Which 3 TB drive should I buy?

[Rajahal]

Buy whichever one you want, but none of them will work with unRAID yet.

NOTE: Support for drives larger than 2TB are on The RoadMap and listed under the 5.0-beta4 section here.

[bjp999]

Not quite true.  3T drives DO work with unRAID.  But you have to follow special procedures to configure them to be only 2.2T.  When unRAID is enhanced to support 3T drives, you will be able to restore the drives to their full size.

With the price of these drives falling to under $170 US (that is $113 dollar adjusted for a 2T drive size), and knowing that it will make your remaining disk slots go 50% further, it might be worth considering.

So, for example, if you only have 3 more slots before you have to start swapping out your smaller disks, you'd be able to grow by 9T vs 6T with 2T drives.

And when you start replacing smaller disks with larger ones, your money doesn't go nearly as far.  Upgrading 3 1T drives to 3 2T drives (which gives you 3T extra space) would cost you $210 (with very cheap $70 2T drives)

See THIS THREAD

Update, since this was written the sale price of 3T drive has falled to $129 from Newegg and $109 from Microcenter.

[bjp999]

As of 5.0b7, 3T drives are supported by unRAID.

I recommend the Hitachi "Coolspin" (5400 RPM) Green Drives.

And the Hitachi Deskstar 7200 RPM for non-Green Drives.

I have no experience with any other 3T drives, good or bad.

[Rob_Dingen]

Hi

I just install a Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 3TB and it works.

Rob

[bjp999]

The Hitachi compatibility guide lists a wide variety of motherboards and controllers that are compatible with the 3T drives.  Some promise models are listed.

It does NOT list things known to be incompatible - so if it is not on this list, you can't assume it doesn't work.

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/EA3C2532A751C279882577DF0059E290/$file/Deskstar_7K3000_CompatGuide_final.pdf

(Users might want to save a copy of this PDF file, as these Hitachi resources may get pulled after the WD acquisition is complete)


Also, here is a limited set of motherboards and controllers that I have personally tested that appear compatible with 3T drives.

SEE THIS POST for details.

[Ayala]

so any 3TB Drive will work now without hardware modification? I'm building one from the ground up and would love to bite the bullet and but 5 3TB drives.

is the drive of choice Hitachi?

[bjp999]

so any 3TB Drive will work now without hardware modification? I'm building one from the ground up and would love to bite the bullet and but 5 3TB drives.

is the drive of choice Hitachi?

What do you mean "hardware modification"?  No soldering iron is going to provide support for 3T drives in older versions.

3 TB drives work with the latest 5.0 beta.  There are a few issues, most importantly unRAID is not recognizing the preclear signature for quick add of 3T drive to an array. This would not prevent you from setting up the array, just add time if you wanted to add another drive to the array once it was established.  Next beta should be out soon and author has said this problem is fixed in that release.

You do need a compatible controller that support large disks.  Most motherboards and add on controllers do support them, but a few don't.  See the link in my prior post for Hitachi brochure that lists many compatible motherboards, controllers, and chipsets.

[Ayala]

so any 3TB Drive will work now without hardware modification? I'm building one from the ground up and would love to bite the bullet and but 5 3TB drives.

is the drive of choice Hitachi?

What do you mean "hardware modification"?  No soldering iron is going to provide support for 3T drives in older versions.

3 TB drives work with the latest 5.0 beta.  There are a few issues, most importantly unRAID is not recognizing the preclear signature for quick add of 3T drive to an array. This would not prevent you from setting up the array, just add time if you wanted to add another drive to the array once it was established.  Next beta should be out soon and author has said this problem is fixed in that release.

You do need a compatible controller that support large disks.  Most motherboards and add on controllers do support them, but a few don't.  See the link in my prior post for Hitachi brochure that lists many compatible motherboards, controllers, and chipsets.

sorry as you can tell it's my first post. I'm new to unraid, in fact I haven't even built mine yet but from what I gather by reading here, one needs to jump a 3TB drive in order for it to be usable at a lower capacity. this was all that i was referring to.

thanks for clearing up my concerns!

...as for the controller card, wont SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express suffice? the link is a little unclear to me :|

[bjp999]

Yes, that controller is compatible, and the morherboard ports probably are as well.

With older versions of unRaid, you could use a trick to reduce the size of a 3T drive to 2.2T. That was software not hardware trick. Sorry I didn't connect that to what you were asking.

I like the Hitachis. Haven't tried other brands though.

[Ayala]

Yes, that controller is compatible, and the morherboard ports probably are as well.

With older versions of unRaid, you could use a trick to reduce the size of a 3T drive to 2.2T. That was software not hardware trick. Sorry I didn't connect that to what you were asking.

I like the Hitachis. Haven't tried other brands though.

Thanks again, after reading some reviews on newegg about this controller card, it seems it does not support 3TB drives is there another option at this time or is it simply premature?

[theone]

Thanks again, after reading some reviews on newegg about this controller card, it seems it does not support 3TB drives is there another option at this time or is it simply premature?

Check here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1324649

It does seem to support 3TB drives.

[bjp999]

I documented compatibility in the post I linked earlier in this thread and have multiple 3T drive in my array right now, with one of them on this controller.   I updated the firmware a long while back.  If some people are complaining of incompatibility, it could be they need to update. 

3T support is in beta at this time. I have done more with 3T drives than anyone here, and think besides a few issues I have documented in the announcement thread (that don't affect data integrity), it is solid. But it is BETA so you need the right mindset going in. 

To make an informed decision, you should read the beta7 announcement thread and understand the issues. Only then can decide if it is mature enough for you. 

[pmpj218]

I documented compatibility in the post I linked earlier in this thread and have multiple 3T drive in my array right now, with one of them on this controller.   I updated the firmware a long while back.  If some people are complaining of incompatibility, it could be they need to update.

Would you mind confirming which firmware version are you using for the AOC-SASLP-MV8 card? I'm running with 3.1.0.21 and I'm wondering if I need to update it before moving to 3TB drives on this card. Thanks in advance.

[bjp999]

I am running the .21 firmware as well.

[cal87]

Any thoughts on 7200rpm vs 5400rpm for these 3TB drives?
I am not that concerned about speed, more concerned about the long term reliability.