WD60EFRX pre-install test for TS-EC1080 Pro (1 of 11 DoA)

[ToreBK]

Edit: Being originally a Q about RAM and mSATA SDD cache while I was considering buying the TS-EC1080 Pro, the discussion in this thread became more focused on testing of the WD60EFRX before installation in the NAS, so I changed the Subject accordingly.

Being on an everlasting hunt for more storage capacity, as I gather most of us are, I have (finally) decided to let my QNAP TS-419P+ retire with dignity. This time around, I've been looking at the new kid on the block; Asustor, as well as other brands, but after reading a whole lot of reviews I decided to go with what I know and trust best; QNAP!

For aesthetic reasons alone, I figured yet another TS-869 Pro would look nice next to the other two, but then I started looking at the latest models with faster CPU, RAM and what-not. Naturally, the QNAP TS-879 Pro caught my eye, but then I realised this 'annoying' little detail that the TS-879 Pro has the front buttons on the opposite side of the box compared to the TS-869 Pro. So much for a symmetric setup...

This then naturally led me to look at the TS-1079 Pro, remembering that my main goal after all was more storage capacity. Sinking into the abyss of reviews and technical specs for this model, I came across what apparently is the newest and hottest in the 10-bay cased product line; the TS-EC1080 Pro. The decision is taken. I'm going for that one, assuming that the next natural evolutionary step will be to expand using the QNAP REXP-1000 Pro boxes, keeping or replacing my two TS-869 Pros when the time comes.

This in mind, my questions are:

1) Not really thinking the 10GbE Expansion Card will do me a world of good, may I instead benefit from trunking the 4 RJ-45 connectors?
2) Will the use of two mSATA SSDs of 250GB each for caching be a noticable, significant performance booster when I do not intend to use the NAS for virtualisation? My typical use will be storage, (U) HD-streaming, surveillance.
3) Do I really need 32 GB of RAM, even if I were to make use of two REXP-1000 Pros, both populated with 6TB disks?
4) If I could settle for less RAM, what is pre-installed? 2x 1 GB DIMMs? Leaving 2 DIMM slots empty? Can I use 1 GB + 1 GB + 8 GB + 8 GB ?

Finally, not as much a question as wishful thinking; I do hope the WD60EFRX won't cause me the same amount of challenges as installing the WD30EFRX's did!

Thank you in advance for any comments or suggestions.

[storageman]

For HD streaming the msata cache is not going to help much, mostly helps random reads.
Yes don't need 32GB RAM, perhaps 8 or16GB as RAM cheap.

[Don]

Trunking won't help unless you have a lot of users hitting the NAS at the same time. Your switch would also need to support trunking.


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[GoetzVonBerlichingen]

QNAP's money. QNAP's house. QNAP's rules.

I am a little surprised that this Forum's administrators/moderators decided to start selectively deleting my posts beginning mid-October 2014. I was given no notice that I had violated some rule, nor a notice that my posts were being deleted. Readers should understand that the content you read has been selectively edited to ensure QNAP remains happy. It's almost as if this "Community Forum" is, in fact, intended to be a Potemkin village, and not a real community.

QNAP's money. QNAP's house. QNAP's rules.

E'er the helpful type, I elected to help them eradicate traces of me, and deleted the contents of this post on 31 October 2014.

[ToreBK]

For HD streaming the msata cache is not going to help much, mostly helps random reads. Yes don't need 32GB RAM, perhaps 8 or 16GB as RAM cheap.

Thank you for your swift reply. I've been looking into this a wee bit, and I concur - the mSATA SSDs won't do much good for my typical HTPC tasks, except perhaps browsing through photos and perhaps FLACs and mp3 files. Besides, mSATA SSDs are rather expensive atm, so I have concluded to postpone the installation of SSD cache.

[ToreBK]

Do give the idea of a TS-1279U-RP some serious consideration.

Thank you, I did what you suggested, but at the end of the day, this will be a lot more expensive than buying a box (both total and price per byte). It would be awesome with a rack in my "server room", though

[kbk00]

DON'T DO IT!

you'd really be throwing your money out the window with your proposed upgrades. There will be zero impact from your SSD purchase and unless you've trunked your desktop for faster aggregate network speeds there won't be any cause for trunking your NAS (but that won't really cost anything if your switch supports it so may be a nice exercise!). RAM? If you're not using Virtualization Station you won't get above a gig that's used. If you need it down the road later you can always buy it. regardless if it's cheap it'll be really expensive if you never actually use it.

