
System Name The Desktop
Processor i7-3930k C2 @ 4.5Ghz (125bclk)
Motherboard Intel DX79Si FW430
Cooling Zalman CNPS9900 Max
Memory 8 x 4Gb Mushkin Redline 1600Mhz 8-9-8-24 1T
Video Card(s) ATI Radeon 7970 @ 1200/1575
Storage 6 x OCZ Agility 3 240GB RAID0 using HighPoint 2720SGL
Display(s) Dell U2711 Rev.08
Case ThermalTake Armor+
Power Supply Kingwin Lazer 1KW Platinum
Software Windows 7 64-bit Professional EFI
Motherboard (Z77 Mini-ATX) controller will be 'busy doing a pair of WD Scorpio Black 320Gb drives in RAID1 along with an SSD for caching ;)

Want to talk about elaborate? Look at my system specs ;)
 

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
13,147 (2.96/day)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
System Name Apollo
Processor Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory 64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage 1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s) Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s) AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply 96w Power Adapter
Mouse Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software MacOS 12.1
The cheapest ones?

Seems a bit elaborate for what you need. Not that I'm against such things, but sometimes the more practical solution wins out - like 5-6 drives on the motherboard controller. When that's outlived, then I'd expand to another controller.

Just makes sure they support some form of TLER.

If you have the money and want an enterprise drive solution consider WD RE4 as they're built specifically for RAID.
http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=30

Motherboard (Z77 Mini-ATX) controller will be 'busy doing a pair of WD Scorpio Black 320Gb drives in RAID1 along with an SSD for caching ;)

Want to talk about elaborate? Look at my system specs ;)

It's not that elaborate. How fast does the SSD RAID go because my two Force GTs hit 1gb/s easy.
 
Joined
Mar 19, 2012
Messages
377 (0.09/day)
Location
Rizal, Philippines
System Name Poor Man's Build
Processor Intel i7 3960X 4.9Ghz Sandy Bridge E
Motherboard MSi X79A-GD65 8D
Cooling XSPC 240mm and 360MM (External) Rad
Memory 64Gb Corsair Dominator Platinum
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX770 SC ACX SLI (non water cooled yet)
Storage Intel 520 240GB SSD x2 /x2 WD Caviar Black 3TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache
Display(s) ASUS 27" 2560X1440 x3
Case Corsair 900D (upgraded from my lvl 10 gt and 600T)
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar Essence STX
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i 80PLUS Platinum
Software Windows 7 Ultimate (FPP)
well just go grab either both are good but if your going to raid samsung might be a better choice (not sure about this as western digital got bad raid or something by what people say and I am not sure about that)
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
4,267 (0.70/day)
Location
Sanford, FL, USA
Processor Intel i5-6600
Motherboard ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s) Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s) LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC892
Power Supply Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse Logitech G700s
Keyboard Logitech G110
Software Windows 10 Pro
Motherboard (Z77 Mini-ATX) controller will be 'busy doing a pair of WD Scorpio Black 320Gb drives in RAID1 along with an SSD for caching ;)

Want to talk about elaborate? Look at my system specs ;)

Oh silly me, I should have gathered from your post that you wanted a Rube Goldberg approach to your server. Some times it needs to be spelled out for me to catch on. ;)


Just makes sure they support some form of TLER.

If you have the money and want an enterprise drive solution consider WD RE4 as they're built specifically for RAID.
http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=30

I will... when it matters. Not so much here.
 

Albuquerque

New Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
55 (0.01/day)
System Name The Desktop
Processor i7-3930k C2 @ 4.5Ghz (125bclk)
Motherboard Intel DX79Si FW430
Cooling Zalman CNPS9900 Max
Memory 8 x 4Gb Mushkin Redline 1600Mhz 8-9-8-24 1T
Video Card(s) ATI Radeon 7970 @ 1200/1575
Storage 6 x OCZ Agility 3 240GB RAID0 using HighPoint 2720SGL
Display(s) Dell U2711 Rev.08
Case ThermalTake Armor+
Power Supply Kingwin Lazer 1KW Platinum
Software Windows 7 64-bit Professional EFI
What part of "laptop drives" did the two of you miss? ;)

And as for Rube Goldberg? In what way? RAID1 + Caching for OS and apps, and a RAID6 volume for data via an 8-port SAS RAID card. Unless of course it's a "Rube Goldberg" approach because I'm not using twenty 15,000RPM enterprise SCSI drives plumbed into my own $10,000 SAN device that feeds a $4000 5U racked server?

