1TB Western Digital HDD for $160 at MicroCenter

[reggie14]

MicroCenter has the Caviar GP 1TB (OEM) hard drive for $160, in-store and online here. (In comparison, Newegg has it for $200.) This is their "green" hard drive model, which really means it's a 5400RPM hard drive. It's not as fast as the 7200RPM drives, but it still performs pretty favorably. It's quieter and cooler though, which makes it a great mass storage drive.

This isn't quite as good of a deal as CircuitCity's special on it a couple weeks ago (which was $160 for the retail box), but it's pretty close and isn't likely to end in a matter of hours.

[Fluffdaddy]

Thanks for the heads up. With a R5000-HD and now a HD-PVR I can aways use a 1TB HDD at $160

[BobPhoenix]

Wish I had the money I'd get 4 right now since I am recording larger files from my HD-PVR.

[reggie14]

Out of curiosity, where are you guys putting all your hard drives. I've just been putting them in my Sage server box internally, but now that I've hit hard drive number 6 I don't have room for any more. I have a couple USB enclosures that I use for backup purposes, but I don't want to use them for general storage expansion since they are noisy, and my server sits next to my TV.

I have a computer I'm not using that I'm thinking about turning into a file server, but it seems like a waste to add a computer just for the physical hard drive slots. I'm also thinking about just getting a larger case and a SATA controller card. The last option would be to get a good multi-bay enclosure, but I don't know what one I would get.

Any suggestions?

[stanger89]

5-in-3 or 4-in-3 drive cages work great. Also helps to have 10+ bay full tower/server cases

[tmiranda]

[QUOTE=reggie14;288592]Out of curiosity, where are you guys putting all your hard drives.QUOTE]

ooooohhhhhmmmmm, oooooohhhhhmmmmmm. Think NAS. oooooohhhhhmmmmm.

(That's supposted to sound like Tibetian Monks chanting, sorry for the accent. )

[CollinR]

4U rack here 11 bay but I only actually have 2TB of stuff.

I am somewhat concerned about speed as I have 4 encoders going now and will probably add a few more plus commskip and autocompress so I have bunches of head activity.

I have noticed sage will allocate everything to whichever disk has the most capacity left so if you just add a 1TB drive it will use it exclusively until it's filled to the point where it's like the others. If you even out the video manually it helps. Better yet move to server stuff and OS and storage luckily that crap is actually getting cheaper every day.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by stanger89

5-in-3 or 4-in-3 drive cages work great. Also helps to have 10+ bay full tower/server cases

That's my tentative plan. There's a P182 case on sale for about $100 which would give me a little extra room over my current Sonata II (mainly it would give me room for a 5/3 drive cage).

ooooohhhhhmmmmm, oooooohhhhhmmmmmm. Think NAS. oooooohhhhhmmmmm.

I've looked at a few of those and they all look either horribly overpriced, or they get really bad reviews. Any suggestions?

I have noticed sage will allocate everything to whichever disk has the most capacity left so if you just add a 1TB drive it will use it exclusively until it's filled to the point where it's like the others. If you even out the video manually it helps.

I've noticed that too. I wish they did some simple load balancing. Like, when something is already recording on drive A, it records to the drive with the next most available storage (assuming that drive has enough free space to hold the recording). I've never formally requested that feature- I've just mentioned it on the forums.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by reggie14

That's my tentative plan. There's a P182 case on sale for about $100 which would give me a little extra room over my current Sonata II (mainly it would give me room for a 5/3 drive cage).

I've looked at a few of those and they all look either horribly overpriced, or they get really bad reviews. Any suggestions?

It really depends on what you want, frankly I see little point in a NAS if you're going to have a server running all the time anyway, especially if it's "dedicated" and in a back room (where noise isn't an issue).

If you don't meet those criteria, then something like a ReadyNAS or Thecus would probably work well.

I've noticed that too. I wish they did some simple load balancing. Like, when something is already recording on drive A, it records to the drive with the next most available storage (assuming that drive has enough free space to hold the recording). I've never formally requested that feature- I've just mentioned it on the forums.

I don't think that functionality would really change anything for most people, the way Sage is designed (and I'd guess the way most use it), that happens in effect since the drives are almost always full, so Sage will sort of "rotate" drives just by it's nature. Besides, if you throw a 1TB drive into the recording pool, would you really want Sage to delete recordings off another drive just because it's recording to the (mostly empty) 1TB drive?

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by stanger89

It really depends on what you want, frankly I see little point in a NAS if you're going to have a server running all the time anyway, especially if it's "dedicated" and in a back room (where noise isn't an issue).

Well, actually my server sits next to my TV, and will for the foreseeable future (mostly because I don't have any kind of 'back room', though I use an HD extender as a client). So, noise is an issue. But that's actually why I think a NAS doesn't make sense. If I already have a PC running all the time next to the TV, it doesn't make sense from a noise perspective to add a NAS next to the TV too.

My server is very quiet, considering I didn't really go to any trouble to make it quiet other than choosing the case. I think The P182 should be roughly as quiet as my current Sonata II, although it doesn't have the CPU air duct that is pretty effective in blocking CPU fan noise. But for me its mostly a cost issue. I want to find the cheapest way to add more drives without greatly increasing the noise (and I'd prefer to stay away from single-bay USB enclosures, since they seem messy).

I don't think that functionality would really change anything for most people, the way Sage is designed (and I'd guess the way most use it), that happens in effect since the drives are almost always full, so Sage will sort of "rotate" drives just by it's nature. Besides, if you throw a 1TB drive into the recording pool, would you really want Sage to delete recordings off another drive just because it's recording to the (mostly empty) 1TB drive?