[ToreBK]

DON'T DO IT!

Roger Wilco!

I've now placed an order for the TS-EC1080 Pro, yet another PowerWalker UPS and 11 WD60EFRX (1 cold spare) - nothing else! No RAM upgrade (although the Kingston ValuRAM 32 GB ECC 4-kit was dead cheap), and no mSATA for cache. It'll be iteresting to see the differences in performance on the various types of QNAPs.

[ToreBK]

I'm quite pleased with receiving 11 WD60EFRX today, the packaging seems to be quite alright!

DSC_8441.jpg

DSC_8447.jpg

DSC_8447.jpg

Running all drives through "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows" before installing them in the NAS, which seems to be a few days delayed in delivery anyways.

[GoetzVonBerlichingen]

QNAP's money. QNAP's house. QNAP's rules.

I am a little surprised that this Forum's administrators/moderators decided to start selectively deleting my posts beginning mid-October 2014. I was given no notice that I had violated some rule, nor a notice that my posts were being deleted. Readers should understand that the content you read has been selectively edited to ensure QNAP remains happy. It's almost as if this "Community Forum" is, in fact, intended to be a Potemkin village, and not a real community.

QNAP's money. QNAP's house. QNAP's rules.

E'er the helpful type, I elected to help them eradicate traces of me, and deleted the contents of this post on 31 October 2014.

[Thomas_L]

If you have the time, and are so inclined, may I recommend that you run the DOS 5.2 version against your drives before you run a Windows version? Should you choose this course of action, running 5.20 ... then 5.21 .... then 5.22, and then the Windows version might yield some interesting results.

That sounds interesting... I just today received 8 WD60EFRX 6TB drives that I'm planning to use with my TS-859. They're still unopened and it's certainly in my best interest to make sure they're in good condition before I put them to use.

So v5.21 and v5.22 is included in UBCD v5.3.1... does that mean v5.20 is included in UBCD v5.2.8 ??

Can the drives be tested as is or do they have to be formatted first?

Brgds... /Thomas_L

[GoetzVonBerlichingen]

QNAP's money. QNAP's house. QNAP's rules.

I am a little surprised that this Forum's administrators/moderators decided to start selectively deleting my posts beginning mid-October 2014. I was given no notice that I had violated some rule, nor a notice that my posts were being deleted. Readers should understand that the content you read has been selectively edited to ensure QNAP remains happy. It's almost as if this "Community Forum" is, in fact, intended to be a Potemkin village, and not a real community.

QNAP's money. QNAP's house. QNAP's rules.

E'er the helpful type, I elected to help them eradicate traces of me, and deleted the contents of this post on 31 October 2014.

[Thomas_L]

Thanks... first drive fresh out of the pouch is running extended test on DOS 5.20 right now.

Is there any point scanning it with other versions if the scan result is good?
I understand that if it comes out bad it's interesting figuring out if it comes out good on later versions... I'd just like to avoid running full scan 4 times on all 8 drives if it's not necessary.

If I had to choose one version to do the scan, would it be with v5.21 then?

Brgds... /Thomas

[GoetzVonBerlichingen]

QNAP's money. QNAP's house. QNAP's rules.

I am a little surprised that this Forum's administrators/moderators decided to start selectively deleting my posts beginning mid-October 2014. I was given no notice that I had violated some rule, nor a notice that my posts were being deleted. Readers should understand that the content you read has been selectively edited to ensure QNAP remains happy. It's almost as if this "Community Forum" is, in fact, intended to be a Potemkin village, and not a real community.

QNAP's money. QNAP's house. QNAP's rules.

E'er the helpful type, I elected to help them eradicate traces of me, and deleted the contents of this post on 31 October 2014.

[Thomas_L]

Wow... it really takes a while to scan 6TB! This is what it looks like so far.



You lost me a bit regarding WDIDLE3.EXE... is it safe to run the app? I mean, it won't do anything to the drive right, just look?

May I also, while I seem to have your attention ask for a little bit of advice? Should I, once all the testing is done and the NAS is running, set the drives to spin down after a while or should they spin all the time?

My current Samsung drives that are inside my TS-859 Pro have been spinning for almost 4 years now and I still haven't seen any errors. I think the default setting in the TS-859 was to spin down but since I installed them during winter and the NAS is located in an unheated storage room I noticed that the temp was approx 4 degrees Celsius so I disabled the spindown and after that they measure 18 degrees C wintertime and maybe 45 degrees C summertime.

Brgds... /Thomas