$13/TB Sata Recertified Drives

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newabc

Active Member
Jan 20, 2019
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The stocks of 14-18TB are plenty. One of 16TB models was out of stock couples of days ago and 200 pieces in stock today.
 
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Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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I ordered four 10tb hitachi drives. They just arrived, and were well packed. Any recommendations on how to test them under linux to be sure they are happy?

I will eventually make a mdadm array and measure its performance with bonnie++.
Badblocks
 
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lopgok

Active Member
Aug 14, 2017
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I am having a really odd issue with the four 10tb drives I bought.

I have a computer with a Highpoint 2720SGL controller (8 interlal port sas/sata)
Previously I had six 4tb drives and one 5tb drive in the computer which was working fine.
I have a similar computer with the same controller with four 8gb wd sata drives which work fine.

The highpoint controller has two strings, each supporting four drives.
With the 10tb drives, I need to have a small drive (a 4 or 5tb drive) in each string in order to detect the 10tb drives. This took me a long time to figure out. I am currently running badblocks on the drives.

Does anyone know of any issue with the highpoint controller and 10tb sata drives?
 
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Fritz

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My guess is the problem is the Highpoint controller. I have lots of these 10TB drives running on LSI controller and oems and have had zero issues. I learned a long time ago to avoid Highpoint, too many issues to deal with.
 
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lopgok

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Aug 14, 2017
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I also suspect the Highpoint controller.

I have a LSI SAS2008 in another computer which I could swap in.
Do you think it would work well, or is it too old?
What LSI controllers do you recommend? I need a 8 port internal card.
 
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Fritz

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I also suspect the Highpoint controller.

I have a LSI SAS2008 in another computer which I could swap in.
Do you think it would work well, or is it too old?
What LSI controllers do you recommend? I need a 8 port internal card.
A 2008 should work just fine but since these are 12G drives a SAS3 controller should technically be preferable (To be honest, I have my doubts about this but that's another story). I have quite a few Dell Perc H310's and they've always worked flawlessly and they're cheap. All have been flashed with IT firmware.
 
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lopgok

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Aug 14, 2017
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I got everything working. I needed to update the bios of the highpoint controller.
I downloaded RR272x_1x_BIOS_v1.16_16_07_06.zip from highpoint, and made a bootable usb stick using rufus.

Now the four 10tb sata drives are properly detected!
 
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awedio

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Feb 24, 2012
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I'm currently using 32 recertified white-label EXOS 16 16TB SAS drives. They've been flashed with retail seagate firmware and have been rock solid since they were deployed and I'm super happy with them.
Can I ask what these drives set you back?
 
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itronin

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Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
Can I ask what these drives set you back?
I'm currently using 32 recertified white-label EXOS 16 16TB SAS drives
sure, I bought one lot in December of 2020 off ebay (all seller had) and then contacted them directly to buy more stock as they inventoried them, all in all I purchased 33 (1 shelf spare, 2 sets of 16 for my two TNC CSE-836's). Avg price was about 287/drive. At the time it was a pretty good deal. These drives were white label but took retail firmware (provided by a member) just fine. knock on wood no failures yet in about 18 months of mostly continuous uptime.
 

newabc

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Jan 20, 2019
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Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
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HSV and SFO
x16 16tb for $196.99
x18 16tb for $199.99
Those are some killer prices for drives with a warranty. $ 12.3125/TB and $12.5/TB, respectively for those doing the math. And this even beats the lowest per TB cost of any easystore shucked drive by over a dollar ($13.57/TB). Cheapest and the best.
 

rcm024

New Member
Feb 6, 2020
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FYI, the prices on several of these have dropped even further. The recertified HGST 12 TB's dropped to $155 each and I think several of the other ones listed in the original post have dropped price as well
 
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Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
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FYI, the prices on several of these have dropped even further. The recertified HGST 12 TB's dropped to $155 each and I think several of the other ones listed in the original post have dropped price as well
You're right, and there's a new record low price per TB too, breaking the $12/TB mark. :D I went through and updated the prices on the ones I linked. :)
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
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I know, especially with some of the local deals there on DAS units. ;)
I don't even have the space for a DAS unit. Using a 10TB+ HDD as external storage for things like archiving buildzoid's past Twitch streams on the other hand...
 
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Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
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I don't even have the space for a DAS unit. Using a 10TB+ HDD as external storage for things like archiving buildzoid's past Twitch streams on the other hand...
Good drive deals pop up there every so often, but you have to keep your eyes peeled. I think we here on the other side of the pond a lot of times don't realize how good we have it in terms of prices for all this stuff...
 

FelixTCat

New Member
Feb 23, 2016
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If only these were in Europe :(
I'm in Aus, I would check out their postage costs to your location. I purchased 3x 16TB Exos X18 drives at US$199 each (they are out of stock now), was $93 for shipping. Even with Amex taking a cut on the exchange rate it came out to ~AUD$1100, which for 48TB of raw space is soooo much cheaper than anything I can find in Aus.

That is AUD$22.90/TB vs the best I can find on any retailer in AU being a drive that I have to shuck and therefore loose warranty on at AUD$30.20/TB

The packing on these HDD's was amazing too. Came in a box designed for 5 drives, closed cell foam around each drive and then double boxed with bublewrap around the inside box.
 
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