The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Hark0nnen on 2024-07-05 02:06:18.
I need to upgrade drives in one of my NASes, to 12-16TB range, but there is an issue - i live in a small apartment, i dont have a closet, let alone a basement, to put my NAS into. It is sitting ~1m from my work position and ~2m from my head when i sleep, so acoustics is of utmost importance.
I was unable to find any review of large sized drives noise in a standardized environment, and official datasheets cannot be compared between different brands and often doesnt even list noise levels for enterprise type drives, so i would want some input from people who have experience with them.
To put a base for comparison, i currently have two NASes, one with 4 TB WD Greens, and one with a 6TB WD Blues (old CMR ones) with a mix of 2 WD Purples. WD Greens are perfect, completely inaudible on idle or normal seeking, and barely audible on thrash seeking. Blues are okeish, idle is louder than Greens but inaudible from 1m, seeking is audible, thrash seeking is annoying. Purples are bad, while idle is the same as Blues, even normal seeking on them is annoying, i am very displeased with this NAS since i had to replace a pair of failed Blues with Purples (as modern Blues are SMR). So i want something that is at least not louder than Blues (i realize that matching Greens is probably impossible, very sad WD is not making them anymore and at larger capacities).
Here is a list of drives i can buy here in Ukraine at reasonable prices and with warranty:
16TB Toshiba MG08 18.5$/TB 5 year warranty
12/14TB Toshiba MG07 22.5$/TB 5y
12TB Seagate Exos X18 19$/TB 5y
12TB Seagate SkyHawk AI 18.75$/TB 3y
12/16TB Seagate IronWolf Pro 22.5$/TB 5y
12TB WD Red Plus 24.5$/TB 5y
12TB WD Purple Pro 25$/TB 5y
16TB WD Ultrastar DC HC550 25.5$/TB 5y
(Limited size choices is because for some model lines some sizes have significantly worse price per TB)
So far Toshiba MG08 seems like a best choice, price wise and i read comments in various places saying that while not technically the quietest drive it is subjectively best due to seeking noise been spread over multiple frequencies, making kind of background rustle instead of sharp noise on other drives
But there is a concern i have with Toshiba - seems like all of this drives have idle parking enabled by default, which is very bad for acoustics, and according to my googling, there is no Toshiba's tool analogue to Wdidle/SeaChest. Will OpenSeaChest be able to control EPC values on Toshiba drives?