RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD...

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JD82
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RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD...

Post by JD82 » Fri Oct 29, 2010 7:32 am

Hello, I come here to ask for advice:
On my PC I already have a RAID 0 of SSD where I keep the operating system, now I want to create a RAID 5 with ultra-quiet SATA disk to be used for data storage.

I'm looking for HDD with the following characteristics, listed in order of importance:
  1. Quietness
  2. Low power consumption
  3. Performance
The budget is 50-60 € per disk.
The size of a single disk is a 750-2000GB.

For the moment my choice is the Samsung Spinpoint EcoGreen F4 2 TB (HD204UI).

Again, the performance does not interest me, I just want to be ultra-quiet (also because there are 3 discs switched on simultaneously).

MikeC
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Re: RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD..

Post by MikeC » Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:00 pm

The WD Green 2TB is quieter, marginally at idle, more so in seek -- and we've only examined the 4-platter models. There are 3-platter variants out now, apparently, tho how one can ID them is unclear.

JD82
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Re: RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD..

Post by JD82 » Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:37 pm

Thanks for the reply :).

I am informing about the WD, but I can not tell if the model "EADS" is silent as much as the model "EARS" (which is cheaper).

I'm also a bit frightened by the rumors about he head park/unpark issue.

You know nothing about it?

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Re: RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD..

Post by MikeC » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:31 pm

JD82 wrote:'m also a bit frightened by the rumors about he head park/unpark issue.... You know nothing about it?
How could I not? :lol: :roll: You can worry if you like, but imo, it's the equivalent of bogeyman stories for kids. There are hundreds of posts here on the topic. BUT not one has offered a shred of evidence that high head park count causes failures. We have never had a WD green fail on us, either in the lab or personally -- that's out of maybe 15 samples altogether over a 2-4 year period.

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Re: RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD..

Post by MikeC » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:36 pm

JD82 wrote:I am informing about the WD, but I can not tell if the model "EADS" is silent as much as the model "EARS" (which is cheaper).
Download this for code info -- http://www.wdc.com/en/library/2579-001028.pdf

There is no difference in noise. Same parts.

JD82
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Re: RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD..

Post by JD82 » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:49 pm

Thank you very much, now I'm much more calmer :)

I would like to get one last question:
Using a RAID5 would be better to have the largest number of HDD possible, so as to reduce the "waste" of space due to the parity, but I would like to keep noise as low as possible, with this in mind, it is best to use 4 x WD15EARS or 3 x WD20EARS? There would be a considerable increase in noise using 4 HDD?

Sorry for the many questions :)

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Re: RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD..

Post by MikeC » Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:13 pm

JD82 wrote:Thank you very much, now I'm much more calmer :)

I would like to get one last question:
Using a RAID5 would be better to have the largest number of HDD possible, so as to reduce the "waste" of space due to the parity, but I would like to keep noise as low as possible, with this in mind, it is best to use 4 x WD15EARS or 3 x WD20EARS? There would be a considerable increase in noise using 4 HDD?

Sorry for the many questions :)
Almost no increase at all, maybe 1 dBA tops at 1m distance. See section, Effect of the Number of HDDs, in our SFF Home Server article - http://www.silentpcreview.com/Silent_Ho ... st_Results

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Re: RAID 5 w/ 3 ultra-silent and low power consumption HDD..

Post by JD82 » Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:23 pm

Very interesting, thanks again :D

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