SATA HDD Deals on ebay, do you still consider whether HDD made for NAS, desktop, Archive?

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

jang430

Active Member
Mar 16, 2017
264
22
28
51
Hi. I'm preparing myself just in case there's a good deal that appears online (ebay). When you buy drives for NAS use, do you consider whether the model of the drive was designed for NAS, desktop, or archival purposes? Or do you just consider cost per TB? I am using Unraid btw.

Do you think the Desktop models, when used in a NAS environment used at home, will die quicker the the Enterprise models?
 

abq

Active Member
May 23, 2015
675
204
43
I believe the Enterprise SSDs usually have higher Total Write ratings, and consumer SSD usually has lower Total Write rating. Sometimes you see 'Total Write' rating, sometime 'Drive Writes per Day' etc, but all terms allude to SSD endurance. The enterprise write intensive drives are generally higher endurance than read intensive drives. The Enterprise SSD also have generally higher MTBF than consumer. ...For average home use, you should be good with either, unless used as small high intensity cache drive or something.
 

andrewbedia

Active Member
Jan 11, 2013
698
247
43
I think OP is talking about hard disk drives ("spinning rust"). Personally, I'm more of the "do it the right way or don't do it at all" mentality. NAS drives (WD Red Plus/Pro, Seagate NAS) are perfectly fine and reliable, but if you're not terribly constrained by power usage/noise, just go used enterprise SAS disks (Seagate Exos, WD Gold, HGST UltraStar, Toshiba MG-series). Either of these solutions have worked very well for me. Always test used drives with a tool like badblocks on Linux or similar on other platforms just to be sure. I have not personally engaged in it until recently (2x 12TB Exos SATA), but I think the Enterprise SATA variants are fine too.

Generally speaking, using desktop drives are the most likely to end in failure from my observations. Sometimes you can get away with it with DeskStar/CoolSpin and WD Black drives. I don't recommend it unless you have good cooling and can get these drives noticeably cheaper than NAS/Enterprise drives. Stay clear of Barracuda entirely.

The only time I would even consider using archive drives (say it with me: shingled magnetic recording) is write-once/infrequent and if the price was very cheap. These can be very bad when replacing drives, at least in ZFS (not sure about Unraid). Only attempt this if you know what the consequences may be if you have to replace a drive.
 

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
4,221
1,540
113
34
Germany
With all the nonsense that WD pulled off with the wd reds I stopped buying "nas" or other prosumer oriented hdds at all and buy datacenter hdds like seagate exos instead.
It's more expensive, but I don't have to worry that the drives will fail that fast in extreme situations (raid rebuilds etc.).
 

jang430

Active Member
Mar 16, 2017
264
22
28
51
I believe the Enterprise SSDs usually have higher Total Write ratings, and consumer SSD usually has lower Total Write rating. Sometimes you see 'Total Write' rating, sometime 'Drive Writes per Day' etc, but all terms allude to SSD endurance. The enterprise write intensive drives are generally higher endurance than read intensive drives. The Enterprise SSD also have generally higher MTBF than consumer. ...For average home use, you should be good with either, unless used as small high intensity cache drive or something.
Sorry, I'm pertaining to spinners. HDD.
 

jang430

Active Member
Mar 16, 2017
264
22
28
51
I think OP is talking about hard disk drives ("spinning rust"). Personally, I'm more of the "do it the right way or don't do it at all" mentality. NAS drives (WD Red Plus/Pro, Seagate NAS) are perfectly fine and reliable, but if you're not terribly constrained by power usage/noise, just go used enterprise SAS disks (Seagate Exos, WD Gold, HGST UltraStar, Toshiba MG-series). Either of these solutions have worked very well for me. Always test used drives with a tool like badblocks on Linux or similar on other platforms just to be sure. I have not personally engaged in it until recently (2x 12TB Exos SATA), but I think the Enterprise SATA variants are fine too.

Generally speaking, using desktop drives are the most likely to end in failure from my observations. Sometimes you can get away with it with DeskStar/CoolSpin and WD Black drives. I don't recommend it unless you have good cooling and can get these drives noticeably cheaper than NAS/Enterprise drives. Stay clear of Barracuda entirely.

The only time I would even consider using archive drives (say it with me: shingled magnetic recording) is write-once/infrequent and if the price was very cheap. These can be very bad when replacing drives, at least in ZFS (not sure about Unraid). Only attempt this if you know what the consequences may be if you have to replace a drive.
Thanks for your input. I'm mainly considering SATA only, as SAS don't power down. Since I will leave my NAS on at all times, I want it to be as power saving as possible. Noted on the proper drives. It's just that used ones on ebay not very frequent.

I'll take note not to use SMR ones. Thanks! Appreciate your post.
 

jang430

Active Member
Mar 16, 2017
264
22
28
51
With all the nonsense that WD pulled off with the wd reds I stopped buying "nas" or other prosumer oriented hdds at all and buy datacenter hdds like seagate exos instead.
It's more expensive, but I don't have to worry that the drives will fail that fast in extreme situations (raid rebuilds etc.).
I recently started to take time to check which models are smr, or cmr. I guess this will help whether to get a drive or not. I saw some HGST 8 TB CMR drives (enterprise) being sold initially at 99 USD. Seems like a good deal. Will continue to monitor for even better deals. Thank you!
 

abq

Active Member
May 23, 2015
675
204
43
I think OP is talking about hard disk drives ("spinning rust"). Personally, I'm more of the "do it the right way or don't do it at all" mentality. NAS drives (WD Red Plus/Pro, Seagate NAS) are perfectly fine and reliable, but if you're not terribly constrained by power usage/noise, just go used enterprise SAS disks (Seagate Exos, WD Gold, HGST UltraStar, Toshiba MG-series). Either of these solutions have worked very well for me. Always test used drives with a tool like badblocks on Linux or similar on other platforms just to be sure. I have not personally engaged in it until recently (2x 12TB Exos SATA), but I think the Enterprise SATA variants are fine too.

