I have been pondering buying some new HDD lately. Price/GB isn’t the only metric. But I did up a list of the short candidates, but before you buy, read below.
I should mention all the links below go to Newegg, only because that’s where I was searching. They may not be the best price, but they have a reputation of making sure that links don’t die 6 months after I pasted them. Yeah, why use prices that aren’t necessarily the cheapest? Well, because I did. That’s why.
| Model | Price | Capacity (TB) | Price/GB |
| Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001 | $139.99 | 3 | 0.04557 |
| TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 3TB | $157.27 | 3 | 0.05119 |
| TOSHIBA DT01ACA200 2TB | $109.99 | 2 | 0.05371 |
| Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 | $109.99 | 2 | 0.05371 |
| Seagate Barracuda ST1500DM003 | $99.99 | 1.5 | 0.06510 |
| TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 1TB | $74.99 | 1 | 0.07323 |
| Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 | 79.99 | 1 | 0.07812 |
| Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 | $59.99 | 0.5 | 0.11717 |
| TOSHIBA DT01ACA050 500GB | $61.98 | 0.5 | 0.12105 |
| Western Digital WD Black WD5003AZEX | $84.99 | 0.5 | 0.16600 |
Based on this, the Seagate is the best buy. But I’ve heard good things, 3rd hand, regarding Toshiba and its implementation of TLER. Storage forums ranting about them being used in ZFS arrays.
But price isn’t everything
I was tempted by the Toshiba drive specs over the Seagate specs. Mostly because of the TLER and ZFS reputation. I was quite prepared to pay the extra $17.28 per drive. Then diizy mentioned they were $140 at ServerSupply. So price is no longer a factor.
I was asked if I was going to do zfsboot with this array. Yes, yes, I am.
But if I wanted to get another couple of HDD for booting, I’d need a SATA card, because all six ports on the M/B would be filled. I’m basing this array in this gateway box I described earlier. Here are some of the items mentioned:
- SYBA SD-PEX40049 Flex-2-port SATA III 6Gbps PCIe Card for $24
- SYBA SY-PEX40039 PCI-Express 2.0 SATA III for $23
- IO Crest 2 Port SATA III PCI-Express x1 Card for $17
- 2 Port eSATA 3.0 & 2 Port SATA 3.0 combo to PCI-E PCI Express Card Adapter Converter ASMEDIA ASM1061 Chipset 6.0Gbps for $15
- IBM – SERVERAID M1015 8CHANNEL PCI-E X8 SAS/SATA RAID CONTROLLER WITHOUT BRACKET(46M0861) for $115
- LSI SAS 2008 RAID Controller/ HBA Information
- LSI SAS 2108 RAID Controller Information and Listing
- LSI SAS 2208 RAID Controller Information and Listing
- LSI SAS 2308 RAID Controller – HBA Information and Listing
I think I’ll be ordering those Toshiba drives later today.
You may be interested in diskcompare.com, which computes price/Gb for you. I’m not affiliated, just a fan.
Three other websites mentioned to me today:
Royce: That’s a pretty useful site. For example, their comparison does it in GB/$, which is more interesting I think.
Ah, yes — a subtle but important difference!
Well, I do think GB / $ and $ / GB are both valid metrics… just inverse.
Agreed – the difference (for me) is that the inverse helps me conceptually grapple with the difference better.
Mentioned on IRC regarding TLER: you can use smartmontools to adjust TLER:
Perhaps TLER isn’t so important…
Those Toshiba drives are on a Shell Shocker today (2013-02-04) at Newegg for $125, if you haven’t already ordered them elsewhere.
Warren: Thank you for that. I had indeed noticed that earlier this morning. However, I had placed my order last night.
BUT!
The vendor called me this morning regarding that order. We clarified a few things, and at the end of the call, I mentioned this price. He said he could not meet it, and would back out my order if I wished. I did so and just ordered from Newegg.
I don’t think I would have mentioned that if I hadn’t just seen your comment. Thank you for saving me about 10%.
As of 6:25am UTC, the Shell Shocker show for me as ‘Limit 3 per customer.’
As of Tue Feb 5 15:59:30 UTC 2013, the price is $149.99.