Hello, I’m relatively new to self-hosting and recently started using Unraid, which I find fantastic! I’m now considering upgrading my storage capacity by purchasing either an 8TB or 10TB hard drive. I’m exploring both new and used options to find the best deal. However, I’ve noticed that prices vary based on the specific category of hard drive (e.g., Seagate’s IronWolf for NAS or Firecuda for gaming). I’m unsure about the significance of these different categories. Would using a gaming or surveillance hard drive impact the performance of my NAS setup?
Thanks for any tips and clarifications! 🌻
Apart from the SMR vs. CMR, if your NAS will run 24/7 you need to make sure to use 24/7 capable drives or find a way to flash a 24/7-specific firmware/setting to a consumer drive. Normal consumer drives (e.g. WD Green) tend to have a lot of energy saving features, e.g. they park the drive heads after a few seconds of inactivity. This isn’t a problem with normal use as an external drive that only gets connected once in a while. But in a 24/7 NAS the drive will wake up lots of times and park again, wake up, park again … and these cycles kill the drive pretty fast.
https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/hacking-wd-greens-and-reds-with-wdidle3-exe.18171/