Green or fast drives for a low-end NAS

[BostonDan]

Hi, I just finished reading:
1) post on whether green or fast drives for a high performance NAS,
2) the series surrounding how to build a really fast NAS, and
3) the article on "Does Drive Performance Matter In Your NAS".
It isn't obvious to me whether green drives will impact performance on the newer low-end NAS's, such as the DS209 and DS210j.
Can anyone advise how performance will be impacted (if at all??) by reusing some existing "green" WD10EACS drives I already have or if I should buy higher performance drives such as the Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ when using the DS209 or other similar performance devices?

 

[claykin]

IMO you should choose disks designed for 24x7 RAID use. Disks that support TLER/ERC, 1.2M hours MTBF and 10^15 nonrecoverable read errors. These disks will likely give you fewer headaches in the long run. Pay a few more $ now and have a happier long term enjoyment of your NAS.

Look at the Seagate ES.2, Seagate Constellation ES, WDC RE3 or WDC RE4.

Make sure whichever disk you want, that its on the manufacturer's compatibility list. This is MOST important.

 

[BostonDan]

Thanks Claykin for your advice- I ended up partially taking your advice. I purchased Samsungs HD103SJ hard drives which are on Synologys compatiblity list and have been getting good performance reviews. Hopefully they will stand the test of time. I couldn't find MTBF or other reliability data. Samsung seems to have technology similar to TLER/ERC you mentioned. Western Digital is my preferred brand, but the RE3 and RE4 drives were too high of a premium for me. In regards to Seagate, I've had a very bad history with Seagate drives, even since Seagate became part of Western Digital. Thanks again - this stuff is always a new learning experience.

 

[claykin]

In regards to Seagate, I've had a very bad history with Seagate drives, even since Seagate became part of Western Digital.

Seagate part of WD? Nope, they are two independent disk manufacturers.

 

[BostonDan]

My Mistake

You are absolutely right - I somehow confused Seagate acquiring Maxtor.

 

[FromageTheDog]

To add one data point: I'm now about to replace a drive for the third time in as many years in my home NAS. Desktop drives (in this case, Seagate 7200.11 1TB units) are NOT up to the task. I wholeheartedly agree with claykin -- step up to the enterprise class drives and save yourself a bunch of headaches.