Disk Price/Performance Analysis Buying Information 01-May-2019

[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 submitted a new resource:

Disk Price Analysis Buying Information - Excel Spreadsheet of many NAS/Desktop dsk drives providing buying information

Attached is an EXCEL spreadsheet that contains information on NAS/Desktop disk drives providing a lot of information to help you choose the best disk drive for your RAID configuration.

This page shows it as ".txt" because of limitations that someone is enforcing. Download the file and change the file type from .txt to .xlsx. Then use Excel to access file.

I will update this file every now and then.
View attachment 19676

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[Ericloewe]

You should be able to upload xlsx files now. Can you please try to update the Resource with the correct file extension?

 

[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 updated Disk Price Analysis Buying Information with a new update entry:

Disk Price Analysis Buying Information

Most recent update

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[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 updated Disk Price Analysis Buying Information with a new update entry:

Updated version

Changes to this verion

• Went through some formulas and corrected incorrect calculations.
• Used more labels to make it more readable by others, if they chose to modify it.
• Made the calculations based upon days/months more accurate by getting rid of some slop. This affected the energy calculations by a small amount.
  
• Added some comment fields so you can now hover over them and get an idea of what the purpose is. Mainly on user modifiable cells. The cells that would make...

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[genBTC]

Looks like the TLDR is "buy seagate barracuda 2, 3 or 4tb drives" and maybe the archive 6tb and 8tb if you like those.

 

[farmerpling2]

Looks like the TLDR is "buy seagate barracuda 2, 3 or 4tb drives" and maybe the archive 6tb and 8tb if you like those.

They only have a 2 year warranty. I would not by them expecting them to last more than that without having problems. They maybe the cheapest, but they are also not made to the same quality standard as good NAS drives are.

Seagate Ironwolf for same price and 1 more year of warranty. 5900 RPM vs. Barracuda 5400, also.
WD Red Home is in same ball park as Ironwolf...

Hope this helps.

 

[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 updated Disk Price Analysis Buying Information with a new update entry:

Add more disks, make it easier to read data

• Added more disk drives
• Updated prices
• Updated Incremental$Warr/Yr to 11% - Seems more realistic value when looking around interet
  
• Changed the color from yellowish for columns "$ TB" and "$ TB/year" to green to make it easier to read.
• Various misc updates

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[joeschmuck]

I just took a look at this spreadsheet, lots of good inforamtion in one spot. It's much better than just a price guide.

The WD Red power figures are located here and are:
WD Red 10TB: Startup Watts = 21.48, Watts Active = 5.7, Watts Idle = 2.8, Watts Standby = .5.

The WD Blue specs are here:
The 2 & 3TB drives startup is 20.76 watts. The 4, 5 and 6TB drives startup is 21.00 watts. The rest of the specs are there as well.

The WD Gold specs are here however it does not list the startup current. Also I'd use the sequential read value for the Watts Active values.

I noticed that you have a performance column and it's only based on the rotational speed of the drive. This is not an accurate measure on it's own, but I'm not sure how far you want to take this type of analysis. Places like www.storagereview.com perform some really good testing of hard drives however sometimes it takes a while to gleen the data you desire out of it.

Where do you define CostPerKWH and other variables? It would be nice to haev a field to adjust that data.

 

[farmerpling2]

I just took a look at this spreadsheet, lots of good inforamtion in one spot. It's much better than just a price guide.

It started out to provide people an idea of power usage. There are many claims of power usage that are way out of line in some cases well over 50%. Once I started that, I then added the other information to make it more useful.

If I really wanted to make it useful I would throw it into a database, but I have already put too much time into this.

The WD Red power figures are located here and are:
WD Red 10TB: Startup Watts = 21.48, Watts Active = 5.7, Watts Idle = 2.8, Watts Standby = .5.

The WD Blue specs are here:
The 2 & 3TB drives startup is 20.76 watts. The 4, 5 and 6TB drives startup is 21.00 watts. The rest of the specs are there as well.

The WD Gold specs are here however it does not list the startup current. Also I'd use the sequential read value for the Watts Active values.

Thank you for the pointers. I will update them for the future.

I try and use those highest usage value for the power, if there is a choice. If you see a mistake, just let me know.

