Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Western Digital RE4 GPs and L5640s

[Steven F]

I was offered a really good deal on some WD RE4 hard drives that I *need*, but I realized that they were the GP line. Has anyone here used the GP line? If so, is there any major difference between regular RE4s and RE4 GPs? I'm looking to stick them in a high load RAID 10 server.

Also, is there any major performance issues with the L5640 line? I've found some great deals for some and I think it would be worth the extra two cores.

[Dougy]

Don't do it. Just don't do it.

L5640's are bad ass. Lower power with oomph.

[Steven F]

Originally Posted by Dougy

Don't do it. Just don't do it.

L5640's are bad ass. Lower power with oomph.

Why not? Would you care to elaborate?

[techjr]

Originally Posted by EndServer

Why not? Would you care to elaborate?

I believe the GP drives utilize intellipower which varies the rpm of the actual hard drive platter which was usually between 5400 rpm and 7200rpm(This are pretty much more reliable green drives)
In the past drives would either mostly stay at around 5400rpm until higher loads or switch between the two speeds a lot.
For things such as databases and ms sensitive applications, this caused performance issues and a general delay while they spin back up. For this reason I wouldn't use them unless I could guarantee I could keep them at 7200rpm all of the time which pretty much defeats the purpose of it. If your applications in no way rely on the hard drives once everything is loaded up, not knowing the failure rates I have no problem using them. In a shared hosting or vps environment I would not use them at all.


On the other hand, dual L5640's should perform maybe 20-25% better then e5620s and should use less power. They should be a money saver if power is expensive in your area assuming you actually own a rack (Long term not short term!). I believe a 5620 is rated at 80 watts and the 640 is rated at 60. On the other hand they are over twice the price for a 20% performance increase. So unless you are paying 30+ an amp or similar it may not be worth the added initial cost.

This may not really completely answer your question but should give you an idea of what to expect.

[gordonrp]

I believe in a high load situation the GP drives should spin at the full 7200rpm all the time, so you wont be affected by the spin down/spin up latency. However I've not tested it and wouldn't both even considering them myself.

EDIT: when they came out there were also issues with them dropping out of adaptec arrays, not sure if that's fixed.

[Orien]

I've found GP drives to have higher failure rates in raid arrays.

[Steven F]

Originally Posted by gordonrp

However I've not tested it and wouldn't both even considering them myself.

I'm sorry, but what?

Originally Posted by gordonrp

EDIT: when they came out there were also issues with them dropping out of adaptec arrays, not sure if that's fixed.

That issue might still exist. I've seen a few reports from April. I'm investigating it further.

[gordonrp]

I meant to say:
"However I've not tested it and wouldn't bothER even considering them myself."

Sorry, cold fingers lost a couple of key presses! I just mean that I wouldn't take a fancy new system and risk any performance degradation by using a "power saving" drive. I believe they're probably cheaper for a reason.

[Steven F]

Originally Posted by gordonrp

I meant to say:
"However I've not tested it and wouldn't bothER even considering them myself."

Sorry, cold fingers lost a couple of key presses! I just mean that I wouldn't take a fancy new system and risk any performance degradation by using a "power saving" drive. I believe they're probably cheaper for a reason.

It's not for the power consumption. I cannot find any other drives at affordable pricing in decent quantity. They're $130 a piece, which seems like a pretty good deal for a 1.5 TB hard drive at this time. They do still have the drop issue, I'm looking into it to find if anyone has found a fix.

Edit: It looks like an Adeptec 6805 should be fine, which is what I was probably going to use. So, we're all good there.

[Dougy]

Originally Posted by EndServer

Why not? Would you care to elaborate?

They are just raid edition green power disks. After the abysmal failure rate with regular GP, I have learned that no GP disks belong in a server. Especially for any sort of heavy load. Maybe if it was something light usage..

I'm sorry, but what?

i'm sure for same reason as above

Originally Posted by EndServer

Edit: It looks like an Adeptec 6805 should be fine, which is what I was probably going to use. So, we're all good there.

If it's a linux box, have fun getting that working smoothly.

Can be done but what a pain in the dick.

[mkc]

We tried running GP drives in a high-load backup server before, and had endless trouble (i.e. RMA a drive, stick the new one in, and have it fail before the rebuild finished). The RE-GPs are significantly better in terms of reliability, but were still slow and failed more than non-GP drives. We had better luck with Spinpoint F3 drives in terms of speed and reliability even in a hardware RAID array.

If this is for anything remotely important, just pay the premium and get the RE4 drives. It sounds like you only need a few of them, so just take the hit and buy enterprise drives.

[cyberhouse]

i would not use them in a server.