On 17/08/2019 20:43, jeikppkywk wrote:
"Jethro_uk" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Aug 2019 13:01:03 +0100, T i m wrote:
Hi all,
Still playing with the idea of putting together a couple of NAS's, one
for me (because) and one for daughter as she want's to get all her
photos together in one place (or 'copies of' at least).
Trying to keep the power requirements and noise levels to the minimum
whilst providing a reasonable (sufficient) online capacity to do what is
required at the lowest possible cost.
To that end I already have a few of the slim line (Atom powered) Shuttle
PC's:
http://www.shuttle.eu/products/disco...bones/xs35v3l/
...Â* with low capacity SSD's and enough RAM (4GB) to run something like
Open Media Vault.
https://www.openmediavault.org/
I've been running OMV on a Raspberry Pi2b for some time now and it seems
pretty reliable and the performance sufficient to stream a video etc.
Not saying it's 'fast' as these things go, but it's adequate, very very
low power and nearly silent (you can just hear the 4TB external laptop
drive running now and then).
However, the Pi is a bit 'bitsy' to give someone as a working solution
compared with the Shuttle, because you can actually fit two 2.5" drives
in the shuttle, the additional one going on the SATA connector for the
slim line drive (that's not present). So, the small SSD on that for the
boot / system and 'something bigger' for the actual shared storage.
Now, you can buy a 2.5" form factor WD Red drive in 1TB (max) and whilst
that would probably be sufficient for daughters needs, isn't 'big' as
such. However, what it does mean is that a 2TB USB backup drive would be
adequate and that helps to keep the overall price down.
So then we come to drives, makes and reliability.
*Traditionally* we would have stuckÂ* 'a drive' in whatever we were doing
and that would have been it, but now we have different drives for
different roles ... laptop, desktop, CCTV, NAS, Server, DVR's etc.
But, I can get 2 x 1TB 2.5" 'std' drives for the price of one 'Red'
drive or 1 drive of 2+ times the capacity of the Red?
If said drive was in a Shuttle running OMV and the drive spinning down
when idle ... and assuming they were fast, quiet and cool enough in use,
mightn't std drives be better VFM, even in the long term?
Along those lines, over 10 years ago I built a Windows Home Server using
3 x Hitachi 500GB laptop drives (providing 1.5TB via Drive Extender) and
fingers crossed, they still seem to be hanging in there. I can't
remember if the drives spin down when idle but they certainly spin down
when the server hibernates and it does that most nights. I notice you
can still get Hitachi (HGST) 2.5" drives in 1TB (~£45) and assuming they
were the same thing as I have in my WHS, then I'd have to say I'd be
inclined to get a couple of them.
Yes, I could get a Synology box (DS119j?) and a higher capacity 3.5"
drive but at a lot more cost and no way I could swap out the hardware so
cheaply (outside the warranty etc).
So, apart from the d-i-y focused thoughts above, can anyone say these
days that any make / model of hard drive is actually going to be better
or worse (from a reliability POV) or is it still mostly a matter of luck
how long they last?
FWIW, I believe 'heat' is a killer of some electronic equipment and my
WHS and the HDD's run very cool (I ducted the air over the HDD's
specifically).
We probably all have tales of drives that lasted for ever but the
Internet is now littered with people reporting drives dying pretty
quickly. ;-(
I notice you can now buy 1TB SSD's for under £100 but would that be any
more likely to last 10 years an a conventional drive in a NAS role?
Steer well clear of Seagate.
Work fine for me.
In my time in IT, seagate, fujistu, IBM and western digital have all
been 'the drives to have' and 'the drives to avoid'
Certain technologies proved good and some bad. What was written on the
case is orthogonal to what is inside.
--
If I had all the money I've spent on drink...
...I'd spend it on drink.
Sir Henry (at Rawlinson's End)