unrinoceronte Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 (edited) Hi, what do you think is the best kind of drive for a small NAS Server? I have a 1 drive QNAP TS-110 Turbo NAS: http://www.qnap.com/en/index.php?lang=en&sn=822&c=1655&sc=1656&t=1658&n=3346&g=4&gc=18 I was thinking on this 2 kinds of drives, both are compatible with my NAS: - 2TB WD BLACK - 2TB WD RED http://wd.com/en/products/internal/desktop/ Money is of no concern, i only need one drive and i want to use it on the NAS which will be used to store all my WORK FILES and ASSETS (3D Library, textures, etc). My workstation and my 2 render nodes will access those files on the NAS to work from and render. They will not be stored locally in each computer. (Or perhaps maybe just the current project will be on the workstation...) The WD RED specifies that it is made for a NAS, and is better for RAID, but in my case i will not use RAID (since is just a one drive NAS as i mentioned), so that is why i want to know your opinion. Which of this HDDs do you will be better for performance and reliability on this NAS and my "Work Scenario" (3ds Max, Vray, Photoshop, Autocad) ? Thanks for your advice. Edited September 17, 2013 by unrinoceronte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 Go with the red. It should last longer in that application, and you don't really benefit from the speed of the black when used in a NAS (because the limiting factor is the speed of the network). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unrinoceronte Posted September 17, 2013 Author Share Posted September 17, 2013 Thanks Andrew, by the way, i will be using a GIGABIT Network. (i already have the Gigabit Switch, the Computer is Gigabit, and the NAS is Gigabit... i only need to get the cables..) Having said that about my Gigabit network, do you still think the RED is better? I was just adviced by a computer technician that i should not use either RED or BLACK, and that i should go with ENTERPRISE GRADE HDDs... What do you guys think of these? I searched on Amazon and i found some Enterprise 2TB Hdds for less than $200. Here they are (sorry i really do like Western Digital) - http://www.amazon.com/WD-Enterprise-Hard-Drive-WD2000FYYZ/dp/B0090UFNR6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1379436665&sr=8-3&keywords=western+digital+enterprise+hard+drive - http://www.amazon.com/RE4-Enterprise-Hard-Drive-WD2003FYYS/dp/B002XW44QY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379436665&sr=8-2&keywords=western+digital+enterprise+hard+drive - http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Enterprise-WD2000F9YZ-Frustration-Free/dp/B00CYSYZTS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379437003&sr=8-2&keywords=western+digital+se Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 Gigabit LAN is still slower than those hard drives. An "enterprise drive" is a bit more reliable, but if you want to be really safe, what you want is a NAS with RAID (two drives mirrored). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unrinoceronte Posted September 17, 2013 Author Share Posted September 17, 2013 Gigabit LAN is still slower than those hard drives. An "enterprise drive" is a bit more reliable, but if you want to be really safe, what you want is a NAS with RAID (two drives mirrored). Well yes i know, but the thing is right now i already own this small one drive QNAP NAS, and i need a drive for it. Definetely i will go for more a more drive-bays NAS in the near future, i am thinking on buying a 4 Bay QNAP NAS in perhaps 5 months or so. Besides RELIABILITY, what do you think will be the situation regarding PERFORMANCE with the ENTERPRISE type or the RED or BLACK? being all the files stored there on the NAS, and my workstation and render nodes accessing them to work with and saving to the NAS (they will not be stored locally in each computer). I think the RELIABILITY part i can solve it having a good External HDD for BACKing UP the NAS. I guess is more important the PERFORMANCE ASPECT. My tipical scenario will be that i will be working on my WORSTATION, and i will have 1 or 2 nodes doing some rendering Tasks. No Animation yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimitris Tolios Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 Gigabit LAN is still slower than those hard drives. An "enterprise drive" is a bit more reliable, but if you want to be really safe, what you want is a NAS with RAID (two drives mirrored). This...any drive will be "faster" than the real output of the NAS through gigabit. Greens, Blacks, Reds etc - speed wise will be the same. 5400rpm drives will add less noise / vibrations and in theory should live longer. Blacks have 5 years warranty, Reds have 3 years...Greens, me things, 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unrinoceronte Posted September 17, 2013 Author Share Posted September 17, 2013 (edited) This...any drive will be "faster" than the real output of the NAS through gigabit. Greens, Blacks, Reds etc - speed wise will be the same. 5400rpm drives will add less noise / vibrations and in theory should live longer. Blacks have 5 years warranty, Reds have 3 years...Greens, me things, 2. Thanks Dimitri, so: A) this "bottleneck" if i could call it that, will be my NAS or the GIGABIT Lan? If it is the NAS, are all the NASes like that, or are there faster ones? B) Regarding the DRIVEs, so if i get your point right, since performance will be the same, A GREEN or a RED drive will be a better option for my NAS right? Do not get me wrong, I dont really care much about the warranty perse, since in any situation for me the files are the real valuable asset, and i will keep an external HDD backing up the NAS... C) That thing you mentioned regarding real OUTPUT of the NAS through Gigabit is very usefull for my understanding of this subject... So the SPEED of the Drives, only really matter if they are used as INTERNAL Drives on the workstation right? D) a little OFFtopic, but regarding the DRIVE SPEEDS, I have looked on the web for some transfer rate speeds, but i got into many confusing information... The only official speeds i found where this SPECS for the WD Drives: Host to/from drive (sustained) 2TB WD GREEN: 147 MB/s 2TB WD RED: 147 MB/s 2TB WD BLACK: 138 MB/s Is this the SPECS that i should be looking for? Maybe not because that numbers would seem that the BLACK is slower, and i know it isnt... E) Out of curiosity which will be the typical tansfer Speed rate through a GIGABIT LAN saying i got any of these 3 drives? Edited September 17, 2013 by unrinoceronte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimitris Tolios Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 There is always a bottleneck. The Gigabit network is slower than most of those drives, even if the NAS will slow them down a tad due to RAID mirroring etc. Maximum sustained transfer speed is what you will get for transfering large, non fragmentalized files. Slower spinning drives might have just as fast max transfer speeds, as the physical attributes of the disk and the location of the data on the disk might be different: what's the disk's diameter, what's the data density per platter, how many platters, where on the platter is the data etc. GBit = 1000 mbps (mega-bits) 1 byte = 8 bits So maximum bandwidth in bytes = 1000 / 8 = 125 million bytes per second or 119MB/sec (one way). But every few packets that go one way, the LAN will be doing checks, verifying that packages have been received and checking integrity etc, so real life speed is usually topping @ 90 MB/s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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