Enterprise versus "consumer" grade drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter miso
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miso

I haven't built a PC with hard drives in a few years and I have to say I
am amazed at the hard drive market. [Note I have bought a few USB
drives, so I am referring to internal drives here.] First of all, it
seems everyone bought everyone else. Samsung went to Seagate. Hitachi
went to WD. Fujitsu went to Toshiba, which is presume is waiting to go
elsewhere. Well now I can see why the hard drive market never fell back
to the pre-Thailand flood prices. There are three, no make that 2.5
suppliers.

I always had the best luck with Seagate. So I do the usual market survey
(translation: read Newegg reviews) and it seems Seagate now sucks. Also
the 5 year warranty is 3 years, and that is on a good day. Seagate has
some drive with 1 year warranties. OK, so check out WD. Hmmh, they seem
to suck now too.

So is there any advantage to buying a Seagate Constellation versus a
Baracuda? Or Ultrastar versus Deskstar?

Have you noticed some vendors selling new drives without warranties?
When did that start happening?

FWIW, the system I plan on building will use intel SSD for the OS. I've
done two systems with intel SSD and no headaches, well other than having
to pay top dollar for the SSD. [I had a Corsair SSD arrive DOA. That is
my only non-intel experience.] I plan on getting two large hard drives
(normal, not SSD) and running RAID0. [Raid can be a pain if the
controller dies. Raid 0 may be inefficient, but at least the drives are
readable without RAID. I had a mobo fail that had a RAID 10 and a Raid 5
array on it. I got the RAID 10 going on another PC, but the RAID 5 just
refused to load. I had to go to the backup.]

Given that the OS with be on SSD and the magnetic media is on RAID 0,
would it still make sense to go with enterprise grade drives, presuming
they are more reliable that the consumer grade?

Incidentally, I noticed WD now has a 4Tbyte drive whose description is
similar to the Hitachi 4Tbyte. I'm leading towards using 3Tbyte since
they are substantially cheaper, though Fry's occasionally discount the
Hitachi 4Tbyte drives.
 
:

<snipped - just addressed the Subject topic in my reply>

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923-2.html
Section labelled "Enterprise Drive Reliability"
Click to expand...

Your reply here is a bit cryptic. Did you post a comment in this
article, or did you just want me to look at the "Enterprise Drive
Reliability" section.

I recall reading that Google paper when it came out and cursed them for
just not freakin' saying which drives were good. The line "enterprise
and consumer drives are made up of largely the same components" was
stated about 5 years ago, and may not be relevant today.

I see Anandtech has an article on drive for NAS, which glosses over
enterprise versus consumer.
 
miso said:
Your reply here is a bit cryptic. Did you post a comment in this
article, or did you just want me to look at the "Enterprise Drive
Reliability" section.

I recall reading that Google paper when it came out and cursed them for
just not freakin' saying which drives were good. The line "enterprise
and consumer drives are made up of largely the same components" was
stated about 5 years ago, and may not be relevant today.
Click to expand...


My reading of the Tom Hardware (1.25 years, not 5 years ago) is that
enterprise and consumer HDDs use the same mechanicals which means there
is no difference in their "grade" (per your Subject header). The
significant difference is in the firmware code in the interface to the
enterprise HDDs.

What in the last 5 years do you think has been significant in the
technology changes in HDDs? Yeah, now they're thinking of filling them
with helium but that's an incremental change, not a major change, and
you weren't asking about getting one of those. An article ONE year ago
is just as applicable as if written today. If you know of an article 5
years old that said the same thing, well, then you've further proof that
there has been little difference in quality or durability of enterprise
versus consumer drives over that last 5 years.

"´enterprise¡ and ´consumer¡ drives have pretty much the same annualized
failure rate". How does that not address your 1-line query "make sense
to go with enterprise grade drives, presuming they are more reliable
that the consumer grade?" You didn't ask for some white paper that
showed exhaustive testing and analysis to come to the same or different
conclusion. You asked a general question. I gave an article with a
general (conclusionally) answer.
I see Anandtech has an article on drive for NAS, which glosses over
enterprise versus consumer.
Click to expand...

Where did you mention in your planned config on using a NAS drive? The
HDD isn't what makes the difference in the NAS device. You're paying
for the extra logic encoded into the interface that the Tom's article
also mentioned.

If you want to spend the money, figure it is for your own peace of mind.
You paid more so it must be better. Nothing in your proposed hardware
config can make use of the enterprise-level firmware features so you're
paying for something you won't use and ending up with the same quality
mechanicals.
 
