Hard Drive Choice

[biggeeflex]

I recently purchased the diskless Synology DS-111 and it's time to purchased the hard drive. Choosing the hard drive is quite a frustrating task. It's seems like everyone has a different opinion about what to buy. I understand the first step is to check out the compatibility list over at Synology.com.

http://www.synology.com/support/hd.p...&product_id=65

But that leaves you with a list of a 200 choices, so if I then filter it down to the size drive I'm interested in (2tb-3tb) and all SATA drives, the list dwindles down to about 30.

Does the speed matter? 5400 vs. 7200 RPM? And some are 5900 RPM. Would I notice faster access times?

Does Brand Name really matter? Rumors are are to stay away from some brands that have had a bad past but its seems like they all are decent now.

Does the Class matter? Enterprise vs. Desktop? I understand that Enterprise class are made to be on demand 24/7 in large servers, but would this mean it might last longer in my single disk NAS?

If all these choice are minor and any drive would be just fine, maybe explaining what I'm using my NAS device for would help fine tune my choice. My main use will be daily backups of documents for work. The secondary use will be media server via DLNA. I also plan to access the NAS from outside the LAN..for video and music and documents.

with all this considered I'm leaning towards a WD25EZRX 2.5TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s - Desktop Class

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[Scott DeLeeuw]

In a NAS 5400rpm will do just fine.

I think your method of looking at the compatibility list and narrowing it down from there is a good one.

I would probably try for an Enterprise class drive myself, simply because you'll have it on 24/7... The desktop drives are meant to be powered down for "greenness"...

In looking at forum posts you'll say all sorts of "I hate this kind, they suck"... Take that with a grain of salt. I usually look at the reviews on Newegg for the drives I'm considering. If a majority are happy and it hasn't failed then you are probably good. When 2TB drives first came out most manufacturers had firmware issues that led to early failures, most of that has been resolved. My two most recent drives were Samsung and Hitachi and both have worked great so far.

[biggeeflex]

Ok, I ordered the Hitachi HUA722020ALA330. it's a enterprise class, HITACHI Ultrastar A7K2000 0F10452 2TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive.

I'm going to max it out soon but I guess I buy a second NAS, right? or use the vortexbox as media server and use the NAS for doc's only?

[Scott DeLeeuw]

Use the Vortexbox as the media server and that will spare room on the NAS. You can also add a USB or eSATA drive to the NAS. The latter would be the fastest solution.

[imranhaider011]

Use the Vortexbox as the media server and that will spare room on the NAS. You can also add a USB or eSATA drive to the NAS. The latter would be the fastest solution.

Adding USB or eSATA drive to NAS is better compare to use Vortexbox