Hard drive selection

[RJett]

I don't need huge space (at this point) currently have FreeNAS box. I want to setup for VM's and iscsi maybe some file shares. Does everyone recommend only spindle drives? No SSD's? Do they have to be same mfg. preferably ? I have 8 bays, so though was 4 2TB 7200 nas rated, or 4 Crucial MX500 1TB's. Many of the NAS devices recommend specific hard drives, and I can't find a list of compatibility for FreeNas.

 

[Apollo]

There aren't any incompatibility with hard drives in general.
However, what people tend to do is looking at drives that are expected to run 24/7, 365.25 days/year.
From this point of view, you want to exclude drives with specific mode that will force the heads to be parked whenever the drive is not being actively used.
The wear is mostly mechanical and wear on bearrings is main cause of failure I believe.
Then it comes down to price and performance.
Some SSD controllers on the other hand are not made equal and failures are more significant but is being discovered first hand in most case.
NAS drive is a marketing thing but describe the drive intended purpose.

 

[sremick]

I'd hazard to guess that Western Digital Reds are the most popular. They are designed for 24/7 NAS use and have little tweaks making them ideally suited. Few people need to spring for the "Pro" version, as 5400RPM is plenty fast enough to saturate a 1GB network so you might as well save money, heat, and electricity.