2TB Toshiba 7200 RPM 3.5" SATA Internal Hard Drive (DT01ACA200) $84.99 + Free Shipping *Valid at 9AM PST*

Quote from eoniverse : Then you were lucky. NewEgg used to package well about three years ago but they are a crap shoot right now. Not one of the last three HDD's I've picked up from them over the last two years has been packed right. All moved in the shipping box when it got to me.....sometimes with only one large bubble put on top and nothing on the bottom or sides. Bought my last couple from B&H and they packed those right. Amazon was pretty good also but had a bit of movement.

It seems to depend wholly on the employee who packs it. My velociraptors that I bought in December were packed better than any HDD I have ever ordered anywhere but I have had a couple from them in the past 6 months that were packed pretty poorly as well. That being said, I have never had any issues with any HDD I have ordered from Newegg.

Quote from ilikemoneys : There isn't really any correlation at the base level. The issue is with heat generation. Higher RPM drives generate more heat than those of lower spindle speeds. Thus, if there isn't enough cooling for the higher RPM drive, it has a greater chance of failure. This issue isn't a problem in 99% of desktops and now really only shows in laptops. Even in laptops, it ultimately has to be an under performing system with poor cooling from the start to cause an issue. These are great drives and are priced well for HDDs with TLER.

Understood and agreed. I'm building a file server now using 8 drives. They'll have a pair of 120mm fans blowing through them at all times.

Quote from poormanq45 : Understood and agreed. I'm building a file server now using 8 drives. They'll have a pair of 120mm fans blowing through them at all times.

Awesome! What kind of RAID are you going to use? Is it going to be a true server with a dedicated cpu or is it going to be more akin to a NAS? I have been enjoying Windows 8's homeshare setup and have not had a need to build a dedicated server yet as I simply use my primary system as a functioning server. I haven't even needed to use Windows Server as my OS which has been great due to better driver support on 8 vs. Server 2012.

Quote from ilikemoneys : Awesome! What kind of RAID are you going to use? Is it going to be a true server with a dedicated cpu or is it going to be more akin to a NAS? I have been enjoying Windows 8's homeshare setup and have not had a need to build a dedicated server yet as I simply use my primary system as a functioning server. I haven't even needed to use Windows Server as my OS which has been great due to better driver support on 8 vs. Server 2012.

I'm currently comparing windows 7,server 2008 and CentOS. Server 2008 seems like overkill. Windows 7 and CentOS with webmin are my main choices.

I'll be using a perc 5 controller and a raid 5 on it.

The usage will be:
NAS
Torrent server
Ftp server
Possibly a VPN server

It'll be a dedicated box based on the 1610 Celeron that was on SD last week.

My goal is under 35w under normal load

Can't imagine why you'd want to run Server 2k8 for just that. In fact, for your planned usage, a dedicated RAID5 card is probably overkill (as you're going to run a torrent server, I'm assuming this isn't going to be a corporate back office server). Just throw CentOS on the system and set up a software RAID 5/6 and be done with it. Do make sure you set up a weekly RAID scrub cycle, though.

Currently running CentOS 6.2 on my NAS box running an AMD A4-3400. IIRC, the kill-a-watt readings were somewhere in the 35-40W range. Pushes files over gigE at 50-70MB/sec.

Quote from silliness : I also I believe Seagate bought Samsung HDD. Hitachi and WD contracted with each other last year so that these drives should be based on WD equipment and tech. http://www.techpowerup.com/161437...uring.html

Actually that article is not quite correct (it doesn't indicate what 3.5" tech is being sold to Toshiba by WD, and so it's easy to infer that it's talking about WD tech).

Basically what actually happened is Western Digital bought all of Hitachi Global Storage, and then immediately divested the 3.5" division (factories and all) to Toshiba to satisfy various regulatory bodies. The Toshiba drives are not just based on Hitachi technology, they pretty much *are* Hitachi drives - it actually still says "Made in China by Hitachi Global Storage Products" on it (I have one that I just looked at to verify).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/563...chi-buyout

I've been waiting for these things to go on sale once Toshiba finally got them back on the market a few months ago...I just picked up a couple more of these as spares for my 8x2TB Dell PERC-5 array.

Quote from poormanq45 : I'm currently comparing windows 7,server 2008 and CentOS. Server 2008 seems like overkill. Windows 7 and CentOS with webmin are my main choices. I'll be using a perc 5 controller and a raid 5 on it. The usage will be: NAS Torrent server Ftp server Possibly a VPN server It'll be a dedicated box based on the 1610 Celeron that was on SD last week. My goal is under 35w under normal load

Quote from arcasinky : Can't imagine why you'd want to run Server 2k8 for just that. In fact, for your planned usage, a dedicated RAID5 card is probably overkill (as you're going to run a torrent server, I'm assuming this isn't going to be a corporate back office server). Just throw CentOS on the system and set up a software RAID 5/6 and be done with it. Do make sure you set up a weekly RAID scrub cycle, though. Currently running CentOS 6.2 on my NAS box running an AMD A4-3400. IIRC, the kill-a-watt readings were somewhere in the 35-40W range. Pushes files over gigE at 50-70MB/sec.

I would go with CentOS as well unless you have all of your systems using Windows 7 and you can find an inexpensive product key. Even then, I am not sure it would be worth it as the only real advantage is consistency in the UI. I would be doing a similar setup as you both but I have found that I prefer faster dedicated storage in each system with every SSD and HDD mapped to each computer. It allows me more options for how I save my data while maintaining similar speeds as what you get to and from the server. It's not nearly as clean a setup though and probably has costed me a little more as well.

Seems like a pretty good deal? The cheapest price I found for a 2tb in recent were Seagates back in November.

Does anyone have a test routine to ensure the drive isn't damage/defective?

Isn't this dead? Coupon has expired.

Quote from CyberDave : Actually that article is not quite correct (it doesn't indicate what 3.5" tech is being sold to Toshiba by WD, and so it's easy to infer that it's talking about WD tech). Basically what actually happened is Western Digital bought all of Hitachi Global Storage, and then immediately divested the 3.5" division (factories and all) to Toshiba to satisfy various regulatory bodies. The Toshiba drives are not just based on Hitachi technology, they pretty much *are* Hitachi drives - it actually still says "Made in China by Hitachi Global Storage Products" on it (I have one that I just looked at to verify). http://www.anandtech.com/show/563...chi-buyout I've been waiting for these things to go on sale once Toshiba finally got them back on the market a few months ago...I just picked up a couple more of these as spares for my 8x2TB Dell PERC-5 array.

Thanks for the clarification.