Server and Hard Drives

Jordammo

Honorable
Aug 23, 2012
17
0
10,510
First off, i apologize if this is in the wrong category and i am also a newb to this forum. i have been reading from this site for years and now i'm stuck on something i dont know too much about.

As of right now i have 2 computer setups:
1) Hp tower with Intel Q8200, 8gb ddr2 800mhz (4 slots), 500gb hitachi HD (7200 RPM), WD20ears (WD 2tb green drive) and a xfx5770, blu ray reader/DVD burner 550W PSU
2) Intel Q6600 Gigabyte motherboard (nothing special and i forget the model number), 4gb DDR3 1333mhz (only 2 slots and they are filled), 80gb IDE converted to Sata
HD, Geforce 9500GS, DVD burner, 350W PSU (cost about $140 only ram, PSU and cpu are used)

the case in 2 is a lot bigger and can store up to 5+ hard drives and i'm hoping to turn it into my home media storage center. i am planning on purchasing a Vantec UGT-ST310R PCI Host Card ( http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5265863&CatId=1455 ) and am planning on moving my WD2TB drive from comp 1-->2 and adding 2 more 2tb hard drives and configuring raid 5. this is the part where i am a bit confused. i realize my HD is discontinued and i was told not to go with the green drives because they spin way too slow. right now i stream from comp 1 to 2 over a wireless N network in HD quality with no issues. should i go with the WD 2tb EARX drives and will they be able to work in Raid 5 with the EARS drive? or can i go ahead and get faster spinning drives (i stick with WD)? is it also possible that i can get 2 3tb drives (mix and match) and when the 2tb drives fails replace it with a 3tb drive?

i apologize if this is confusing ask away and i can clarify on anything. also if you have any other recommendations please fire away. i'm open to everything
 
Solution
The WD Green drives can have head parking issues that RAID does not like. I'd recommend not using a WD Green drive in a RAID setup. The Western Digital Red drives are a lot better for this sort of build. If they are still too expensive, then a WD Blue or more preferably a WD Black would be my next recommendation.
The WD Green drives can have head parking issues that RAID does not like. I'd recommend not using a WD Green drive in a RAID setup. The Western Digital Red drives are a lot better for this sort of build. If they are still too expensive, then a WD Blue or more preferably a WD Black would be my next recommendation.
 
Solution

Jordammo

Honorable
Aug 23, 2012
17
0
10,510
the red drives look expensive, i found some for 125 CAD and also what would head parking issues cause? i have seen a couple of reviews with these hard drives in servers and haven't heard this coming up before?

*EDIT* - now i understand why the green drive's are not good for servers (further researched this) unfortunately i cant find blue drives and the black ones are really expensive. for around the same price as the red i found a Seagate (willing to switch if it is better for the price, i will just have to settle and get 3 drives instead of 4) (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=744345&CatId=4357 <- this is the seagate drive) it's not a green one, would this work?

and i'm going to safely assume i'm going to be using hardware raid and i won't be able to add more hard drives once i create the array, correct?
 
Seagate has dropped in reliability a lot since they took over Maxtor. I don't recommend them anymore and I also don't recommend Samsung anymore because their 3.5" drives are all Seagate drives with a different label. I'm not saying that it will fail soon nor that it will even probably fail, just that they have some of the highest failure rates among the current brands. Can you give me a link for hard drives to look through so that I can make a recommendation and give me a budget to work with?
 

Jordammo

Honorable
Aug 23, 2012
17
0
10,510
i would say budget is no issue but it is more storage space i am looking at. if i can save as much as possible that is how i would put it. right now on my 2tb WD green drive i have used 1.6 tb and have 213gb's free. i have had this hard drive for about 2 years and it replaced a 1tb external that was full after a year. i was thinking 3 2tb Hd's but i dont know if 4 would be better at this point (maxing out the raid card).

as for the website i use, it is NCIX.com (http://ncix.com/products/index.php?minorcatid=109) or canadacomputers.com (CC)(http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=15_1086_210_212)

NCIX has more product and i use them if i can't get something i need at CC. CC is within driving distance and is only 10 minutes away so it is easier to get to and i dont have to worry about shipping.
 

Jordammo

Honorable
Aug 23, 2012
17
0
10,510
its not my first choice but 110 does sound like a better price and saves me a few bucks. i'll have to flag it and hope it goes down a little more within the next few months now that i know i will need at minimum 3 of them. thanks for all the input it was greatly appreciated! i just hope this is easy to setup.
 

TRENDING THREADS