[US] B&H Photo 12TB Elements for $190 ($15.83 TB) (27 Oct 21 Only)

[cmmh]

I know most folks on STH probably aren't shuckers, but B&H Photo (much more respectable IMHO than NewEgg) as the above drive on sale for just today.
Doing the math, we're at $15.83 per TB, so getting closer to "good deal" territory. It will be interesting to see if these slip further for black friday / cyber monday pricing.
Free shipping, and those of us on the east coast are likely to get them in a couple days given their NYC warehouse.

B&H DealZone

Announcing B&H DealZone! Check back daily for amazing prices on your favorite gear!

www.bhphotovideo.com

 

[Samir]

Nice find! Yep, B&H is one of the few online retailers I still trust.

 

[eduncan911]

I bought several of the 10TB variant of those WD last black friday at $15/TB that I shucked.

All of them had that SATA 3.2 spec that shuts down the drive with 3.3V applied to that "special" pin now used on the power connector.

While an easy fix with Kapton tape precisely placed on the HDD connector before inserting into the backplane, they are a PITA when removing the HDD as sometimes the Kapton tape stays behind... In the back plane! Argh. I've disassembled my backplane far more times than I care to admit.

Good news I'm finally done with my setup. Bad news if a HDD fails in the future, and needs replacing.

The last time inserting I am experiment with an "extra long" strip of that kapton tape that tapes back further around the HDD exterior. It only gets narrow down to where the power connector is for that one pin to block off.

I'm hoping the next time I have to remove the drive, the larger size of the kaptop attached to the drive keeps it with it.

 

[Markess]

While an easy fix with Kapton tape precisely placed on the HDD connector before inserting into the backplane, they are a PITA when removing the HDD as sometimes the Kapton tape stays behind... In the back plane! Argh. I've disassembled my backplane far more times than I care to admit.

Yikes! Well that would certainly be a problem. All my backplanes get power from 4 pin molex connectors (5v & 12v), so I’d assumed the 3.3v thing wouldn’t be a problem for me? Maybe I’m wrong? I was hoping to pick up some extra drives to shuck this BF.

 

[eduncan911]

Yikes! Well that would certainly be a problem. All my backplanes get power from 4 pin molex connectors (5v & 12v), so I’d assumed the 3.3v thing wouldn’t be a problem for me? Maybe I’m wrong? I was hoping to pick up some extra drives to shuck this BF.

Well, it's not the molex. It's the physical connector to the HDD. The old SATA 3.1 and earlier specs basically has 3.3V going to several pins.

It was with SATA 3.2+ that they decided to break sh*t, and say, "you know what, let's forget the OS sending a software signal. Let's make the PSU decide to save power. Let's use this pin that normally has 3.3V all the time, and make it so that 3.3V now means, Shutdown. It's brilliant! We'll use a power to save power! Yay!"

"What? This means older machines without the right PSU and upgraded SATA power connectors means they can't use newer drives? Doesn't make sense. Our spec uses Power to save Power."

But anyways... It's not too bad. I have 12 of these 10TB I shucked. I've maybe had to disassemble the back plane to take it maybe 4 or 5 times, out of the dozen of times I've removed a drive.

 

[tozmo]

I have a norco backplane that uses molex to power it, and even then I still need to use kapton tape.

 

[likelinus]

The Supermicro SAS2 and TQ backplanes do not need any tape to work. I use 10-12TB drives (WD) and they have no problems or need any tape.

 

[eduncan911]

The Supermicro SAS2 and TQ backplanes do not need any tape to work. I use 10-12TB drives (WD) and they have no problems or need any tape.

What exact chassis and backplane do you have?

I have a SC846 chassis with the SAS2 backplane... And none of the drives would even spin up. That's how I learned about the 3.3V kapton trick, and now they all spin.

 

[likelinus]

I've got an SC846. I originally had the TQ and swapped it out for the bpn-sas2-846el1. Very odd, I've got (6) 10TB drives and (2) 12TB WD shucked drives running. The others are all 8TB and I'm not sure if they have the same problem.

Older picture, but this is DrivePool and you can see 4 of the 10TB (white=shucked) drives that I had not added to my NAS pool yet. The (2) 2TB Black drives were for my wife to back up her laptop/phone and such. I had no issues with the drives being identified.

 

[Markess]

I have a SC846 chassis with the SAS2 backplane... And none of the drives would even spin up. That's how I learned about the 3.3V kapton trick, and now they all spin.

