[mmaestro]

Just planning my first WHS build, and I'd been intending to get a couple of 1tb WD Caviar Green drives, obviously the EADS drive, to avoid the 4k issue. Unfortunately, the few (and I mean few) retailers still stocking it are now charging over $100 including shipping (wheras the EARS drives are below $80 these days), so I started looking at other options. Well, Samsung's Ecogreen drives don't seem to be out there, and Seagate's Barracuda LP drives seem to be fairly panned on the basis of reliability. Is there a Green drive option still out there worth buying, or should I resign myself to buying a higher power drive for my build?

[GaPony]

I've been buying the Samsung F2 HD154UI (1.5TB) drives and have been quite happy with them and the price. The cost per GB is better than with 1TB drives. I just had two delivered today that were $95 each with free shipping.

[J_P_A]

mmaestro, on 09 March 2010 - 02:58 AM, said:

Just planning my first WHS build, and I'd been intending to get a couple of 1tb WD Caviar Green drives, obviously the EADS drive, to avoid the 4k issue. Unfortunately, the few (and I mean few) retailers still stocking it are now charging over $100 including shipping (wheras the EARS drives are below $80 these days), so I started looking at other options. Well, Samsung's Ecogreen drives don't seem to be out there, and Seagate's Barracuda LP drives seem to be fairly panned on the basis of reliability. Is there a Green drive option still out there worth buying, or should I resign myself to buying a higher power drive for my build?

Have you tried Newegg? I actually just ordered a couple of the 1.5Tb EcoGreen drives. Unfortunately, I didn't get as good a deal as GaPony :o

They are a little more expensive, but as GaPony already stated, the $/Tb is lower than for the 1Tb drives, and you'll never regrett the extra space.

[mmaestro]

J_P_A, on 09 March 2010 - 04:55 AM, said:

Have you tried Newegg? I actually just ordered a couple of the 1.5Tb EcoGreen drives. Unfortunately, I didn't get as good a deal as GaPony :o

They are a little more expensive, but as GaPony already stated, the $/Tb is lower than for the 1Tb drives, and you'll never regrett the extra space.

Well, right now I don't think I'll come close to using 2TB total, even with files duplicated across drives, and I was hoping to save some money. It's amazing how a little more on one component here and a little more there starts to add up quickly. The difference between $80/drive and $100/drive does start to add up. But it does seem like this is the best option at the moment, it's just kind of an annoyance.

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

I'm using a couple of Seagate LP drives, and have no problems with them. They are slightly more expensive than the WD drives, but don't have the same annoying issue. Actually, I just got a 1.5TB for $100 (from newegg), that had a free USB caddy thing.

And the Seagate LP are "Low Power", just incase you didn't get that. :)

[GaPony]

mmaestro, on 09 March 2010 - 06:52 PM, said:

Well, right now I don't think I'll come close to using 2TB total, even with files duplicated across drives, and I was hoping to save some money. It's amazing how a little more on one component here and a little more there starts to add up quickly. The difference between $80/drive and $100/drive does start to add up. But it does seem like this is the best option at the moment, it's just kind of an annoyance.

You can get drives to meet any price point you're looking for. If you have a set budget, get smaller drives, if you don't think you'll ever fill them, and save the money. Just take my word for it... you'll fill them and even more once you figure out all the cool stuff WHS can do for you, and then you'll probably be wishing you got two 2TB drives. http://forum.wegotserved.com/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

[J1mbo]

On the other hand disks prices only ever go one way, so I would avoid going massively overboard to start with.

FWIW my own data needs seem to have stayed reasonably constant at 60GB or so (music, work/software archives) plus more recently 60GB for photos. For me 500GB of total space (allocated to WHS anyway) remains ample two years on.

[wardog (WGS)]

mmaestro, on 09 March 2010 - 06:52 PM, said:

Well, right now I don't think I'll come close to using 2TB total, even with files duplicated across drives, and I was hoping to save some money.

Save some money but do take into consideration that if you plan on backing up your local computer(s) that 2TB might not look that large after factoring in the size of the backup(s).

[J_P_A]

I know you said you planned to stay away from the EARS drives, but I bought one a week or so ago not realizing the XP issue also applied to WHS. I ran the WD Align Utility (booted from the ISO) last night on that drive with no problems. Now the drive seems to be performing just as well as the others in my server. Just something else to think about.

And you are certainly right, $30 here, $30 there adds up in a hurry

[jhhoffma]

I also just purchased two WD1500EARS for my WHS and simply jumpered pins 7 and 8 and they are working fine with no other fixes. WDAlign not required.

I can always flip them back when I upgrade to Vail.

[Rychek]

jhhoffma, on 12 March 2010 - 05:43 PM, said:

I also just purchased two WD1500EARS for my WHS and simply jumpered pins 7 and 8 and they are working fine with no other fixes. WDAlign not required.

I can always flip them back when I upgrade to Vail.

Same here. No issues so far and throughput hasn't dropped at all. So far I'm a happy customer.