Any reason for a home user not to grab a 3TB NAS hard drive at a fabulous price?

I'm talking about the WD Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810

I'm a home user. I'm thinking of buying it with a view to provide backup as a hard drive in an enclosure for my new computer which I have not set up yet. It's not really going to be what most people would think of as network-attached storage. I would like to use the hard drive to back up both computers. I will be using both a lot in the near future. After that I expect at least to store a lot of programs on my old computer that I'm not sure I'll need on my new computer but am not sure I might not decide are useful after all. I may well find other uses for my old computer as well.

present system :
Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
32-bit
Service Pack 3

Dell DIMENSION DIM2400
Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9
2.05 GB of RAM
Graphics Card: Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV
Graphics Controller, 64 Mb
Hard Drive Size 114.4GB
Free Space was 35.8GB; now under 20GB because after backing up My Documents on Google Drive, Google Drive has duplicated the whole darn thing on my hard drive
Motherboard: Dell Computer Corp., 0G1548
Antivirus : Webroot Internet Security


future system:
Windows 7 Professional Edition
64-bit

Intel Core i7 Processor i7-3770K 3.5GHz 8MB QUAD CORE
INTEL COPPER HEAVY DUTY LGA 1155 COOLING FAN
OCZ/ARCTIC Ultra 5+ Silver Thermal Compound
PROFESSIONAL WIRING
Asus P8B75-V LGA1155/ Intel B75/ SATA3&USB3.0 ATX Motherboard
16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600MHz (PC3 12800) Dual Channel
(2X) MEMORY HEAT SPREADERS
(2X) 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB CACHE SATA 6.0Gb/s
24X DUAL LAYER DVD-RW
INTEL HD 3000 1GB HDMI/DVI/VGA 1080p PCI-EXPRESS VIDEO (ONBOARD)
REALTEK 8-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND ONBOARD
REALTEK 10/100/1000 Gigabit Network Card (onboard)
HEC Blitz Black Steel Edition ATX Mid Tower Case
DELUXE COOLING PACKAGE
SEASONIC 620 WATT ULTRA HIGH PERFORMANCE POWER SUPPLY
Logitech Wired USB Keyboard
Logitech Wired USB Black 3 Buttons Optical Mouse
i-Micro 2.0 Channel Multimedia Speakers

 

So, you are planning on using two 1 TB internal HDDs, one for your system disk (where Windows will be installed) and the other for data? And in addition to that you want to use a 3 TB internal HDD boxed up and used as an external HDD connected via a USB3 port I imagine? Just want to make sure I understand you correctly. I have no idea what kind of number you're talking about in regards to the "great deal" you mentioned (the link you posted isn't working). It must be a really good deal since I've recently seen some killer deals on 3 TB external HDD and I don't know why you'd want to hassle with boxing up an internal HDD unless it was a really good deal. In any case, you might consider purchasing a SSD (solid state drive) for your system disk since you are going to be using a SATA III enabled motherboard. Not a huge one, maybe 250 GB for $150, to house Windows and your most frequently used programs. It would make a dramatic improvement in read/write speeds of all operations, as well as decrease boot time significantly. I don't know if you've looked into this options but the benchmark scores for SSDs are off the chart compared to HDDs. Unfortunately, I don't have any links handy but you could just Google "HDD vs SDD benchmark results"

I'm not sure I did anything to answer your question but.... food for thought anyway.

 

I haven't made any definite plans about how to use them so far. I'll be consulting the Major Geeks about that. Lately I've been busy researching and finally just now buying a UPS, and I sort of bumped into the hard drive sale.

Yes.

The link opens from there for me. It is to the WD Red page, not to the deal. Maybe not too useful for this very specific model.

I posted on the best computer forums seeking advice about external hard drives. The overwhelming response I got was "Don't get one. Get a more durable internal hard drive and put it in a dock or enclosure." I respect the opinions of those more knowledgeable than me, so I decided to go that way.

I'm interested by that idea. I am certainly looking forward to the day when prices of SSDs come down. I'm turned off by the idea of substituting a low-storage SSD for a hard drive. But the idea of adding an SSD to hard disk is intriguing.