No. I'm building a server for home with good idle power characteristics which will be based on commodity hardware using low power devices such as laptop drives. Not a big ask, if you look around...
 
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Messages
2,047 (0.39/day)
Location
Republic of Texas
Processor R9 5950x
Motherboard Asus x570 Crosshair VIII Formula
Cooling EK 360mm AIO D-RGB
Memory G.Skill Trident Z Neo 2x16gb (CL16@3800MHz)
Video Card(s) PNY GeForce RTX 3090 24GB
Storage Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVMe | Intel 660p 2TB NVMe
Display(s) Acer Predator XB323QK 4K 144Hz
Case Corsair 5000D Airflow
Audio Device(s) Objective2 Amp/DAC | GoXLR | AKG K612PRO | Beyerdynamic DT880| Rode Pod Mic
Power Supply Corsair AX 850w
Mouse Razer DeathAdder Elite V2
Keyboard Corsair K95 Platinum RGB "Cherry MX Brown"
VR HMD Oculus Rift
Software Window 11 Pro
have you google about TLER if ur serious about RAID

NM you want laptop drives

i would go with blue WD then, i never have bad experience with WD
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
4,267 (0.70/day)
Location
Sanford, FL, USA
Processor Intel i5-6600
Motherboard ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s) Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s) LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC892
Power Supply Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse Logitech G700s
Keyboard Logitech G110
Software Windows 10 Pro
And as for Rube Goldberg? In what way? RAID1 + Caching for OS and apps, and a RAID6 volume for data via an 8-port SAS RAID card. Unless of course it's a "Rube Goldberg" approach because I'm not using twenty 15,000RPM enterprise SCSI drives plumbed into my own $10,000 SAN device that feeds a $4000 5U racked server?

No... that would be even more elaborate then your current plan, to point of being needlessly
excessive. Perhaps we we're thinking of two different Rube Goldbergs.


No. I'm building a server for home with good idle power characteristics which will be based on commodity hardware using low power devices such as laptop drives. Not a big ask, if you look around...

Exactly. You have simple needs which is why I gave a simple setup suggestion. If you have other reasons for planning it out as you have then by all means, continue on. It can even be "because I want to" - I've used that plenty of times for doing things the way I do.
 

Albuquerque

New Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
55 (0.01/day)
System Name The Desktop
Processor i7-3930k C2 @ 4.5Ghz (125bclk)
Motherboard Intel DX79Si FW430
Cooling Zalman CNPS9900 Max
Memory 8 x 4Gb Mushkin Redline 1600Mhz 8-9-8-24 1T
Video Card(s) ATI Radeon 7970 @ 1200/1575
Storage 6 x OCZ Agility 3 240GB RAID0 using HighPoint 2720SGL
Display(s) Dell U2711 Rev.08
Case ThermalTake Armor+
Power Supply Kingwin Lazer 1KW Platinum
Software Windows 7 64-bit Professional EFI
Your suggestion doesn't work within the guidelines I have provided (there are no Mini ATX motherboard that support eight RAID slots, and I'm not aware of ANY that support RAID6), so please provide another one.
 