My reading of the Tom Hardware (1.25 years, not 5 years ago) is that
enterprise and consumer HDDs use the same mechanicals which means there
is no difference in their "grade" (per your Subject header). The
significant difference is in the firmware code in the interface to the
enterprise HDDs.

What in the last 5 years do you think has been significant in the
technology changes in HDDs? Yeah, now they're thinking of filling them
with helium but that's an incremental change, not a major change, and
you weren't asking about getting one of those. An article ONE year ago
is just as applicable as if written today. If you know of an article 5
years old that said the same thing, well, then you've further proof that
there has been little difference in quality or durability of enterprise
versus consumer drives over that last 5 years.

"´enterprise¡ and ´consumer¡ drives have pretty much the same annualized
failure rate". How does that not address your 1-line query "make sense
to go with enterprise grade drives, presuming they are more reliable
that the consumer grade?" You didn't ask for some white paper that
showed exhaustive testing and analysis to come to the same or different
conclusion. You asked a general question. I gave an article with a
general (conclusionally) answer.


Where did you mention in your planned config on using a NAS drive? The
HDD isn't what makes the difference in the NAS device. You're paying
for the extra logic encoded into the interface that the Tom's article
also mentioned.

If you want to spend the money, figure it is for your own peace of mind.
You paid more so it must be better. Nothing in your proposed hardware
config can make use of the enterprise-level firmware features so you're
paying for something you won't use and ending up with the same quality
mechanicals.
Click to expand...

If you carefully read the google paper, the quote about consumer drives
and enterprise drives being similar was made five years ago. Now you are
correct that the google paper is quite recent, but the reference in the
paper is old. As an example, if I write "Four score and seven years ago
our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in
Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal." on October 8th, 2012, one would say the actual quote goes back
to November 19th, 1863.
 
The only thing I could find was this 2008 paper for the general public fromIntel:

http://download.intel.com/support/m...e_class_versus_desktop_class_hard_drives_.pdf

It says enterprise class HDs have better head positioning mechanisms, ECC for their RAM, bigger head positioning magnets, anchoring for the spindle bearings at both ends of the shaft, air turbulance control, and better mechanisms for handling vibration and head misalignment, including separate processors for servo information and data.

Do the extra features apply only to 10,000+ RPM Enterprise HD or also to 7200 RPM models? Because don't many 7200 RPM and <6000 RPM consumer HDs haveair turbulence control, including fixed plastic rods that out over the platters or covers between the platters?
 
Thanks. Interesting paper. Note that the magnet size may not be
significant since there are different magnetic materials. That is, a
smaller magnet can be more powerful than a larger magnet. It is hard to
say these days due to rare earth shortages, especially neodymium. The
shortage has lead to some loudspeaker redesigns. For a static magnet,
you can more or less size it as need be, but for a moving magnet, the
rare earth shortage is a big deal.

Much of what is in the intel paper could be seen from a tear down of the
drives. That is, you would see the ECC memory, spindle bears on top and
bottom, etc.

Variable sector size on a drive is news to me, but if an enterprise
drive has that, it would be in the datasheet.

Regarding vibration, I've been using Antec cases which mount the drive
in grommets. I have 5 years on this RAID 10 array, so I assume the
grommet scheme doesn't hurt. They are Seagate drives with (you guess it)
the 5 year warranty.

Reading the Seagate literature, they are no longer at One Disk Drive but
have a Cupertino address. I know the company went private. It seems like
the changes have been for the worse.
 
Regarding vibration, I've been using Antec cases which mount
the drive in grommets. I have 5 years on this RAID 10 array,
so I assume the grommet scheme doesn't hurt. They are Seagate
drives with (you guess it) the 5 year warranty.
Click to expand...

Seagate once released a paper that said shock mounting a hard drive can increase seek time a lot, at least for small strokes. I can't find it at their website any more; all the technical papers there seem to have disappeared.. :(

A friend of mine used grommets on his hard drives, but instead of those special screws with shafts wider than the threads, he used regular screws, andeventually vibration made some of them work out completely from the drives.. None of the drives fell out, but one drive was held in place only by friction against the grommets.
 
miso said:
If you carefully read the google paper, the quote about consumer drives
and enterprise drives being similar was made five years ago. Now you are
correct that the google paper is quite recent, but the reference in the
paper is old. As an example, if I write "Four score and seven years ago
our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in
Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal." on October 8th, 2012, one would say the actual quote goes back
to November 19th, 1863.
Click to expand...

