Any of you people that use a diy server for music and movies/ are you using regular hard drives or server hard drives ?
I’m asking this because I have over 50 dell and HP and seagate server hard drives
They use the sata input for data and power
I have ones from 360gb up to 2tb
So my question is this, is there a difference between server and pc hard drives? And if so, what is it ? I will post the model numbers of the drives I have , as I know someone will ask this. Thanks for any and all help
I’m asking this because I have over 50 dell and HP and seagate server hard drives
They use the sata input for data and power
I have ones from 360gb up to 2tb
So my question is this, is there a difference between server and pc hard drives? And if so, what is it ? I will post the model numbers of the drives I have , as I know someone will ask this. Thanks for any and all help
Server drives are called SAVVIO dives. They have an interface, built into the caddy usually, for encrypting the software that is stored on them. The idea is that when set up correctly, these hot swappable drives will not lose information if subject to sudden power loss and make extremely safe, efficient, RAID storage.
Attachments
A hard drive in a server tends to be active reading or writing a much larger part of the time compared to a drive in a home pc which idles most of the time. Server drives are simply designed to cope with this better.
I use regular consumer drives (WD Blue & Green) in my home server. The first pair of disks (two 3TB drives in RAID1) are now 7 years old. I added two new disks and moved all important data to them around 2 years ago as I was worried that the older ones might be getting old. But they are still working just fine.
The only reason for choosing consumer drives is that they are much cheaper. But if you already have the server drives (and they are not very old) then the price is of course irrelevant and the server drives should be more reliable.
I use regular consumer drives (WD Blue & Green) in my home server. The first pair of disks (two 3TB drives in RAID1) are now 7 years old. I added two new disks and moved all important data to them around 2 years ago as I was worried that the older ones might be getting old. But they are still working just fine.
The only reason for choosing consumer drives is that they are much cheaper. But if you already have the server drives (and they are not very old) then the price is of course irrelevant and the server drives should be more reliable.
I’m asking this because I have over 50 dell and HP and seagate server hard drives
They use the sata input for data and power
I have ones from 360gb up to 2tb
Are you sure they are SATA? Typically server HDDs are SAS which has a very similar connector to SATA but very different protocol. But SATA for servers is OK too, so could be really SATA. Though I have not seen any SATA HP-branded HDDs, only SAS.
Last edited:
Are you sure they are SATA? Typically server HDDs are SAS which has a very similar connector to SATA but very different protocol. But SATA for servers is OK too, so could be really SATA. Though I have not seen any SATA HP-branded HDDs, only SAS.
The plug or jack looks like a sata or have I been out of building pc’s for so long that I’ve forgot what they look like. Lol. Which is very possible. Lol
Well I just found a old drive and your right, it’s not a sata jack. I’m so stupid.


Last edited:
I use ordinary non NAS drives on my QNAP NAS and it never failed the last 6-7 years.
2 Samsung and 2 WD 2TB HDD in raid configuration.
Every month i perform a health test during the night.
2 Samsung and 2 WD 2TB HDD in raid configuration.
Every month i perform a health test during the night.
Those are SAS drives, won't work with SATA controller, although the connector is the same. You need a SAS HBA for them.
Ok. May I ask you a question? What would be the proper way to post these for sale? As the title and descriptions? Any thoughts would be great. I have boxes of these and can’t use them and need to sell them
Thank you guys for all your knowledge and information
Thank you guys for all your knowledge and information
Are those new? I have hardware that will use them. The difference between SAS and SATA is SAS uses SCSI commands rather than ATA. Interface is the same.
They will work in your low-load NAS for a decade if cooled a bit. They have a higher consumption and are noisier. If you are OK with that, just get a inexpensive PCI-e SAS HBA and cables from ebay and you are set.
In linux I have very good experience with SAS9211-8i in IT mode (just HBAs, no raid firmware), e.g. Fujitsu SAS 9211-8i IT-mode P20 D2607 LSISAS2008 SAS/SATA RAID controller card | eBay , all 8 drives can run at full HDD speed (<200MB/s) at the same time, no port multiplier.
Cables e.g. Mini SAS 36 Pin SFF-8087 to 4x SAS/SFF-8482 with 1 Power HDD Cable 3FT 1M | eBay .
ZFS would suit them best.
In linux I have very good experience with SAS9211-8i in IT mode (just HBAs, no raid firmware), e.g. Fujitsu SAS 9211-8i IT-mode P20 D2607 LSISAS2008 SAS/SATA RAID controller card | eBay , all 8 drives can run at full HDD speed (<200MB/s) at the same time, no port multiplier.
Cables e.g. Mini SAS 36 Pin SFF-8087 to 4x SAS/SFF-8482 with 1 Power HDD Cable 3FT 1M | eBay .
ZFS would suit them best.
Ok. May I ask you a question? What would be the proper way to post these for sale? As the title and descriptions? Any thoughts would be great. I have boxes of these and can’t use them and need to sell them
Thank you guys for all your knowledge and information
Just the drive model name and picture will do.
The connector is different. There is no cut out. An SAS connector will fit a SATA but not work and a SATA will not fit a SAS.Those are SAS drives, won't work with SATA controller, although the connector is the same. You need a SAS HBA for them.
LSI (SAS92xx, 93xxx) and HP (SmartArray) SAS controllers support SATA too, I commonly mix SAS and SATA drives on a single HBA controller. Reliable SAS HDDs for system and fast (mid) enterprise-level SATA SSDs for DB are a useful combination. Latest NVMe SSDs directly in PCI-e x4 slots (server usually have a few slots free) have a better performance/price ratio but are not hot-swappable.
Nevertheless there is no advantage in using SAS for home NAS. Provably brand-new SAS drives (in sealed bags) will sell like a piece of cake.
Nevertheless there is no advantage in using SAS for home NAS. Provably brand-new SAS drives (in sealed bags) will sell like a piece of cake.
Are those new? I have hardware that will use them. The difference between SAS and SATA is SAS uses SCSI commands rather than ATA. Interface is the same.
Yes they are brand new drives. I have some where around 50 , more is less
- Home
- Source & Line
- PC Based
- Server hard drives