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Forum Discussion
2.5" hdd
i've just bought a new hdd for a laptop, and looking at it's spec - http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=685, it seems a 1tb drive is also available - i find this interesting! obviou...
You have an interesting idea, lets explore it a bit.
Notebook drives are lower powered for a reason - higher RPM's generates more heat and most notebooks already have problems dissipating heat. One does not have that problem with an NAS. Most notebook drives are 5400RPM for this reason. I did have a 7200RPM notebook drive but removed it because of the excessive heat it was generating. Western Digital is working on a line of Green drives with variable speeds, but the firmware on these drives is currently causing problems in the ReadyNAS lines (see the notes in the Hardware Compatibility List [HCL]). Seagate has a line of lower RPM drives that operate at 5900RPM in the Barracuda LP line. They seem to have their firmware issues resolved.
Looking at Newegg's HD listings, I find two 2.5" class 1TB drives (none larger) which range in price from $130 to $140 each. On the other hand, there are 46 1TB drives in the 3.5" class on Newegg, 14 of which are bulk drives ranging from $70 to $90 each. Five of these are the "Green" drives from Seagate and WD including two of the $70 drives which offer similar low power draw. In the case of WD, it's either the $140 2.5" drive or the $70 3.5 drive.
If you want drives larger than 1TB, then for the foreseeable future, you are are going to be limited to 3.5" drives. Remember the cutting edge in notebook drives is now at the 1TB capacity, and these initial drives will have reliability problems and will be higher priced. In the 3.5" class, the threshold is at the 2TB capacity. So, you can either get the same capacity for half the cost or twice the capacity at the same cost.
Then you also brought up the mounting. I have a JBOD box with trays that will mount either 2.5" or 3.5" drives. The 3.5" drives use side screws and the 2.5" drives use screws up through the bottom through 4 holes that align the drive with the SATA socket on the back plane. Laying an empty ReadyNAS tray upside down over a 3.5" drive and then a 2.5" drive on top of that and aligning the SATA connectors, there are several points. The ReadyNAS tray would have to be re-engineered to take 2.5" drives as two of the mount holes for the 2.5" fall right at the end of the tray bottom (edge is the centerline of the mount holes) and one of the other two falls in the middle of one of the 16 vent holes.
Given the disadvantages of using matching 2.5" drives in a Raid configuration (cost) and the cost of re-engineering the trays, I would say there is little likely hood of a ReadyNAS using 2.5" drives anytime soon.
FWIW - the JBOD box I was referring to provided the 20 screws for 5 3.5" drives but no screws for the 2.5" drives, which indicates they also are not anticipating a large demand for this arrangement.
Notebook drives are lower powered for a reason - higher RPM's generates more heat and most notebooks already have problems dissipating heat. One does not have that problem with an NAS. Most notebook drives are 5400RPM for this reason. I did have a 7200RPM notebook drive but removed it because of the excessive heat it was generating. Western Digital is working on a line of Green drives with variable speeds, but the firmware on these drives is currently causing problems in the ReadyNAS lines (see the notes in the Hardware Compatibility List [HCL]). Seagate has a line of lower RPM drives that operate at 5900RPM in the Barracuda LP line. They seem to have their firmware issues resolved.
Looking at Newegg's HD listings, I find two 2.5" class 1TB drives (none larger) which range in price from $130 to $140 each. On the other hand, there are 46 1TB drives in the 3.5" class on Newegg, 14 of which are bulk drives ranging from $70 to $90 each. Five of these are the "Green" drives from Seagate and WD including two of the $70 drives which offer similar low power draw. In the case of WD, it's either the $140 2.5" drive or the $70 3.5 drive.
If you want drives larger than 1TB, then for the foreseeable future, you are are going to be limited to 3.5" drives. Remember the cutting edge in notebook drives is now at the 1TB capacity, and these initial drives will have reliability problems and will be higher priced. In the 3.5" class, the threshold is at the 2TB capacity. So, you can either get the same capacity for half the cost or twice the capacity at the same cost.
Then you also brought up the mounting. I have a JBOD box with trays that will mount either 2.5" or 3.5" drives. The 3.5" drives use side screws and the 2.5" drives use screws up through the bottom through 4 holes that align the drive with the SATA socket on the back plane. Laying an empty ReadyNAS tray upside down over a 3.5" drive and then a 2.5" drive on top of that and aligning the SATA connectors, there are several points. The ReadyNAS tray would have to be re-engineered to take 2.5" drives as two of the mount holes for the 2.5" fall right at the end of the tray bottom (edge is the centerline of the mount holes) and one of the other two falls in the middle of one of the 16 vent holes.
Given the disadvantages of using matching 2.5" drives in a Raid configuration (cost) and the cost of re-engineering the trays, I would say there is little likely hood of a ReadyNAS using 2.5" drives anytime soon.
FWIW - the JBOD box I was referring to provided the 20 screws for 5 3.5" drives but no screws for the 2.5" drives, which indicates they also are not anticipating a large demand for this arrangement.
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