I guess I'm not really sure that's how most people use it. I definitely delete stuff before Sage starts having to automatically delete stuff. I'm sure at some point I reach a sort of equilibrium between my recording drives, but it seems to take a long time. It could be because my TV watching habits more closely resemble a stack than a queue.

In any case, I think you misunderstood my suggestion. I wouldn't want Sage to start deleting stuff until all drives were full. But, as long as a second drive has empty space, I think it makes sense to move to it. I think I've had problems before when I've been recording 2 videos to the same drive, while watching a ripped DVD off that drive (at least, I've gotten poor DVD playback in those situations on my HD100). I would think it would be a bigger problem for people with a lot of tuners. I'm not sure it would help things much, but it seems like it wouldn't hurt and would be really easy to implement.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Well, actually my server sits next to my TV, and will for the foreseeable future (mostly because I don't have any kind of 'back room', though I use an HD extender as a client). So, noise is an issue. But that's actually why I think a NAS doesn't make sense. If I already have a PC running all the time next to the TV, it doesn't make sense from a noise perspective to add a NAS next to the TV too.

Well yeah, the idea of a NAS is to put it in a closet, or utility room, since storage is one of the hardest things to quiet, especially as the number of drives increases.

Of course if that's not possible (to put it in a utility room or such) then yeah, it doesn't really make any sense.

My server is very quiet, considering I didn't really go to any trouble to make it quiet other than choosing the case. I think The P182 should be roughly as quiet as my current Sonata II,

The P18x is a great design, you'll be happy with it.

...although it doesn't have the CPU air duct that is pretty effective in blocking CPU fan noise.

FWIW, on my desktop, the CPU fan rarely runs because it's centered between the two massive 120mm fans on the case. Oh, and those fans are set at their lowest speed.

But for me its mostly a cost issue. I want to find the cheapest way to add more drives without greatly increasing the noise (and I'd prefer to stay away from single-bay USB enclosures, since they seem messy).

I'd just stick them in the case, the P18x has spots for about 8 3.5" drives IIRC, and they're isolated and everything. Should work great.

[QueOnda]

I had a 1.2 TB ReadyNas (X6), and I bought Seagate four 1 TB to replace last week on sale ($180). Now I have 4TB...SOOO SWEET.

Make sure on if you buy WD (The DEATHSTAR) that you actually get 3 year warranty on these drives. Looks like this is OEM Deatstar drives.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

Make sure on if you buy WD (The DEATHSTAR) that you actually get 3 year warranty on these drives. Looks like this is OEM Deatstar drives.

The site claims it comes with a 3 year, but it is an OEM drive, so that might not be accurate. Have you had problems with WD?

I've been using Western Digital drives for years. Actually, I've gone through lots of hard drives in the last 9 years. The only one that ever died on me was one of the original Deathstars- a 60 gig IBM Deskstar. I actually went through three of them- I returned the first one after it died after a few months, the second lasted a couple days, but the third lasted several years before I finally replaced it. And I have a 30 gig Maxtor that's been running constantly since 1999 (along with an Athlon 600 in an Epox board).

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

I had a 1.2 TB ReadyNas (X6), and I bought Seagate four 1 TB to replace last week on sale ($180). Now I have 4TB...SOOO SWEET.

Make sure on if you buy WD (The DEATHSTAR) that you actually get 3 year warranty on these drives. Looks like this is OEM Deatstar drives.

IBM made the DeathStar

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Out of curiosity, where are you guys putting all your hard drives.

If you plan to have a lot of drives, then you need a server case. Not only do you need the room, but space for airflow. And make sure you have enough fans to cool the system.

Originally Posted by stanger89

IBM made the DeathStar

I think its sold under the Hatachi brand now.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I think its sold under the Hatachi brand now.

Not really a deathstar anymore either.

[MarkV]

Careful with valuable data on these. I have 13 of these 1TB Caviar drives. 2 have been replaced under warranty (since Sept 2007). There have been a few flavors of this drive as well (at least 2).

And before you jump on me about conditions - the drives are running between 30 and 36 deg C (86-96 deg F) using a temperature sensor on the outside of each drive. Ten of them are in a drive only enclosure (2x DS351) with a temperature monitor running RAID5. Two of them are are off an HR20 in a modified Thecus box (with a 120mm fan sucking the heat through them). The last one is on the shelf as a spare for the two RAID arrays. Environment is almost entirely read-only. I archive 50 to 100 GB at a time to the arrays about once a week. Frequency of access to the arrays is actually pretty low as well. Access to the two striped Thecus drives is relatively constant as it's hanging off an HR20 which keeps them spun up.

I have 3 other random bricked WDs (2 500GB and a 320GB I think) as well that didn't have a long enough warranty.

Yet I still buy Western Digital when it's cheap cause I'm cheap too!

Mark

[QueOnda]

Originally Posted by reggie14

The site claims it comes with a 3 year, but it is an OEM drive, so that might not be accurate. Have you had problems with WD?

Yeah, OEM and 3 years sounds fishy but who knows. I had one WD which expired 1 week after the 1 year warranty. But this was about 8 years ago.

Originally Posted by stanger89

IBM made the DeathStar

OH, your right. OPPS, got my facts wrong. hahaha I loved when everyone referred to as a DeathStar.

I think fry's right now has the 1TB for $180 again!!! It has a 5 year warranty!!! RETAIL box! YUP: http://www.netaffilia.com/ads/electr...08/06/20/33290

This expires Tuesday June 24th (Tuesday).