SPCR

I want to add a large drive to my server. 3TB or more.
Are there any good 4TB's out yet?

The 4TB Seagate ST4000DM000 looks interesting at least, 5900 RPM and "only" four platters relatively speaking. I haven't seen any serious test of it yet but users seem happy with them, and apparently Seagate used them in external products before introducing the bare drives on the market. I would have bought one already to enable me to move a couple of 2TB drives out of my main system to the network, but will have to wait for the next pay check. Should probably wait for a SPCR review too though.

Thanks. Just ordered one. Goes for $177 today...

Gotten yours yet? I installed my ST4000DM000 today (after having listened to one on the day I couldn't avoid buying it) and the tone of the idling motor/platters is the nicest I've ever heard. Meaning that my ears don't pick up any of the high pitched tones that I have always hated, even close up it's more like a small fan than something with bearings. I'll have to have spend some late night listening for noises to really claim it's great, but so far I'm liking the investment even as I didn't really need it for the storage space.

mkk wrote:Gotten yours yet? I installed my ST4000DM000 today (after having listened to one on the day I couldn't avoid buying it) and the tone of the idling motor/platters is the nicest I've ever heard. Meaning that my ears don't pick up any of the high pitched tones that I have always hated, even close up it's more like a small fan than something with bearings. I'll have to have spend some late night listening for noises to really claim it's great, but so far I'm liking the investment even as I didn't really need it for the storage space.

Damn you, now your making me want to upgrade my server =(

Kinda confused with Seagate saying they were exiting the green drives... and bam a new one comes out, maybe they came to their senses into thinking that storage is what they have left for the future.

Looking forward for more comments, hoping for SPCR to get a hold on this drive for review.

Yeah this 5900 RPM model existed before their coming out to say that 7200 RPM is the future for desktop storage. I hope it won't be short lived, even if I don't plan to get another for myself. Part of the plan with getting this drive was to avoid having miscellaneous software force several sleeping drives to spin up several times a day on my main system.

I should add that i haven't listened closely in a quiet room to any of the latest green/red drives from WD to compare. But this definitely made my four 2TB Samsungs seem positively noisy. They'll go into a Node 304 chassi a file server/backup system, perhaps wireless to make the system even easier to put aside.

I have been using Hitachi 7K4000 for the past couple of years, and they're not bad for 7200RPM drives. The 5K4000 doesn't appear to be available anywhere.

However, due to pricing, I decided to give the Seagate ST4000DM000 a shot this time and I can confirm that they sound very, very nice. There is no tonal noise whatsoever. It's like the noise of a small, low RPM fan, with the motor/bearing noise removed so all you hear is the airflow. No whooshing, no whining.

I replaced a pair of Seagate 3TB DM drives with a pair of 4TB DM. The 4TB drives are much quieter when running, compared to the 3TB ones. The 3TB units also had the heat parking click, which isn't present on the 4TB units.

All drives are bought in Seagate Expansion USB enclosures, and ripped out of that enclosure for internal use.