I noticed that you have a performance column and it's only based on the rotational speed of the drive. This is not an accurate measure on it's own, but I'm not sure how far you want to take this type of analysis. Places like www.storagereview.com perform some really good testing of hard drives however sometimes it takes a while to gleen the data you desire out of it.

Performance has been a troubling part of the spreadsheet. The rotational speed is an obvious difference and was easy to add. I can add more, but the numbers can be very hazy to accurately produce. Random access vs. sequential can vary widely depending on if a database is used on them or a bunch of pictures in directories.

At the bottom of the spreadsheet I provide a URL to a site http://hdd.userbenchmark.com that can provide in depth information. http://www.storagereview.com is another good one.

Where do you define CostPerKWH and other variables? It would be nice to haev a field to adjust that data.

At the bottom of the spreadsheet, which I would gather you have found because of the sentence being crossed out.

If you have any suggestions, pass them on and I will see what I can do.

 

[farmerpling2]

I am going through some of the new spec sheets for WD. They changed the logo's and some of the values have changed vs. the older spec sheet. A couple went slightly higher, though most stayed the same or went lower. I will try to get all of them done in next week or two.

I am also adding the WD Blue 2.5" for the energy conscience person. I did not add the Blue 2.5" SSHD version at this time. Maybe down the road. Speaking for personal experience on 2.5" SSHD, the NAND cache can wear badly, way to quick.

I update prices when I see a change or I see the data has not been updated in a while. I should look at automating this, but then I should make it into a database, also. Just no time to get this all done.

I also do not take in account the variants that can occur for WD Blue 2GB - different model numbers, with slightly different values. Too much data - trying to keep it simpler and easier to use.

I am contemplating adding the Load/Unload Cycle count, TB Usage and MTBF. These really are values that give you an idea how well built the disk drive is. You can usually see this in the values based upon the type of drive it is designed for: Consumer(low, 2 year warranty), Business(medium, 3 year warranty), Enterprise(high, 5 year warranty). These are general rules of thumb, only.

Hope this helps.

 

[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 updated Disk Price Analysis Buying Information with a new update entry:

WD updates, added more drives

• Updated WD power usage values from new spec sheets per suggestions from JoeS.
  
• Add WD Blue 2.5" drives (1TB, 2TB)
• Updated some prices
• Made use of more labels rather the cell references.

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[Stux]

Crying out to be a website :)

 

[farmerpling2]

Crying out to be a website :)

I know. Its about having time to invest into it. It should be made into a database and then its about using the various tools to make the calculations/graphs.

Maybe one day, but not in the near future.

 

[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 updated Disk Price Analysis Buying Information with a new update entry:

Added some more columns of data

Added columns

• Transfer rate to/from host (Sustained)
• Load/Unload cycle maximum
  
• Workload TB per year
• MTBF
• Non-recoverable read errors per bits read

I have started to add data into this new columns, but it will take a while...

Updated various prices and added a couple more new disk drives

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[joeschmuck]

If you have any suggestions, pass them on and I will see what I can do.

You know what they say, opinions are like as..... I think you have done a great job myself and this is a tool many people could and will use. Right now I can see most people using the chart to find the lowest price (bang for the buck), however someone like myself I would use it because it has a large group of drives and power specs and some other basic specs. For the chart to be more useful to me it would need to have the sound levels and all those other cool specs that an engineer loves to see. I'd love to see temperature specs like how much heat a drive creates while fully active and while idle. For something like that you would need to create a proper test environment, or hack into the hard drive companies and locate their test data.

I wouldn't want to update the price data all the time so if it were me, I'd drop that data out of the chart or try to get a group of people willing to help update that data periodically and then share the spreadsheet access to facilitate that effort.

So I always ask for a lot but I really think you have put together a good piece of data that others will benefit from. I hope you can support this for many months to come.

Crying out to be a website :)

Can this become a Wiki page (or similar) and then other users could update it periodically vice being reliant on the author?

 

[farmerpling2]

You know what they say, opinions are like as..... I think you have done a great job myself and this is a tool many people could and will use. Right now I can see most people using the chart to find the lowest price (bang for the buck), however someone like myself I would use it because it has a large group of drives and power specs and some other basic specs. For the chart to be more useful to me it would need to have the sound levels and all those other cool specs that an engineer loves to see. I'd love to see temperature specs like how much heat a drive creates while fully active and while idle. For something like that you would need to create a proper test environment, or hack into the hard drive companies and locate their test data.