Guess you missed my statement "What in the last 5 years do you think has
been significant in the technology changes in HDDs?"
 
I thought I posted this to the list last night. Anyway, here are some
of the innovations in the last five years of features incorporated in
enterprise drives.

Comparing a Deskstar to Ultrastar datasheet, in this case the 7k4000,
the Ultrastar has "adaptive error correction", "dual stage actuator",
and "rotational vibration safeguard (RVS).

RVS apparently isn't very new (2006 to 2007 time frame).
http://storagemojo.com/2006/04/24/rotational-vibration-safeguard-selling-the-wet-in-water/
Click to expand...

In WD own line, they call it RAFF. It is in the RE and Raptorline.
 
miso said:
RVS, RAFF, dual stage actuator.
Click to expand...

Since you were including consumer-grade HDDs in your query, RVS is a
non-issue. Are you really expecting to repeatedly smack your HDDs while
they are spinning? Just how many HDDs are you putting inside the same
cabinet? You didn't specify all your criteria; however, you *did* want
a comparison to consumer-grade drives which apparently *was* a choice
for you (i.e., they met your selection criteria) so such technologies,
like RVS, are a non-issue in comparing enterprise to consumer HDDs. If
RVS was a selection criteria then you already know that consumer HDDs
aren't going to be among your choices.

http://enterprise.media.seagate.com...otational-vibration-in-desktop-vs-enterprise/
http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.ns...024b87256c470074569d/$file/wp_rvs_25march.pdf
Written 5 years, or more, ago.

I had mistakeningly assume that you wanted a comparison between
enterprise and consumer HDDs because you actually had some consideration
in purchasing consumer-grade HDDs. If you're going to mandate features
of enterprise-grade HDDs then, well, there's no point in considering
consumer-grade ones. You give no clue on how YOU will actually deploy
the HDDs. For all we know, you're asking for use in your home desktop.
 
Since you were including consumer-grade HDDs in your query, RVS is a
non-issue. Are you really expecting to repeatedly smack your HDDs while
they are spinning? Just how many HDDs are you putting inside the same
cabinet? You didn't specify all your criteria; however, you *did* want
a comparison to consumer-grade drives which apparently *was* a choice
for you (i.e., they met your selection criteria) so such technologies,
like RVS, are a non-issue in comparing enterprise to consumer HDDs. If
RVS was a selection criteria then you already know that consumer HDDs
aren't going to be among your choices.

http://enterprise.media.seagate.com...otational-vibration-in-desktop-vs-enterprise/
http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.ns...024b87256c470074569d/$file/wp_rvs_25march.pdf
Written 5 years, or more, ago.

I had mistakeningly assume that you wanted a comparison between
enterprise and consumer HDDs because you actually had some consideration
in purchasing consumer-grade HDDs. If you're going to mandate features
of enterprise-grade HDDs then, well, there's no point in considering
consumer-grade ones. You give no clue on how YOU will actually deploy
the HDDs. For all we know, you're asking for use in your home desktop.
Click to expand...

I over build my PCs, then run them about 5 years. I don't go cheap, but
I don't get stupid about this either. Thus I am determining what the
marginal increase in money gets me in reliability.

You must have missed this statement:
"So is there any advantage to buying a Seagate Constellation versus a
Baracuda? Or Ultrastar versus Deskstar?"

Since I was referring to both consumer and enterprise drives, to those
that can follow logic, it can be inferred that I was also considering
consumer drives.
QED
 
miso said:
I over build my PCs, then run them about 5 years. I don't go cheap, but
I don't get stupid about this either. Thus I am determining what the
marginal increase in money gets me in reliability.

Seagate Constellation versus a Baracuda?
Click to expand...

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...compare,1010.html?prod[4056]=on&prod[3017]=on

Nothing knocked me out of my chair looking at the benchmark comparison
on those 2 models. Both of those are 7200 RPM drives. There are 15K
RPM Barracuda drives but you never mention WHICH ones you were
comparing. If you want to make an equal comparison between benchmarks
for a 7200 RPM versus another 7200 RPM drive then your choice of Hitachi
models (next) is flawed. You'd have to compare the Seagate
Constellation 7200 RPM against their Cheetah 15K RPM models, like:

Constellation:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...-drive-charts/compare,1010.html?prod[4056]=on
Cheetah:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/enterprise-hard-drive-charts-2008/compare,701.html?prod[2035]=on

Alas, they don't use the same set of benchmarks for the enterprise
drives so it's hard to tell what equates to what for benchmark type.
Or [Hitachi] Ultrastar versus Deskstar?"
Click to expand...

