Most NAS Are SATA 2 Yet NAS Drives are SATA 3

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TheArtfulDodger

TheArtfulDodger

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Hello, all:

I have been looking to buy an NAS but I am puzzled! All of the reasonably-priced NAS boxes I have looked at (just a few to be honest, but all of the ones I've looked at) support only SATA 3GBs but the HDDs that are recommended for NAS (WD Red, for example) are all SATA 6GBs. Are these drives intended for commercial use where a great many of these drives are used (i.e. not for use in arrays of 2 or 3)?

I appreciate any advice anyone can give.

Sparky
 
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Drives specifically designed and marketed for server use (like the Red line from WD) really are better for those functions. They are designed for longer continuous running and for frequent requests from several users for data from different files. They do cost more, but you get reliable long service for that price. By comparison, the WD Black line will probably give you just as fast performance, but maybe not last as long in a server unit. The Green line runs slower so it uses less energy, but it performs slower and is not designed for long continuous use.
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Paperdoc

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You're being worried unnecessarily by marketing hype. The simple truth is that there are NO mechanical HDD's (that is, ones with spinning disks and moving heads, not SSD's) that can move data as fast as the 3.0 Gb/s rate of data communications of the older SATA spec. The best can beat the original 1.5 Gb/s rate, but not reach 3.0. So whether the communication channel of the device is 3.0 or 6.0 Gb/s, it makes NO difference to the actual performance. But HDD makers now build all their units with the 6.0 Gb/s communication system and call them "SATA 6 Gb/s drives".

What CAN make a difference is the speed of the communication channel between the NAS box and your computer. If the box is running some sort of RAID system, there are two or more HDD's feeding data at (not quite) 3.0 Gb/s rates into the box's controller card, and then that card can send data to the computer. It is possible for that combined data stream to get over 3.0 Gb/s, so you want that comm channel as fast as possible. If you're using an Ethernet network connection, don't worry about the SATA speed rating of the HDD units. The fastest Ethernet networking systems are Gigabit Ethernet - that is, 1.0 Gb/s, slower than SATA. If you have a choice of USB3 or eSATA connections directly between between the computer and NAS box with NO Ethernet network in between, you may find a faster comm system available. But then, of course, it's not really NAS - the term stands for Network-Attached Storage. If it is NOT attached via Ethernet, it is available only to the ONE machine directly attached to the box.

Bottom line: if you really have a Network-Attached Storage box using Gigabit Ethernet on the entire network, the network itself becomes the limit on performance, and not the rating of the NAS box's internal SATA ports.
 
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TheArtfulDodger

TheArtfulDodger

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OK, that makes the selection of an NAS box much simpler - but now to the hype you mention: Is it important, if the NAS will be running a lot, if not 24x7, that the drives be ones designed for NAS (i.e. designed to run 24x7)? Or is that hype as well?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sparky
 
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Paperdoc

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Drives specifically designed and marketed for server use (like the Red line from WD) really are better for those functions. They are designed for longer continuous running and for frequent requests from several users for data from different files. They do cost more, but you get reliable long service for that price. By comparison, the WD Black line will probably give you just as fast performance, but maybe not last as long in a server unit. The Green line runs slower so it uses less energy, but it performs slower and is not designed for long continuous use.
 
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