I am interested in utilizing free RAM disks on my new system when I get time to get around to it.

Right now I am looking forward to first seeing what a difference 16 GB of RAM, i7 quad core 3.5GHz processing, and Windows 7 instead of XP will make in the speed of operations and boot time. And I have sunk a lot of money into my new computer and its accessories already.

I think all that's left now is the enclosure or dock.

 

I didn't want to link to the deal before I actually had it. Now that it's sewed up, here it is :
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=3580092&sku=TSD-3000EFRX

$109.99 after rebate, and there will be another rebate on top of that because my order exceeded $100 and I got a clearance item. My observation has been that internal hard drives are more expensive than external hard drives. I'm tickled to get a hard drive that's 3TB and premium quality at what I think would be a good price for an average quality 2TB hard drive.

A three year warranty, too.

 

That sounds EXACTLY what most people think of, and what a NAS is designed for.

Why not just turn it into your NAS by adding drives to it?

I personally don't like external storage devices that connect via USB - even 3.0. USB has NEVER been the robust, reliable I/O interface it was supposed to be. The forums are awash with users who can no longer access their USB devices. It works great for user input devices (keyboards and mice) but has been a consistent let down for other uses.

Since XP support is ending soon, I recommend you expedite your new computer purchase (though I recommend W8 instead of the 4 year old W7), then repurpose your XP box as a NAS for your network, but block access to the Internet.

This way, you can buy a quality "enterprise class" hard drive for your storage needs and put them in your XP box. Personally, if the purpose of this NAS is for backups to the primary computer, I would not be looking for "bargain" deals. And I would be looking at drives that come with 5 year warranties.

 

Thanks for letting me know that. NAS is an unfamiliar term to me, and on top of that there are two kinds of NAS!

I will be simultaneously utilizing remote backup, preferably multiple, and not relying only on a USB and a hard drive. I also purchased a PNY 128GB flash drive that was on sale very cheaply.

I've already got my new computer, monitor, and my Windows 7 Pro. A sine wave CyberPower USP is on the way, arriving Jan. 3-8. I've never done a transition beforehand, so it's a monumental undertaking for me, and plenty of other things are requiring my attention.

I think I got an excellent hard drive in that WD Red. I'm quite tickled about it. It's designed for much greater wear and tear than I'll be giving it.

I remember you mentioned that, and I kept my eyes open for them, but so far three years is the most I've come across.

 

True, but there are plenty with 5-year warranties. You just have to look for them. I note WD Black Drives are warrantied for 5 years.

 

One day the 4TB internal drives will be $99 each. Until then, I think I'll hold back on upgrading my 4 1tb internal drives.

 

The only problem I can think of would be if you bought a real NAS device (from Synology or Netgear or whoever). You need identical drives to put in a raid of that type for maximum performance and reliability. You may not be able to get another of those drives when (if) you decide to go that route.

 

I run OSes off of USB 3.0 hard drives. Never had an issue.

 

That is what I do.

I have a 3TB NAS in RAID 1 hooked to a gigabit network.
My computer backs up to it and a 3TB USB 3.0 hard disk in hourly, weekly, and monthly intervals.

 

The better RAID controllers can handle dissimilar drives. But even on less capable controllers, I don't see reliability being an issue (assuming it runs in the first place) and performance is not really an issue either - the system will just "toggle down" to the performance of the slowest drive. If the drive have the same seek and access performance specifications but are different sizes, you will lose capacity but performance and reliability will not be affected.

That said, I agree identical drives is still the best bet and when I set up a RAID, I always buy at least one extra identical drive to put on the shelf - just in case a drive in the array fails.

That's good but as I noted, that is not the "universal" (pun intended) case. I too have run OSes off USB devices (2.0 and 3.0), but I sure cannot say I "never" had issues. And again, the forums are awash with people having problems with their external USB devices and much of the time, it is a problem with the USB interface - not the drive itself.

If I have a choice, I go internal. If I need external, I go eSATA when possible.