Couldn't find a page where the benchmarks for both the Ultrastar and
Desktar were listed together (so I could select them and do a
side-by-side compare of benchmarks). You'll have to bounce between the
two charts to compare benchmarks. I picked units with the same cache
size (16MB) which is the largest listed in the chart at that time for
the Ultrastar models; however, the Deskstar has more than twice the
capacity (1TB versus 450GB).

Ultrastar:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/enterprise-hard-drive-charts-2008/compare,701.html?prod[2034]=on
Deskstar:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...-drive-charts/compare,1010.html?prod[2358]=on

A big reason the benchmarks are much better for the Ultrastar is you're
comparing a 15K RPM drive to a 7200 RPM drive. It's not anything
"enterprise" for which you're paying a price premium. It's a faster
spinning platter (and noisier drive) that you're paying more for.

If, like for Hitachi, you were to compare Seagate 7200 and 15K RPM,
well, one spins more than twice as much in the same time so there is the
wear factor to consider.

A decade ago I built a PC for a 3-year lifespan because there was enough
ongoing change to warrant a significant enough performance increase (at
least double) to expect a decent replacement at that time. I've been
disappointed with the slow technology changes since then and now
[over]build with a 6-year lifespan in mind - except for mechanical
storage (e.g., HDDs, optical). It's a waste of money. After 3 years,
and regardless that the HDD is in perfect working order, you'll want
more capacity or some tech gotcha will get you itching to get a newer
HDD (like how SSDs are now starting to draw consumers). I might pay
extra for higher performance (if willing to sacrifice on noise and
longevity) but paying for enterprise features when NOT used in an
enterprise scenario doesn't make sense. The problem with using bleeding
edge technology components in your build is that you pay a hell of a lot
more, get little or just a tiny incremental performance gain, and in a
couple years your disappointed with your expense because prices have
radically dropped or something far better came along.

Even with enterprise-grade HDDs having a longer warranty period (maybe 5
years), do you really send in your in-warranty HDD for replacement?
You've only got one that blew, not dozens or hundreds at some RAID-ed
file server datacenter waiting for replacement. Are you really going to
disable your host waiting for an in-warranty replacement? I never found
it cost effective or wasn't willing to stall usability to get a warranty
replacement of an HDD. I just went and got a new one. If you have the
money to spend for an enterprise-grade HDD (just one for your home PC),
are you really going to concern yourself about saving a little to get it
replaced by warranty instead of buying a bigger, faster, or otherwise
better HDD some years from now?

The survivability of the HDD mechanicals, as mentioned in the articles,
is not greater with enterprise-grade HDDs versus consumer-grade HDDs.
They all appear to have the same infant mortality rate along with the
3-4 year peak in failure rate. Unless you can actually use the
enterprise added features, I don't see why you'd waste the money on
them. Rather spend the extra money on a faster HDD. Talk to the forums
on whether they consider the 15K RPM drives as noisier or not. I can't
see how a higher-energy 15K RPM drive is going to outlast, in general, a
7200 RPM drive considering there's twice as much wear for 15K RPM on the
bearing and they run hotter. Also, consider if you want to spend more
money on a 15K RPM drive which will open your programs faster (but
doesn't have much affect thereafter) and copy files faster but is that
the primary focus of your computer? You'll also end up having to
sacrifice drive capacity for higher platter RPM: the faster spinning
platters have more wind resistance so the size is reduced to lower
turbulence while not having to increase motor torque hence why makers
are considering using helium inside the drive. See:

http://arstechnica.com/information-...ed-hard-disks-will-lead-to-higher-capacities/

You don't think they'll charge a price premium for helium-filled HDDs?
Will you need it? Not unless you're trying to up the single-unit
capacity of a 15K RPM drive because helium will let them increase
platter size to up the drive's capacity. The rest of us will prefer a
more economical pricing point in the dollar/byte curve and just add
another "old" HDD in the case and for cheaper.
 
When did I mention 15k RPM drives or even 10K? Nor did I mention helium.
Why look at 1Tbyte drives?

