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Good RAID Englosure for ‘green’ drives.
I have a 4 bay StarTech RAID enclosure (S354UFER) with 4x2GB Samsung (ECO Green) Spinpoint HD204UI Drives. I was having a problem with video not playing smoothly and StarTech said they did not recomend ‘green’ drives as the power saving in the enclose can conflict with power saving in drive. This may be why I am only getting 60MB/s with RAID 10.
So my question is what 4 bay RAID enclosure do people recommend. I have a MacPro Desktop so FW800 seems my best option?
Regards,
Ben—
Ben Edwards – Freelance Picture Editor
https://www.funkytwig.comMacpro1,1 2007 6GB RAM 2*2 3Ghz Xeon
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8 Replies
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Hey Ben.
I’ve never recommended “Green” drives in a RAID for the reason that was pointed out to you among others (namely reliability). I can’t say I’ve ever heard of Green drives being used in anything but the lowest end single drive enclosures.
Is FW800 the “BEST” choice in the machine you have? No.
You could go with mini-SAS, but you’d need to invest in a RAID controller to get speed and data redundancy, something like what we sell, EB400MS: https://www.proavio.com/eb400ms-mini-sas-desktop-raid-ready-storage.html, along with a Areca 1223X card which would afford you 450MB/s in RAID 5, if you had the budget & the expansion of an 8 lane or better slot available to you. Or you could also go with a EB800MS https://www.proavio.com/eb800ms-mini-sas-desktop-raid-ready-storage.html with that same Areca card & get 900MB/s read write in RAID 5, 800MB/s + read/write in RAID 6, but it all comes down to your budget, need for speed & available PCIe slots in your machine.People that use our products are very satisfied with the performance, protection & service that we provide.
Jonathan Schilling
Vertical Sales Manager
Proavio
12221 Florence Ave.
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
Dir: 562-777-3498
Main: 562-777-3488 X106
Fax: 562-777-3499
Email: jon@proavio.comSee our forum: https://forums.creativecow.net/proavio
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Although “green” drives are not recommended for RAID use, it sounds like you may be reaching the FW800 chipset limitation on your Startech enclosure at 60MB/s in RAID-10.
Luis Rodriguez
Proavio
12221 Florence Ave.
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
Dir: 562-777-3498
Main: 562-777-3488 X109
Fax: 562-777-3499
Email: luis@proavio.com -
Yes, I think the issue is green drives are not good for streaming hidef video. Depends how you define best;). I am using the drives for video editing, not high speed backups. I am a student so affordability is a issue. What I am thinking of doing is replacing the drives wit Hitachi DeskStar 72000 as I do not think they are green. 60MB/s is over twice what I need.
Ben
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Ben Edwards – Freelance Picture Editor
https://www.funkytwig.comMacpro1,1 2007 6GB RAM 2*2 3Ghz Xeon
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Ben,
You should be MUCH happier with those drives. Let us know how that pans out for you.
Jonathan Schilling
Vertical Sales Manager
Proavio
12221 Florence Ave.
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
Dir: 562-777-3498
Main: 562-777-3488 X106
Fax: 562-777-3499
Email: jon@proavio.comSee our forum: https://forums.creativecow.net/proavio
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Thanks, are the Seagare Barracudas any good?
Ben
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Ben Edwards – Freelance Picture Editor
https://www.funkytwig.comMacpro1,1 2007 6GB RAM 2*2 3Ghz Xeon
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Seagate Barracudas are great if you are running compatible firmware. I would save myself the headache and go with Hitachi.
Luis Rodriguez
Proavio
12221 Florence Ave.
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
Dir: 562-777-3498
Main: 562-777-3488 X109
Fax: 562-777-3499
Email: luis@proavio.com -
Can you please expand on this, they are around 40% cheaper than the Hitachi. I notice a year or so ago there were problems with the drives but surly that has sorted itself out?
Ben
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Ben Edwards – Freelance Picture Editor
https://www.funkytwig.comMacpro1,1 2007 6GB RAM 2*2 3Ghz Xeon
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Ben,
The potential problem with Seagate drives is not with the drives, but the firmware. Some Seagate drives may not have the same firmware, drive to drive. You could potentially update the firmware for use with the system you’re using, controller card, etc, but that would require getting the firmware from Seagate & installing it, which requires a PC running in DOS.
In the end, you’re better off going the hassle-free route of using Hitachi drives.
Jonathan Schilling
Vertical Sales Manager
Proavio
12221 Florence Ave.
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
Dir: 562-777-3498
Main: 562-777-3488 X106
Fax: 562-777-3499
Email: jon@proavio.comSee our forum: https://forums.creativecow.net/proavio
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