Possible hard Drives

[Newtofreenas]

I have a freenas setup, and now with request from the wife I get to build a 2nd one.

Newegg has these 4TB refurbs on sale and from what I can tell they look good?
Refurbished: Seagate Exos 7E8 ST4000NM004A 4TB SAS 12Gb/s 7.2K RPM 4Kn 256MB 3.5" Server HDD - Newegg.com
They are on sale for the next 15 hours.
They look like they are (CMR), that is the good one right?

If I do a 14 drive array, it looks like I will get:
Total Performance = 904 MB/s
Total usable capacity = 48.00 TB
Number of RAID groups = 1
Number of drives per RAID group = 14
Single RAID group performance = 904 MB/s
Cost per TB usable = 20.42



I am really hoping to make this new system faster than the first one. Beyond storage, which has been great, the box is slower than I had hoped.

 

[Spearfoot]

I have a freenas setup, and now with request from the wife I get to build a 2nd one.

Newegg has these 4TB refurbs on sale and from what I can tell they look good?
Refurbished: Seagate Exos 7E8 ST4000NM004A 4TB SAS 12Gb/s 7.2K RPM 4Kn 256MB 3.5" Server HDD - Newegg.com
They are on sale for the next 15 hours.
They look like they are (CMR), that is the good one right?

If I do a 14 drive array, it looks like I will get:
Total Performance = 904 MB/s
Total usable capacity = 48.00 TB
Number of RAID groups = 1
Number of drives per RAID group = 14
Single RAID group performance = 904 MB/s
Cost per TB usable = 20.42



I am really hoping to make this new system faster than the first one. Beyond storage, which has been great, the box is slower than I had hoped.

These are SAS drives, not SATA -- are you aware of the difference?

They're 12Gb/s disks, too, which means you will need a 12Gb/s-capable HBA to get their full capability.

Most importantly: you're much more likely to have problems with 'refurbished' drives. They may have been used and then returned by an unhappy customer; have likely been shipped and therefore mishandled by FedEx/UPS/USPS; are unlikely to carry any kind of warranty; etc. Search here on the forum and you'll find horror stories from people who bought 'refurbished' disks with thousands of runtime hours and worse.

On the other hand, they may be 'open box' items just as good as new.

I personally would not purchase 'refurbished' drives, but of course it's your call.

 

[Newtofreenas]

I am not a fan of refurb or used or pretty much anything off ebay. But after reading Chris Moore in this thread https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/new-build-and-new-to-freenas.90195/post-624603 and seeing that the Exos have like 2 million hours of run time, I figured it might be worth the bet. I could be wrong.

I am only a couple weeks into the planning stage, I have yet to buy anything. Just saw this sale and thought it would be a good start with a good price to build around. I am not usually one to rush into something and having a 1 day sale to push me does not make me all that happy.

I do know the difference between SAS and SATA. My first freenas box has SAS onboard 2x mini SAS 8087 connectors, but I have no experience with the HBA card (which I think has to be flashed with IT firmware) I am using that port as a 1 to 4 SATA though.