I'm seeking advice. I will be setting up a surveillance DVR (Night Owl 4 channel Lite) for a warehouse. The DVR will, at times, be running non-stop for more than 24 hours. The DVR has no internal fan and a rather small chassis, so I need a reliable and cool running 1 TB 3.5 inch SATA drive. I'm guessing that for it's intended use, spindle speed is not a critical factor. I read elsewhere that the WD Red and Green series drives have good specs in that department. Does anyone have a suggestion as to the best choice ? Thanks in advance for any replies.
I don't think I would worry about a cool running drive. Although I take heat in electronics very seriously (as suggested by my signature line), heat generated by the drive running continuously is not the problem - the problem is heat removal from the case the drive is installed in. So it will be imperative you place the DVR in a relatively cool, well ventilated area, and you ensure nothing blocks the DVR vents and there is "breathing room" all around the DVR. You are right - however, a 5400RPM drive (vs standard 7200RPM) will run cooler, generate less noise and vibration - all good things. I would ensure you get an "enterprise" quality drive. These drives are designed to go in servers and busy computers. They do cost a little bit more, but typically come with 5 year warranties instead of 3 (or just 1). Enterprise vs Desktop Class Hard drives WD Enterprise Drives Seagate Enterprise Drives Finally, if you really are concerned about heat, get SSD drives. They cost more per gigabyte, but run much cooler with no moving parts.
FYI Western Digital specifically has hard drives geared for 24/7 audio/video usage: http://wdc.com/en/products/internal/av/
wtsinnc, WD Green HDs run 10° C cooler than WD black HDs. On the other hand, the Google study of 100,000 HDs found a poor correlation between HD failures and high HD temperatures (>45° C), up to 3 years. In the first 3 years the cooler HDs failed more often. After 3 years high temperatures did have an effect.
Are there any theories as to why that is ? By 'cooler HDs', I assume that refers to those with spin speeds of 5900/5400 rpm. Do the test results suggest that the cooler HDs are not as well made and/or use substandard components ? To Bill_Bright and WSFuser; Thanks for the information and links. Very much appreciated. Interesting that the Enterprise Class HDDS from WD and Seagate are all 7200 rpm. I would have thought that long life and reliability correlated more closely with a slower speed drive.
There is a correlation but it can easily be compensated for with high quality, precision bearings and precise (extremely tight tolerances) design, manufacturing and assembly techniques.
Hitachi CinemaStar and Seagate pipeline are also designed for 24x7 usage. Offer similar reliability to their enterprise drives and superior normal operating temperature range. I personally run 3 Cinemastars as Hitachi seldom need firmware upgrades (sign of reliability) and somewhere I found a presentation that stated Google gave Hitachi a Supplier Excellence award and noted perfect scores for HDD reliability and random access seek times . Edit: presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/ASQwebina...industry-leader-in-quality-and-reliability-07, page 7. Cheers, Nick
I disagree that firmware upgrades is any indication of reliability. Note that presentation was created by Hitachi. Also note that it is rare for any drive to need firmware updating (drive enclosures are a different matter, however). And for the record, WD owns Hitachi Storage.
" Generally, firmware updates are provided only when a firmware update is required to resolve a specific issue." http://www.hgst.com/support/index-files/general-faqs-index Not in Seagate's case: " Every drive family has a couple of firmware releases during the life of the product" http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207931en Cheers, Nick
Again, that is not an indication of reliability. And for that matter, a firmware update does not automatically suggest the update "fixes" anything that was broken. Note the whole statement you quoted includes, "If your hard drive is working normally, there is no need to upgrade the firmware." The fact of the matter is, most firmware updates simply add new features or support.
Thanks for the advice guys. The more I look at the Night Owl 4 channel or 8 channel Lite DVRs, the less confident I feel about (their) ability to give me the long term reliability I'm looking for. As far as function and features, either Night Owl model offers what I need (and more !). My doubt is centered on their ability to dissipate heat. I believe that unless I go with an SSD, heat will be a real issue regardless of which HDD I install. These DVRs have no top vents and no fan. The hard drive is mounted circuit board up and although there are vents on the bottom panel, there is less than 1/8th inch underneath the DVR to the surface it sits on. There are side vents but they are small holes and with my need to run nearly 24/7 in most cases, I don't believe I will get the reliability I need. Along with your advice, I am going to look for something with better passive cooling. As cost is a prime factor my choices are somewhat limited, but once I find the DVR I can feel truly confident with your suggestions will go a long way toward deciding on the hard drive to employ. In any event, many thanks to all who offered their advice.
Would it be possible a 2.5" drive in the DVR? You could use a 5400rpm laptop drive which would run cool but give you more GB per dollar compared to an SSD.
That is a possibility. I have an adapter that's not being used so I can install a 2.5" HDD without any problem. It's a good suggestion. Perhaps that with a DVR having a better designed case will be the answer. Thanks !
A follow up; After speaking with a tech representative at Night Owl I went ahead and purchased the 8 channel LTE DVR and installed a spare Seagate 750 GB hard drive which runs at 7200 rpm. After just over one day, the DVR is performing as advertised with no obvious thermal problem. Hopefully, my fear of excessive heat causing a drive failure was unfounded. Many thanks to all who offered advice.