Generally speaking, using desktop drives are the most likely to end in failure from my observations. Sometimes you can get away with it with DeskStar/CoolSpin and WD Black drives. I don't recommend it unless you have good cooling and can get these drives noticeably cheaper than NAS/Enterprise drives. Stay clear of Barracuda entirely.

The only time I would even consider using archive drives (say it with me: shingled magnetic recording) is write-once/infrequent and if the price was very cheap. These can be very bad when replacing drives, at least in ZFS (not sure about Unraid). Only attempt this if you know what the consequences may be if you have to replace a drive.
You are absolutely right, my bad! I must have had my SSD tinted googles on;).
 

Magius

Member
Oct 15, 2016
48
55
18
41
Orlando, FL
For the last few years I've only bought used enterprise SAS drives. The sweet spot on pricing has been $20/ea for 3TB Hitachis, which you can get on any given day. 4TB generally doubles the price ($40-50/ea), but someday I'll step up to something larger when they flood the market. I install the drives 6 at a time in my primary server, in Z2, and 5 at a time in my backup server, in Z1.
In all that gives me 12TB at a time (usable) for $120 in the primary server, and $100 in the backup server. Similar to adding a new 12TB disk to an existing Unraid. It's not very efficient in terms of power consumption and heat, but otherwise it's great for $/TB with lots of extra redundancy built-in.
Unfortunately this approach isn't compatible with Unraid, so it won't help you anyway. With Unraid (or any NAS) I'd still recommend looking at enterprise drives if possible. Stay away from "DVR" (purple) type drives. SMR shouldn't affect Unraid, but I'd still avoid them on principal, personally. There's no need to pay extra for a "NAS" drive, but if you can get them cheap go for it.
 

jang430

Active Member
Mar 16, 2017
264
22
28
51
For the last few years I've only bought used enterprise SAS drives. The sweet spot on pricing has been $20/ea for 3TB Hitachis, which you can get on any given day. 4TB generally doubles the price ($40-50/ea), but someday I'll step up to something larger when they flood the market. I install the drives 6 at a time in my primary server, in Z2, and 5 at a time in my backup server, in Z1.
In all that gives me 12TB at a time (usable) for $120 in the primary server, and $100 in the backup server. Similar to adding a new 12TB disk to an existing Unraid. It's not very efficient in terms of power consumption and heat, but otherwise it's great for $/TB with lots of extra redundancy built-in.
Unfortunately this approach isn't compatible with Unraid, so it won't help you anyway. With Unraid (or any NAS) I'd still recommend looking at enterprise drives if possible. Stay away from "DVR" (purple) type drives. SMR shouldn't affect Unraid, but I'd still avoid them on principal, personally. There's no need to pay extra for a "NAS" drive, but if you can get them cheap go for it.
Thanks for your input. I've cited why I prefer SATA over SAS, mainly due to power consumption. Secondarily, it would be the possible noise when there are plenty of drives already.

I'm waiting for 10 USD/ TB to come, before I jump in. Probably get 4 units of 8 TB. From discussion above, and further reading, it seems I should not consider desktop drives, and archive drives. That will leave me with NAS or Enterprise HGST drives (this I do prefer). I'll be on the lookout. I hope I can snatch a few HGST SATA drives soon!
 

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
4,221
1,540
113
34
Germany
I've cited why I prefer SATA over SAS, mainly due to power consumption.
Nearline sas hdds use sata mechanics with a sas interface, they consume almost the same power (exos x18 18tb sata 6.4watt vs sas 7watt)
 

jang430

Active Member
Mar 16, 2017
264
22
28
51
Nearline sas hdds use sata mechanics with a sas interface, they consume almost the same power (exos x18 18tb sata 6.4watt vs sas 7watt)
What do you mean by Exos x18? 18 units of 18TB total consumption is 6.4 watts only?
 

Ray

Member
Apr 24, 2016
60
23
8
PA
I run TrueNas and I've been buying used or Refurb enterprise class discs for about 8 years now for my two servers. Not one failure in that time although a bad cable did cause a high block reallocation count on one drive once.
 

bilbo1337

Member
Sep 18, 2020
79
45
18
Florida
Stay away from archive drives if it has SMR, it's just not worth it unless there's a huge discount. That said, the NAS drives will probably have a premium to them as they have a high demand. You can find good discounts on enterprise stuff usually.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jang430

Ray

Member
Apr 24, 2016
60
23
8
PA
Stay away from archive drives if it has SMR, it's just not worth it unless there's a huge discount. That said, the NAS drives will probably have a premium to them as they have a high demand. You can find good discounts on enterprise stuff usually.
I am well familiar with SMR drives and can assure you none of my drives have the "feature" You do have a point about Archive drives but they are fairly new and not what I think of as 24/7/365 active server drives
 

jang430

Active Member
Mar 16, 2017
264
22
28
51
Thank you for your input everyone. Will keep those in mind before I jump in.
 

Ray

Member
Apr 24, 2016
60
23
8
PA
Western Digital started using standby_z in most of their SAS drives in 2014. I know that the 16 HGST SAS drives I've bought in the past 6 months have it too (all dated 2018)