low idle power 3tb+ HDDs (ie 5400rpm) ?

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james23

Active Member
Nov 18, 2014
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either my STH searching skills are off today, or there really arent any threads exactly like this (so i figured i would post one).

im looking for model #s on low power drives (idle draw mainly) , at 3 or 4tb size. (ill be looking to find them used, not new) - or if anyone has any drives, real world power draw info, that would be nice too. (it seems to get the low power at idle, you have to go for 5400rpm , which im ok with that performance hit)

1)
power: low idle power, as these are to add to my large freenas server and most of my disks sit idle 98% of the time.

2)
size: 3tb or 4tb as this seems to currently be the best price/GB point currently - well 3tb much more so than 4tb.

I can provide what i know currently:

My all time favorite drives (as they just never fail, EVER), are the hgst (HUA / HUS) drives:
2tb / 3tb /4tb HGST 7k3 or 7k4 drives- they draw quite a bit of power. (idle ~7w spec'd and is what i see real world). They are 7200rpm though. - 3tb Used on ebay $30-$45 (can be had at $20-$30ea too, usually in quantity though)

I also have some 4tb WD Red drives, but only 6x so i cant speak to reliability yet, but they are GREAT for power draw- (real idle 3w !) - 5400rpm drives- Used on ebay $75-$100 (anything under 65-70$ is a DEAL)

What are some other low power drives, fit for 24/7 operation?

thanks
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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At only 3-5tb then 2.5” sata hdd will be the lowest power.

SAS always consumes more.
In the higher capacity Helium drives use less power that lower capacity regular drives.
Sata of course lower power.
 
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pricklypunter

Well-Known Member
Nov 10, 2015
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Used/ pulled hard disk choice these days really is a muddle of compromises and price points. Gone are the days where one particular disk would stand apart from the crowd and tick all the boxes. There are exceptions of course, plus everyone will have their favourite goto manufacturer which is also likely to colour any buying decision :)

It's true that the used/pulled HGST 3TB disks on the market are great value for money, and very, very reliable generally when handled properly. But they also need a bit more power than newer disks, are less efficient with that power, they also run warm, produce a bit of noise and are getting on in years. That said, I still have 8 of these ticking away 24/7 and they never miss a beat. I have never regretted my buying decision on them. Would I buy more of them? Yes, in a heartbeat, but only for specific projects now where other constraints play into the decision and only from reputable sources.

I would consider 8TB to be entry level now for several reasons and for my own personal reasons of bias, I'll only consider HGST and WD disks now, new or used/ pulled. That being the case, I may at some point overlook something decent from other manufacturers, but I haven't seen anything yet to make me change my view. In this capacity you gain power efficiency/ TB, which translates to less heat per TB. You will need less of them to achieve whatever capacity you are targeting, making them a lower power option. If buying used/ pulled, they are much younger, will likely have lower operating hours and may even still have some manufacturers warranty left if you are lucky. As a bonus, the well known outlets selling these used/ pulled, have good handling practises and will stand behind them should something go wrong. The downside is a higher up front cost, but I personally think it shakes out in the long run. It really depends on your end goal and budget.

Newer disks like HGST HE8's at 7200rpm, for example, are wanting in the region of 7- 7.5W full tilt, and somewhere around 4.5-5W at idle. WD Red's at 5400rpm, with the same capacity, are wanting similar power levels. Really the only advantage might be that they are a little quieter in use and produce a smidge less heat on account of running slower. The heat produced can be a significant factor, if you have lots of them, but I find it hard to justify the noise level difference as a reason to favour one over the other, more so if they are not being fully utilised, i.e sitting idle a lot of the time. For a media player or small NAS or some such use, the lower noise and heat is probably a plus point, but for a server you'll want something performant that represents value and reliability. Decide on performance and budget with a view to use case. You might view the slightly lower performance as a drawback, but are willing to compromise because you have lots of them. Likewise cooling costs might be playing into your decision and noise could also play a part if this was a box sitting beside you in your living room for example. Performance might mean compromising on heat and noise levels, even on initial budget, but you get reliability over the long term and a more efficient use of power.

It's all clear as mud :D
 

james23

Active Member
Nov 18, 2014
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thanks for both replies, this all mostly confirms what i had already thought. (ie in terms of used drives, short of WD RED's , or 2.5" disks, you have to make compromises as there arent many low $ , low power options).

the 2.5" is interesting as i hadn't considered them at this size, but in my experience, i find 2.5" to be a bit less reliable vs 3.5" (ie they fail more often). could be anecdotal though.

fwiw, im asking about this as i run about 48 drives at home/office and that is about to become 70+ (so power is a real concern, esp as power consumption =heat. even 1 w savinges per drive is important - at a reasonable cost though)
 

ColPanic

Member
Feb 14, 2016
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If your drives are truly idle most of the time consider spinning them down. This can be done using ataidle startup scripts in freenas. You need to make sure none of the system files or logs are stored on the volumes you intend to spin down and you may want to change the intervals for scrubs and smart checks, and sometimes it’s tricky to get freenas to actually let the drives spin down but you can get some dramatic power savings this way. I have a freenas system with (12) 7200rpm HGSTs that I store backups to and it drops more than 100w when the disks spin down. Once you do that you don’t need to worry as much about their power draw.
 

arglebargle

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Jul 15, 2018
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I've heard mixed things about Seagate 2.5" SATA drives. They make an external backup drive that uses large capacity (3,4,5TB) SMR Barracudas which idle at around 1.2W. I actually picked up 6 of the 5TB up from eBay a couple of weeks ago, I just got around to starting a badblocks pass on them yesterday so I can't give an informed review of their ZFS performance for a while. Some people seem to have issues with them, others claim they work wonderfully. I suspect the problems are user error to some extent, I'll be able to tell you for certain after I've used these for a while.

These frequently go on sale, a month or two ago the 5TB were $99 from Costco so keep your eyes open for deals.

The last PMR model was 4TB in .. 2016? early 2017? So it's possible to find that specific SKU used on eBay if you absolutely must have PMR. For bulk storage you should be fine with SMR though.
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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The 4tb seagate drives seemed to be terrible but the 5tb much better. Can’t say much as the 5tb ones I have are only being used as single drives for backup purposes. (No issues with them though, and performing fine)