I've ruled out having an NAS, and my current thoughts are to have 3 internal drives:
- a Plextor PX-256M5P SSD for system files, programs and general data
- a 500 GB - 1Tb HDD of some kind (Caviar Green?) for storing images
- a 1Tb - 2Tb HDD (again Caviar Green?) for the continuous backup of the other 2 drives (supplemented by periodic off-line backups)
It seems counterintuitive, but I'm wondering whether a 750GB Seagate Momentus XT (ST750LX003) would be preferable to a Caviar Green - particularly since the system is to be passively cooled. I know that for this application the SSD element of the drive will be of little benefit, but the general specifications are very good, and reliability is repoted to be excellent. I haven't been able to find information or benchmarks to provide a direct comparison - all the reviews now seem to be for SSDs, and not for HDDs - but the following comparisons make me think that it's not that crazy an idea:
_______________Momentus XT___Caviar Green
________________ST750LX003____WD10EZRX
Cache_______________32MB_________64MB
RPM_________________7200_________5900?
Seek____-__Read______11ms__________?
________-__Write_____13ms___________?
Noise____-__Idle_______23dB_________23dB
________-__Seek______26dB______24dB_/_27dB
Power___-__Idle_______1.1W_________2W
________-__Seek______1.3W_________4W
Warranty___________3_years______2_years
I would be grateful for any thoughts in general, and any information on how the performance of the Seagate would compare with that of the Caviar Green.