Server Hard Disk Drive Value?

My computer hardware supplier tells me that it would cost ~$600 just to install a 100GB harddrive onto my server. This seems extremely expensive to me, but he says it's because it's a 'server hard drive'. It's on a RAID1 (mirror) so I would think at most the cost would be doubled. Even $300 for 100GB seems wrong, where nowadays we can buy 1TB drives for ~$125; that's a difference of about 24 times. Does this sound right or wrong to anyone?

Thanks

 

SAS or SCSI drives are often used in servers. They're not cheap.

You need to check what type of drives are used in the server RAID.

 

what is the benefit for these kinds of drives? Is it worth the cost?

It looks like this particular server has a "Smart Array 532 Controller" with 3 "COMPAQ LOGICAL VOLUME SCSI Disk Device" and "Smart Array 5x and 6x Notification Driver"

if I do a search, for example, for "500 gb scsi hard drives" I find:

500 GB 7200 RPM Near-Line SAS Hot Plug Hard Drive $360
500 GB 7200 RPM Near Line Serial Attached SCSI Hard Drive $160
500 GB 7200 RPM Serial Attached SCSI Hot Plug Hard Drive $300

~$720 for 500GB would be fine, but $600 for 100GB as my supplier says it would cost seems too little GB per dollar to me.

 

These (server grade) drives are designed for greater longevity than consumer grade drives, thus the extra cost involved in design/manufacture and therefore of purchasing them.

Your server appears to be based on HP/Compaq models that were released from about 2000/1 onwards. The drives in it were close to the best available at that time, they are however, becoming difficult to obtain via many retail channels. For example, Newegg.ca has only 1 model listed in stock that would fit the server, you would need 2 at $320 ea. for 300GB capacity on the RAID.