Forum Discussion

Follower

Jan 31, 2019

RN31600 Ready Nas - What is the storage limit of this NAS

Hey, I have recently been given an empty RN31600 NAS, so I am looking to buy hard drives for it. What is the overall size limit for this model? I have seen numerous different answers of...

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Sandshark

Sensei

Jan 31, 2019

The numbers you see are just based on the largest drive available at that time times 6, thus the "migration". While there probably is a limit, no current hard drives will come close to exceeding it. I recommend that you install 3 or 4 drives and leave the other bays for expansion, depending on your current storage need. Adding additional drives later is a lot cheaper than replacing them. Having them with different installation dates also helps reduce the potential of multiple simultaneous failure. NAS purposed drives (or Enterprise if you want to splurge) are recommended. I think 8TB's have the best current price-to-size ratio. You won't really notice a performance difference between 5400 and 7200RPM drives on a 316, BTW; but the 5400 will generally run cooler and a bit quieter.

Many (most? all?) 8TB and larger drives will not work with the plastic tray inserts because they lack center screw holes on the sides. But they work fine with the tray removed and using screws. If your gift didn't include the screws, go to Amazon and order a bag of 100 for Supermicro servers with 3/5" drives for around $6.00.

StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Jan 31, 2019
Sandshark wrote:

I recommend that you install 3 or 4 drives and leave the other bays for expansion, depending on your current storage need. ... NAS purposed drives (or Enterprise if you want to splurge) are recommended.

I agree with all of this. I have 4x6TB XRAID (WD60EFRX) installed in my RN526, and 3x8TB (WD80EZRX) in my RN524.

Note that both will let you use the plastic (tooless) inserts. However, most other large drives have dropped the side center mount

Sandshark wrote:

I think 8TB's have the best current price-to-size ratio.

Its been a while since I checked. Looking at Amazon pricing...

2 TB WD20EFRX - $81.95 ($40.98 per TB)

3 TB WD30EFRX - $104.49 ($34.83 per TB)

4 TB WD40EFRX - $123.70 ($30.93 per TB)

6 TB WD60EFRX - $199.94 ($33.32 per TB)

8 TB WD80EZRX - $245.00 ($30.63 per TB)
10 TB (WD100EFAX) - $304.99 ($30.50 per TB)

12 TB (ST12000VN007) - $378.65 ($31.55 per TB)

14 TB (ST14000VN0008) - $586.80 ($41.92 per TB)

There's a small bump at 6 TB, and I needed to switch to Ironwolf for 12 and 14 TB because WDC hasn't released Red versions of those.

But cost/TB is essentially flat from 4 TB -> 12 TB.

Personally I'd set it up with at least two empty slots, and with big enough disks that you won't need to expand it in the near term. The formula for capacity with XRAID/RAID-5 is "sum the disks and subtract the smallest".

4x8TB would give you a 24 TB volume for $980 + 2 empty slots.

5x6TB would give you the same 24 TB volume for slightly more ($997.70) + 1 empty slot.

3x12TB would get you the same 24 TB volume for $1,135.95 + 3 empty slots.

8 TB is a good tradeoff for this capacity - cheapest and with 2 slots for future expansion.