W1zzard

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
26,956 (3.71/day)
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory 48 GB
Video Card(s) RTX 4080
Storage 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s) 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software Windows 10 64-bit
get the cheapest ones as raid 6 will provide plenty of protection against hdd failure
 

Albuquerque

New Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
55 (0.01/day)
System Name The Desktop
Processor i7-3930k C2 @ 4.5Ghz (125bclk)
Motherboard Intel DX79Si FW430
Cooling Zalman CNPS9900 Max
Memory 8 x 4Gb Mushkin Redline 1600Mhz 8-9-8-24 1T
Video Card(s) ATI Radeon 7970 @ 1200/1575
Storage 6 x OCZ Agility 3 240GB RAID0 using HighPoint 2720SGL
Display(s) Dell U2711 Rev.08
Case ThermalTake Armor+
Power Supply Kingwin Lazer 1KW Platinum
Software Windows 7 64-bit Professional EFI
Cheapest is probably the Sammy, but only by like $2 depending on where they're purchased from (Amazon for the WD, vs NewEgg for the Sammy.) I posted this same question on another forum that I am a long-time member of, and everyone there is leaning towards WD as well.
 

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
25,776 (3.79/day)
Location
Alabama
System Name Rocinante
Processor I9 14900KS
Motherboard EVGA z690 Dark KINGPIN (modded BIOS)
Cooling EK-AIO Elite 360 D-RGB
Memory 64GB Gskill Trident Z5 DDR5 6000 @6400
Video Card(s) MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage 1x 500GB 980 Pro | 1x 1TB 980 Pro | 1x 8TB Corsair MP400
Display(s) Odyssey OLED G9 G95SC
Case Lian Li o11 Evo Dynamic White
Audio Device(s) Moondrop S8's on Schiit Hel 2e
Power Supply Bequiet! Power Pro 12 1500w
Mouse Lamzu Atlantis mini (White)
Keyboard Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Akko Crystal Blues
VR HMD Quest 3
Software Windows 11
Benchmark Scores I dont have time for that.
Cheapest is probably the Sammy, but only by like $2 depending on where they're purchased from (Amazon for the WD, vs NewEgg for the Sammy.) I posted this same question on another forum that I am a long-time member of, and everyone there is leaning towards WD as well.

WD is a very old company. but any HDD is prone to failure. honestly between the sammy and the WD i dont think either is more susceptible to failure then the other. just go for the one thats cheaper.
 
Joined
Feb 22, 2010
Messages
223 (0.04/day)
Location
Kent, UK
System Name Cannon
Processor Intel Core i7 13700K
Motherboard Asus Z690-P D4
Cooling Corsair H100i PRO XT w/ Corsair ML120 White LED x2
Memory 32GB (4x8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 3600MHz
Video Card(s) Palit RTX 3060 Ti Dual 8GB
Storage 1TB 980 Pro w/Heatsink + 500GB 970 Evo Plus NVMe + 2TB MX500 + 500GB 850 Evo
Display(s) 34” Dell S3422DWG 3440x1440 144hz Curved + 27" Dell U2713H IPS 1440p + Dell P2219H IPS 1080p
Case Corsair 4000X RGB - 3xSP120 ELITE RGB (Front Intake) + 1xML120 White LED (Rear Exhaust)
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster Z SE + Logitech z623 2.1
Power Supply Corsair RM850x SHIFT
Mouse Logitech G602
Keyboard Corsair K70 RGB
VR HMD Oculus Quest 2
Software Windows 11 Pro x64 || Linux Mint
Benchmark Scores None. Primary uses are browsing, music, gaming (mostly Battlefield & Doom) and virtualization!
I'd go WD as those Scorpio Blues are amazing drives for the money, and I've had a few problems with a few recent Samsung drives in RAID
 
Joined
Feb 7, 2006
Messages
738 (0.11/day)
Location
Austin, TX
System Name WAZAAM!
Processor AMD Ryzen 3900x
Motherboard ASRock Fatal1ty X370 Pro Gaming
Cooling Kraken x62
Memory G.Skill 16GB 3200 MHz
Video Card(s) EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC
Storage Micron 9200 Max
Display(s) Samsung 49" 5120x1440 120hz
Case Corsair 600D
Audio Device(s) Onboard - Bose Companion 2 Speakers
Power Supply CORSAIR Professional Series HX850
Keyboard Corsair K95 RGB
Software Windows 10 Pro
The only reason I'd recommend against the Western Digital is due to lack of RAID support in their non RE series of drives.