If anything, I would consider examining a Ultrastar 3T versus a deskstar
3T. The 4T drive prices are not at the sweet spot. The ultrastar has a
2e6 MTBF, and yes that isn't the same as AFR, but it is indicative of
something.

Regarding noise, the deskstar and ultrastar drives are the same. Not so
for WD RE versus red. In fact, the WD RE is one of the noisier drives.

I've had 10krpm cheetah drives in the past. I'm not going that route.
I'm going to SSD the OS and then use magnetic media for file storage.
The C216 mobos have two sata3 and 4 Sata 2. It is not a particularly
generous mobo in that respect. If you mirror the drive, that means the
mobo will support one SSD for OS, and two "drives" for user data.

I may look at getting two smaller SSDs and stripe them. I'm not a fan of
striped raid per se (no redundancy), but the SSD array would be so small
that I could easily ghost it often. I'd have to determine if there is
any speed advantage to striped SSD. It just might end up choking the
system further down the lane.
 
miso said:
When did I mention 15k RPM drives or even 10K?
Click to expand...

Hitachi Ultrastar. That's a brand and a family line, not a particular
model in that family line. So, for example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145330

Yep, it qualifies as an Ultrastar. You didn't mention specific models
so all models in a family are up for consideration.
Nor did I mention helium.
Click to expand...

Did I say YOU mentioned helium? *I* mentioned it. That's because it
will allow larger platters to spin faster (so teh 15K RPM drives could
have larger platters to up their capacity). It will have a cost
premium. Will YOU pay for it just because it exists or get something
cheaper that does the job for you? This was mentioned because it
follows the same [il]logic from having to pay for enterprise features
that you won't use.
Why look at 1Tbyte drives?
Click to expand...

Because, again, you never bothered to mention specifics, like size, so
all sizes are eligible.
Regarding noise, the deskstar and ultrastar drives are the same.
Click to expand...

For the same RPM models, that is.
I'm going to SSD the OS and then use magnetic media for file storage.
Click to expand...

As long as you realize that SSDs are fast for reads but slower for
writes; however, writes on SSDs are still much faster than for HDDs.
Just be aware that writing is slower than reading on an SSD so consider
how you will use the SSD. For example, consider if your host is used
primarily as a read-based web server or a write-heavy database server.
Apps that do sequential reads benefit less from SSDs than apps that do
random writes. Under heavy write volume, the SSD will slow even further
due to the overhead of the wear levelling mechanism. Over time, the SSD
slows more due to the remapping needed to compensate for oxide stress
that causes cell failure and why SSDs are rated by maximum write cycles.
Flash memory cells wear out; quicker for MLC than for SLC, so SLC is
more durable but far more expensive. When the reserve (remap) space
gets consumed, the device catastrophically fails. For SLC-based
(enterprise-grade, very pricey) SSDs, you can figure a lifespan of about
5 years on a write-heavy setup; see http://tinyurl.com/c9aevxk. Most
SSD makers like to claim their SSD should be usable for a 10 year
lifespan because they're targeting home PC users with their statement
since those users are not stressing their PC all hours of every day and
typically incur a very light load when they do use their PC. The makers
are hoping users don't realize that [the rest of] the 10-year old PC may
very well continue to be very usable after 5 or 10 years.

Once an HDD survives past its infact mortality and 3-year humps in
failure rates, they last a long time but typically users replace them
long before they fail because they want more capacity or a faster HDD.
The device didn't fail but users later change their requirements or
wants. Same for SSDs. While they may have a 5 or 10 year lifespan
depending on how they are used and what type (MLC vs SLC), it's likely
most users will replace the SSD long before it fails because they want
more capacity or a faster SSD. Consumers typically don't wait for [a
hint of] failure before buying something newer, better, bigger, or
improved.
 
miso said:
So is there any advantage to buying a Seagate Constellation versus a
Baracuda? Or Ultrastar versus Deskstar?
Click to expand...
No. Unless you have a hard limit to only use one drive. "Enterprise"
drives are a bit better in reliability, but RAID1 is so massively
better that enterprise drives are laughable. The only place these
pay of (somewhat) is if drive replacement is expensive, e.g. because
somebody has dro drive to the datacenter. There, even a small
imporivement in reliability can justify a larger price increase.

[...]
Given that the OS with be on SSD and the magnetic media is on RAID 0,
would it still make sense to go with enterprise grade drives, presuming
they are more reliable that the consumer grade?
Click to expand...