So bpn-sas2-846el1/el2? I was hoping (assuming?) that backplanes like those, that only get 5V, 12V & ground from the PSU, wouldn't have any drive issues with 3.3v... I was assuming (hoping?) that if there's no 3.3v going into the backplane, there'd be no 3.3v going into the drives. But I guess that isn't necessarily correct.

I know that not all shucked drives have the 3.3v problem, so maybe @likelinus got lucky? I have a mix of 4TB and 8TB shucks and only one drive (an 8TB helium) has the 3.3v issue. All the other drives are the "less desirable" air filled drives, but they don't have any power issues. My one drive with the 3.3v issue is currently in a desktop style case and I got around the voltage problem by using one of these adapter cables that doesn't have a 3.3v wire.



Or maybe there's different revs of the 846 backplanes that treat 3.3v differently?

 

[eduncan911]

I've got an SC846. I originally had the TQ and swapped it out for the bpn-sas2-846el1. Very odd, I've got (6) 10TB drives and (2) 12TB WD shucked drives running. The others are all 8TB and I'm not sure if they have the same problem.

Older picture, but this is DrivePool and you can see 4 of the 10TB (white=shucked) drives that I had not added to my NAS pool yet. The (2) 2TB Black drives were for my wife to back up her laptop/phone and such. I had no issues with the drives being identified.

I should have mentioned to @Markess earlier that, not all shucked drives have this 3.3V pin issue. Some of the WD Elements drives are perfectly normal, even some being WB Enterprise drives inside. It's a lottery of what drives you get.

I lost the lottery with my 12 tickets...

 

[likelinus]

Maybe I am just lucky? I don't know though. Here is a SS of another pool of drives.

(2) 8TB Red Drives (shucked too, but they had Red drives) and (4) 8TB WD White (Shuck) drives. I would have to get a new SS where I added the (6) 10TB and (2) 12TB drives to a new pool. This was taken recently before I started the switch due to running out of space. But I've just never run in to the issue.

Not sure of the revision of my backplane. I've had it 3-4 years and never looked.

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/bestbuy-wd-easystore-10tb-with-32gb-flash-drive-180.23035/

There are several comments regarding the backplane with 3.3v drives. Someone mentioned "I suspect if your backplane is powered by molex, which doesn't have 3.3v power, you should not have any problems."

I do know mine is powered by 6 Molex connectors.

 

[cmmh]

Best Buy is having the easystore 14TB drives in a "pre-Black Friday" sale for $200. Supposedly if you're a BB member, you get guaranteed prices if they fall lower on bf.

 

[Samir]

Best Buy is having the easystore 14TB drives in a "pre-Black Friday" sale for $200. Supposedly if you're a BB member, you get guaranteed prices if they fall lower on bf.

Yep, just saw this on another forum. Seems like the cheap prices are back--good for those that are interested in these drives.

 

[JoshDi]

are these CMR or SMR drives?

 

[likelinus]

are these CMR or SMR drives?

According to users who've tested them on Slickdeals, they are CMR w/ Helium and 7200RPM. This is according to CrystalDiskMark.

I'll have two here tomorrow and can provide an update.

 

[unmesh]

Regarding the Easystores, some buyers are reporting on another website that they are 5400RPM even though CrystalDiskMark says they are 7200RPM ::shrug::

 

[likelinus]

Regarding the Easystores, some buyers are reporting on another website that they are 5400RPM even though CrystalDiskMark says they are 7200RPM ::shrug::

Odd, but there could be a reason for that. Late last year, WD made a change to Red Plus specs and called 7200RPM drives "5400 RPM Class," and got a lot of flack for doing so. The 5400 are supposed to be more energy efficient. WD had to go back and start changing the drives nomenclature back to 7200. Not sure why people are saying they are 5400 if CDM is reporting it as 7200? Who knows. Either way, they are fine for NAS usage.

Western Digital Confuses Everyone With '5400 RPM Class' Hard Drives

The WD Red '5400 RPM Class' NAS hard drives actually spin at 7,200rpm.

www.pcmag.com

.

 

[Samir]

According to users who've tested them on Slickdeals, they are CMR w/ Helium and 7200RPM. This is according to CrystalDiskMark.

I'll have two here tomorrow and can provide an update.

Someone else posted this CDI on another site from the two they just got and haven't even shucked yet--does this look like CMR or SMR?

They posted the details on it too (drive on the right):

 

[Samir]

Regarding the Easystores, some buyers are reporting on another website that they are 5400RPM even though CrystalDiskMark says they are 7200RPM ::shrug::

They can report either. Someone on another forum compared an older and newer one and one says one and the newer one another.