Mix Hitachi 7K2000 and 5K3000 in same array?

U

unwire

Weaksauce
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Sep 10, 2009
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Last year I created a RAID-6 array on my Highpoint RocketRAID 4320 using 6 2TB Hitachi 7k2000s. Now that they've come out with the 5K3000s, and I was hoping to expand the array with these.

Does anyone see any issues with these two drives working together within the same array?

Thanks!
 
For those of you wondering, I have found someone that has mixed these drive types within the same array without incident. I have not yet tried it but so far the feedback is good!
 
I have two ZFS VDEV's with these drives in the same pool, and can at least report that the sizes are exactly the same (2000.400MB) (i.e. none of those annoying 10-100MB discrepencies)- so you shouldn't have issues on that point.
 
Thanks, that's good to know! So what *is* the difference between them? Aside from the misleading name that would seem to indicate that its a 3TB drive? lol

Seems odd that the "Deskstar 5K3000" family name is used to refer to the 3TB, 2TB, AND 1.5TB versions of the drive, while only the cryptic model number is unique (HDS5C3030ALA630 vs HDS5C3020ALA632 vs HDS5C3015ALA632).
 
5k3000 are 5200 rpm, 7k3000 are 7200 rpm (the direct successor to the 7k2000's you have)
 
Aren't we comparing the 7K2000 and 5K3000?

The 7K2000 is 7200 RPM
The 5K3000 is advertsed as "CoolSpin", but many sites are reporting it as 5940 RPM

The sector size of both of these is 512 bytes.

So these are ok to mix even thought hey run at different speeds?
 
With RAID, all that technically matters is size. They should all work fine together though. Even though the 5K3000 series is not 7200rpm, they're just as fast as the older 7K2000 drives.
 
I was wondering if you decided to mix the 5k3000's in with your 7k2000's and if so what your results were?
 
SiRCYRO,

Actually I haven't mixed them yet! I ended up replacing all of my WD20EADS's with 5k3000s (which are working well so far), but I haven't yet added to my 7k2000 array.

I do have one standing by as a spare, and I'm starting to get a bit low on space, so I'll probably need to soon! Let me know if you hear of any feedback regarding these two working together.

Unwire.
 
Blue Fox said:
With RAID, all that technically matters is size. They should all work fine together though. Even though the 5K3000 series is not 7200rpm, they're just as fast as the older 7K2000 drives.
Click to expand...
The array will be as slow and as small as the slowest and smallest drive in the array.

If the data transfer rate of the slower drive is equal to the faster drive, you shouldn't see any decrease.

If not, you'll know. :)
 
So I did end up buying two 5K3000's and adding them to my array of 3 7K2000's. I ran the new drives through 3 days of BST5 then multiple full passes of Hitachi's drive test and finally 2 verifies per expansion (I did the OCE in two steps). I haven't had any issues and everything appears fine. I'll probably run a few more verifies on the array next week after some more use.
 
Awesome - this is great to hear. One of the drives in my array of 7K2000s just reported a few bad sectors, so I have a feeling I may have to replace them soon and I was hoping to do so with the newer 5K3000s. Now I can pick up a few replacements without hesitation..

As a side note: All of my 5K3000s run about 10-15 degrees cooler than my 7K2000s. Same case, same conditions. Presumably due to their lower RPM..
 
If they are going in the same enclosure, I know I have read its not a good idea to mix drives with different spindle speeds. It can cause vibration issues. But this could all be crap for all I know as I personally have not mix these before.
 
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