If you use RAID0, your data is basically doomed anyways, unless
you have good backup. If you have good backup, no need to go for
enterprise drives. RAID0 is basically always a bad choice except
for cache and buffer applications that need high throughput, such
as video-capture and editing. But RAID0 should never be used as
actual longer-term storage.

Arno
 
Arno said:
If you use RAID0, your data is basically doomed anyways, unless
you have good backup. If you have good backup, no need to go for
enterprise drives. RAID0 is basically always a bad choice except
for cache and buffer applications that need high throughput, such
as video-capture and editing. But RAID0 should never be used as
actual longer-term storage.
Click to expand...

Another problem with stripping (RAID-0) is that MTBF goes down as you
add more drives. As the drive count goes up, MTBF goes down. The
minimum RAID-0 config uses 2 HDDs which means your MTBF is half of the
whichever HDD has the lowest MTBF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_0_failure_rate

If you can afford 2 HDDs for RAID-0, and especially after choosing NOT
to waste money on "enterprise" HDDs for a personal-use host, you can
probably afford 3 HDDs even if they are smaller but result in an equal
or increase in total capacity compared to the 2 HDDs. Then you could
put them in a RAID-5 configuration.

It makes no sense to be spending money on enterprise-grade HDDs for
features you won't use but then go cheap on the RAID config. Forget the
"enterprise" lure and go with a better RAID config.
 
miso said:
So is there any advantage to buying a Seagate Constellation versus a
Baracuda? Or Ultrastar versus Deskstar?
Click to expand...
No. Unless you have a hard limit to only use one drive. "Enterprise"
drives are a bit better in reliability, but RAID1 is so massively
better that enterprise drives are laughable. The only place these
pay of (somewhat) is if drive replacement is expensive, e.g. because
somebody has dro drive to the datacenter. There, even a small
imporivement in reliability can justify a larger price increase.

[...]
Given that the OS with be on SSD and the magnetic media is on RAID 0,
would it still make sense to go with enterprise grade drives, presuming
they are more reliable that the consumer grade?
Click to expand...

If you use RAID0, your data is basically doomed anyways, unless
you have good backup. If you have good backup, no need to go for
enterprise drives. RAID0 is basically always a bad choice except
for cache and buffer applications that need high throughput, such
as video-capture and editing. But RAID0 should never be used as
actual longer-term storage.

Arno
Click to expand...

I meant mirror, i.e. raid 1, for the hard drives.

I'll consider RAID5. I've done that before. Not with the greatest
results though. When the mobo died, I was able to put the RAID 10 array
in another PC and all the data was still there. The RAID5 array couldn't
be recovered. I had a pretty good backup.

Raid 5 at least buys you something in the way of more storage with just
as good security, well provided the mobo doesn't get Chinese cap disease.
 
miso said:
miso said:
So is there any advantage to buying a Seagate Constellation versus a
Baracuda? Or Ultrastar versus Deskstar?
Click to expand...
No. Unless you have a hard limit to only use one drive. "Enterprise"
drives are a bit better in reliability, but RAID1 is so massively
better that enterprise drives are laughable. The only place these
pay of (somewhat) is if drive replacement is expensive, e.g. because
somebody has dro drive to the datacenter. There, even a small
imporivement in reliability can justify a larger price increase.

[...]
Given that the OS with be on SSD and the magnetic media is on RAID 0,
would it still make sense to go with enterprise grade drives, presuming
they are more reliable that the consumer grade?
Click to expand...

If you use RAID0, your data is basically doomed anyways, unless
you have good backup. If you have good backup, no need to go for
enterprise drives. RAID0 is basically always a bad choice except
for cache and buffer applications that need high throughput, such
as video-capture and editing. But RAID0 should never be used as
actual longer-term storage.

Arno
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I meant mirror, i.e. raid 1, for the hard drives.
Click to expand...

Ah, that is something different.
I'll consider RAID5. I've done that before. Not with the greatest
results though. When the mobo died, I was able to put the RAID 10 array
in another PC and all the data was still there. The RAID5 array couldn't
be recovered. I had a pretty good backup.
Click to expand...

You should test RAID recovery when you design that array,
i.e. before you put data on it. Software RAID is better than
hardware RAID is better than FAKE RAID.
Raid 5 at least buys you something in the way of more storage with just
as good security, well provided the mobo doesn't get Chinese cap disease.
Click to expand...

That should be long over now. This was an isolated incident of
industrial espionage and basically all caps from that time
should now be dead.

Arno
 
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