But I'm not sure if this extends to their 2.5" drives.

Do you need laptop drives? or just 2.5" drives? (ie: are 15mm 2.5" drives going to fit in your enclosure? or do we need to stick to <9mm?)
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
10,881 (1.63/day)
Location
Manchester, NH
System Name Senile
Processor I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory 16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s) GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s) 34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (3440*1440) *FREE_SYNC*
Case Rosewill
Audio Device(s) Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply Corsair HX750
Mouse Logitech G5
Keyboard Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software Win 10
Do the WD Blue laptop drives support RAID? I've read plenty of complaints that the desktop Black versions don't...
 

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
26,259 (4.65/day)
Location
IA, USA
System Name BY-2021
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory 2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard Tesoro Excalibur
Software Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.
Neither. Seagate Constellation or Western Digital XE.

If you're looking to save money, switch to 3.5" drives and look at the Western Digital RE4 and Seagate Constellation ES drives.
 
Joined
Feb 7, 2006
Messages
738 (0.11/day)
Location
Austin, TX
System Name WAZAAM!
Processor AMD Ryzen 3900x
Motherboard ASRock Fatal1ty X370 Pro Gaming
Cooling Kraken x62
Memory G.Skill 16GB 3200 MHz
Video Card(s) EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC
Storage Micron 9200 Max
Display(s) Samsung 49" 5120x1440 120hz
Case Corsair 600D
Audio Device(s) Onboard - Bose Companion 2 Speakers
Power Supply CORSAIR Professional Series HX850
Keyboard Corsair K95 RGB
Software Windows 10 Pro
Ok, let's get some concrete power numbers. I'm going to look at the Idle power as I don't know if that controller will let drives go to standby.

Summary
WD Blue: 0.89 Watts
Seagate 7200rpm: 2.95 Watts (15mm z-height)
Samsung: 0.7 Watts


My thoughts
Depending on how much load you actually put on the storage during peak usage the upgrade from 5400 to 7200 may be worth your while. Even at about 3 watts per drive, you end up better than 3.5" drives (5 3.5" 5400 rpm drives in RAID6 = 25.5 watts @ idle; 8 2.5" 7200rpm drives in RAID6 = 23.6 watts).

The seagate is obviously more expensive, but if you would like performance it may be a viable option (you can buy it here).

Otherwise the Samsung will use less power and we know it's not purposely crippled for RAID setups whereas the Western Digital may be crippled (TLER).

Sources
Western Digital 2.5" 1TB 5400rpm Scorpio Blue
Current Requirements
Power Dissipation
Read/Write 1.4 Watts
Idle 0.59 Watts
Standby 0.18 Watts
Sleep 0.18 Watts

Seagate 2.5" 1TB 7200rpm Constellation
Idle 2.95 Watts
Read/Write 3.84 Watts

Samsung 1TB 5400rpm Spinpoint
Read/Write 2.2 Watts
Idle 0.7 Watts
Standby 0.2 Watts

Samsung 2TB 5400rpm F4 review
 
Last edited:

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
26,259 (4.65/day)
Location
IA, USA
System Name BY-2021
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory 2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard Tesoro Excalibur
Software Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.
Constellation is an enterprise 7200 RPM drive, the rest are consumer 5400 RPM drives. Different categories.
 
Joined
Feb 7, 2006
Messages
738 (0.11/day)
Location
Austin, TX
System Name WAZAAM!
Processor AMD Ryzen 3900x
Motherboard ASRock Fatal1ty X370 Pro Gaming
Cooling Kraken x62
Memory G.Skill 16GB 3200 MHz
Video Card(s) EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC
Storage Micron 9200 Max
Display(s) Samsung 49" 5120x1440 120hz
Case Corsair 600D
Audio Device(s) Onboard - Bose Companion 2 Speakers
Power Supply CORSAIR Professional Series HX850
Keyboard Corsair K95 RGB
Software Windows 10 Pro
Constellation is an enterprise 7200 RPM drive, the rest are consumer 5400 RPM drives. Different categories.

