Desktop HD's that aren't crippled for RAID use?

[byz4ntinian]

Are there any "desktop" drives that aren't crippled for RAID usage such as the case of the difference between the Caviar Black and RE4. Are the Samsung F1 AND F1 RAID drives in the same situation?

What i'm saying is, if I look at a 1TB Black, and a 1TB RE4, the price jumps from about $100 to $160. Are there any manufacturers that don't require you to pay the "enterprise" premium just because they disable things in the firmware or they have lesser quality control?

Looking to build myself a home NAS and don't see a reason to buy a companies "USE THESE DRIVES FOR RAID" crap if it's not necessary. If it is, then oh well.

 

[jsc]

The desktop drives are not "crippled". The enterprise drives are designed to run 24/365. Desktop drives are not. They tend to do pretty well, but they are not designed for it/.

 

[byz4ntinian]

I realize they're not designed to be ran 24/365 like the enterprise drives, but it seems like locking firmware to disabling something as critical as Time Limited Error Recovery pretty much removes my decision to buy large Caviar blacks.

Am I overreacting to the firmware differences or do the desktop drives really drop out of RAID that often?

 

[byz4ntinian]

Best answer selected by Byz4ntinian.