Thank you for the kind words.

I would also like to add more data, but it becomes a mole hunt to find all the data. Seagate has stuff spread across multiple PDF files but they do publish a lot of data, more than most. WD usually has a lot in one concise PDF file, but not as in depth as Seagate. Other manufacturers can really be hit and miss.

In adding the newest 4 or 5 columns, it will take me hours to gather all the data and then enter it. I am likely pushing the, "too much information," for most users.

I also like lots of data. I like to compare it an tinker with it. The price per year for electricity usage is one of the best to get people to realize that the electricity cost for a 5400 and 7200 is not that much different. Usually dollars per year difference. I thought it would be more until I entered the data and created the formulas.

Once I am done updating the latest columns, I will see what the next bang for the buck is.

I wouldn't want to update the price data all the time so if it were me, I'd drop that data out of the chart or try to get a group of people willing to help update that data periodically and then share the spreadsheet access to facilitate that effort.

So I always ask for a lot but I really think you have put together a good piece of data that others will benefit from. I hope you can support this for many months to come.

Yes I am hoping for people to get the best priced NAS disks for ZFS (or any RAID for that matter). We still have too many people using desktop drives for RAID. I have had trepidation about adding the desktop drives to the spreadsheet, but for now am mulling it over. Not sure if i will remove it.

Can this become a Wiki page (or similar) and then other users could update it periodically vice being reliant on the author?

Would be fine with me. If someone wants to help or take it over, I am very easy going about it. A Wiki page could be quite useful.

Anyone know of a good free wiki provider?

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[joeschmuck]

The price per year for electricity usage is one of the best to get people to realize that the electricity cost for a 5400 and 7200 is not that much different. Usually dollars per year difference. I thought it would be more until I entered the data and created the formulas.

Yup, not much difference really. The major differences are:
1) 7200 RPM drives generally create more heat than 5400 RPM drives and in a tight case with many drives it's more difficult to keep the drives at or below 40C. Drives filled with He could the the exception.
2) 7200 RPM drives cost more than 5400 RPM drives, but in some instances not by a significant margin.
3) 7200 RPM drives generate more ambient noise than 5400 RPM drives within the same manufacturer class. This may not be perceivable by many people when they are new out of the box, but when the drive has had 3+ years of constant spinning, bearings do wear and make more noise.
4) 7200 RPM drives will resilver faster than 5400 RPM drives. This is the only benefit in a NAS solution I can come up with. Thought I'd end on a positive.
5) 7200 RPM drives will have faster IOPS in general than 5400 RPM drives, good if you need to build a really fast server without SSDs. See, I can think of positives.

 

[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 updated Disk Price Analysis Buying Information with a new update entry:

Most recent update

I have added new columns provide more information. You will notice that it is not filled in in some places, yet. Bear with me, it takes time and energy. I am adding them as I go.

1. Added more disk drives & their information
2. Added some more columns with various useful pieces of information.
3. Updated prices and other data for newly released drives.

More to come...

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[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 updated Disk Price Analysis Buying Information with a new update entry:

Added more performace data, drives, and assocated stats

• Tried to fill in more holes that were lacking data. Pain in the rear digging this up.
• Added seek times column. in process if filling in cells.
• Updated cycle count on a bunch of drives.
• Updated prices on a good dozen or two drives
  
• Put the performance data together and put header word "PERFORMANCE over them.
• Worked on MTBF and error rate. One 15k RPM drive has this at 1.0E+17. The next higher is 1.0E+15. Pretty impressive number compared to other drives....

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[farmerpling2]

farmerpling2 updated Disk Price Analysis Buying Information with a new update entry:

Adding more performance/usage data

This update includes:

• More latency information
• More seek information
• More transfer rate information
• Workload, Cycle count, Error rate (e.g. 1.0+16 & 1.0+17 drives)
• Watts active, idle, standby
• Updated pricing information on a hand full of drives

You will see open cells spread throughout because the manufacturers tend to not share all of the normal data. Makes me think they are hiding something (my opinion only).

PRICING
As usual prices bounce around. HINT:...

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