Added a note on 15mm z-height for the constellation.
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
4,267 (0.70/day)
Location
Sanford, FL, USA
Processor Intel i5-6600
Motherboard ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s) Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s) LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC892
Power Supply Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse Logitech G700s
Keyboard Logitech G110
Software Windows 10 Pro
Do the WD Blue laptop drives support RAID? I've read plenty of complaints that the desktop Black versions don't...

"RAID Support Yes/No" doesn't exist, or at least I don't believe it's as cut and dry as others make it out to be.

WD recommends Greens/Blues/Blacks for RAID with limitations. Currently those limitations are:

- Used in consumer RAID solutions (ICHxR, SBxxx, some dedicated, some software)
- RAID-0 or RAID-1 only.
- No more than two drives in an array.

There is an exception to the last two. If you're a system builder which provides support to the end-user, you may use these drives in larger and more complex RAID arrays. For all other situations WD recommends their enterprise-level drives.

Being my own system builder, I test and support my own arrays :)
 

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
26,259 (4.65/day)
Location
IA, USA
System Name BY-2021
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory 2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard Tesoro Excalibur
Software Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.
Any kind of drive can be used in any kind of RAID. RAID is a controller technology, not a drive technology.

Those exceptions are listed because they don't want people complaining to them about frequent hard drive failures in a RAID. Remember that all RAIDs have their limitations on number of failures. Exceed that number, all data is lost.
 
Joined
Feb 7, 2006
Messages
738 (0.11/day)
Location
Austin, TX
System Name WAZAAM!
Processor AMD Ryzen 3900x
Motherboard ASRock Fatal1ty X370 Pro Gaming
Cooling Kraken x62
Memory G.Skill 16GB 3200 MHz
Video Card(s) EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC
Storage Micron 9200 Max
Display(s) Samsung 49" 5120x1440 120hz
Case Corsair 600D
Audio Device(s) Onboard - Bose Companion 2 Speakers
Power Supply CORSAIR Professional Series HX850
Keyboard Corsair K95 RGB
Software Windows 10 Pro
Any kind of drive can be used in any kind of RAID. RAID is a controller technology, not a drive technology.

Those exceptions are listed because they don't want people complaining to them about frequent hard drive failures in a RAID. Remember that all RAIDs have their limitations on number of failures. Exceed that number, all data is lost.

There's a specific issue with Western Digital non-RE series drives and support for TLER. When the time to recover from an error is too long then the drives will act as if they're unresponsive and be dropped from the RAID.

In the past, TLER could be enabled on all of Western Digital's drives. But to move RAID users to the RE series they imposed a block on enabling TLER on desktop drives.

So, yes, there are limitations to which drives can be used with which controllers. Some controllers can get around this problem. I am unfamiliar with the controller the OP mentioned.


Western Digital
Wikipedia
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
4,267 (0.70/day)
Location
Sanford, FL, USA
Processor Intel i5-6600
Motherboard ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s) Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s) LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC892
Power Supply Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse Logitech G700s
Keyboard Logitech G110
Software Windows 10 Pro
"Problem" doesn't seem like the right word here. Earlier you could adjust the TLER value, but you didn't have to when using the drive in a consumer RAID situation. They have such long timeouts that if one of my drives actually exceeded it - I'd be glad that it got dropped. It's not a workaround, it's just how it is.

What was happening before the block was IT departments buying dozens to hundreds of Black drives, adjusting the TLER value and using them on controllers with stricter timeouts. To WD, each box (20 drives) of Blacks sold where RE should have been used was a loss of ~$2K. With that kind of savings, it was easy to have spares on hand to cope with the marginally higher failure rate. WD didn't block TLER to squeeze consumers for more coin, they did it so IT would fall in line with their product tiers :D

However I also agree a bit with Ford. Drives are not the only fruit in a RAID salad - there's the bios/drivers/etc. Passing support to system builders who will validate their systems was smart.
 
Top