Hard drives - high $$ in Thailand and recommendations for server drives

[KannikaP]

1 minute ago, gamb00ler said:

Heavy.... as in a large percentage of their free time.  Perhaps you can come over, interview everyone to determine their needs and abilities and come up with a better solution.

I thought I did, works fine for my crowd.

[gamb00ler]

3 minutes ago, recom273 said:

Try this

 

https://jellyfin.org

 

Very easy to setup

 

You can use Sonarr / Radarr and then use something like requestrr to allow your family to add.

 

You can also stream music using jellyfin, but Navidrome might be of interest.

I've seen one recommendation for jellyfin, but I haven't yet checked it out.  It's on my calendar!

[KannikaP]

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

And I bet it uses lots of power! 

100 watts = 1200 units per 12 hour day = Bht 7.2. I can handle that!

As I said previously, NO 3.5 inch hard drives spinning around aimlessly, two SSDs, CPU, RAM & that's it. NUC takes less than 50 watts.

[Mickeymaus]

21 minutes ago, gamb00ler said:

The same Western Digital drive is 70 on Newegg and 135 on Lazada.  My friend alerted me to the issue and he has done a more thorough comparison and found the same results.

I took the Western Digital 4 TB 5400 as an example the 4-TB WD BLUE (5400 U/min, 256 MB, SATA-3, WD40EZAZ)

 

I didn't look for the best price in Thailand. I took the first one that Google showed me

 

Thailand 2290 Baht 

 

https://www.advice.co.th/product/hard-disk-for-pc/hard-disk-pc-sata-iii-4-tb-/4-tb-hdd-wd-blue-5400rpm-256mb-sata-3-wd40ezaz-?gclid=CjwKCAjwo7iiBhAEEiwAsIxQEdAkI0ttcoz2jk4YV4Lb9TvVbueLp9PBZFkMeauYLTUNWeG0Vyy9rBoCG4MQAvD_BwE

 

Newegg 68 USD about 2312 Baht 

 

https://www.newegg.com/wd40ezaz-14tb/p/1Z4-0002-01CG2

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Mickeymaus

[KannikaP]

9 minutes ago, gamb00ler said:

Heavy.... as in a large percentage of their free time

How sad! But if they are watching downloaded movies and series, when do they fit in the Thai soaps?  555

Hope you have comfy couches.

Edited April 30, 2023 by KannikaP

[OneMoreFarang]

Use RAID1 and HDDs which are designed for that, i.e. WD Red.

In theory you can use any HDDs, but there are advantages if you use HDDs which are designed for that purpose.

And it seems you don't need anything fast. So there is no reason to pay for faster HDDs. 

[gamb00ler]

22 minutes ago, recom273 said:

Im not a lover of using your server to route your traffic, are you thinking of PFsense or Opensense? I would run that on a separate passive computer.

Those are a couple of options I'm evaluating for the router software.

The router/file sharing box will have a separate boot drive that is not shared.

The CPU in my Intel box will have plenty of oomph for both router and file sharing duties.  The only time there would be a little higher load would be the short periods that I would be using a VPN running on the box as well.

[gamb00ler]

1 minute ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Use RAID1 and HDDs which are designed for that, i.e. WD Red.

In theory you can use any HDDs, but there are advantages if you use HDDs which are designed for that purpose.

And it seems you don't need anything fast. So there is no reason to pay for faster HDDs. 

As I have indicated there is not a serious need for 24 X 7 access.  An rsync run during off hours is fine for semi-hot backup.

RAID is nice but overkill for our needs.  I want to use a simple power sipping Intel box.

[gamb00ler]

6 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

How sad! But if they are watching downloaded movies and series, when do they fit in the Thai soaps?  555

Hope you have comfy couches.

I hope you can find someplace where you fit in better!  Bon voyage.

[Mickeymaus]

34 minutes ago, gamb00ler said:

The same Western Digital drive is 70 on Newegg and 135 on Lazada.  My friend alerted me to the issue and he has done a more thorough comparison and found the same results.

Here is another one for 2290 Baht. Both shops Advice and JIB are very reliable. 

 

https://www.jib.co.th/web/product/readProduct/46117/4-TB-HDD-WD-BLUE-5400RPM-SATA3--WD40EZAZ-

[gamb00ler]

7 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

Here is another one for 2290 Baht. Both shops Advice and JIB are very reliable. 

 

https://www.jib.co.th/web/product/readProduct/46117/4-TB-HDD-WD-BLUE-5400RPM-SATA3--WD40EZAZ-

Thanks... that's a decent price.  Newegg is the same price.

[recom273]

23 minutes ago, gamb00ler said:

Those are a couple of options I'm evaluating for the router software.

The router/file sharing box will have a separate boot drive that is not shared.

The CPU in my Intel box will have plenty of oomph for both router and file sharing duties.  The only time there would be a little higher load would be the short periods that I would be using a VPN running on the box as well.

Up to you really. I wasnt really thinking about oomph, I just prefer to keep routing duties in a separate box, I lost a day when I was running a router in VM and the software went down (no backup) I had trouble redownloading and reinstalling, since then I run it on a separate unit, but each to their own, I just lost my confidence.
 

@Mickeymaus I was just checking the link to JIB, i think red drives either seafarers/wd or whoever, would be better suited, but you are correct, the price for a 4TB is pretty good at the moment, about 1K THB / TB. Not so bad. 

[Mickeymaus]

15 minutes ago, recom273 said:

 

@Mickeymaus I was just checking the link to JIB, i think red drives either seafarers/wd or whoever, would be better suited, but you are correct, the price for a 4TB is pretty good at the moment, about 1K THB / TB. Not so bad. 

2290 Baht for 4 TB => 2290/4 = 572.50 Baht only per 1 TB ????. It is really a very good price.

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Mickeymaus

[KhunBENQ]

1 hour ago, gamb00ler said:

The same Western Digital drive is 70 on Newegg and 135 on Lazada.  My friend alerted me to the issue and he has done a more thorough comparison and found the same results.

WD40EZAZ 4 TB, 2,290 Baht at Advice Online ~ 67 USD

Newegg 67.99 USD

 

https://www.advice.co.th/product/hard-disk-for-pc/hard-disk-pc-sata-iii-4-tb-/4-tb-hdd-wd-blue-5400rpm-256mb-sata-3-wd40ezaz-

(This price is online only.)

 

https://www.newegg.com/wd40ezaz-14tb/p/1Z4-0002-01CG2?Item=1Z4-0002-01CG2

Edited April 30, 2023 by KhunBENQ

[MrJ2U]

All this sounds great perhaps 5-10 years ago.  

 

Why not just stream any movie, TV show, adult video, cartoon, etc via an Android Box with WiFi?  KODI or Bee TV app provide practically anything ever produced on video to be streamed all for free.

 

Spotify or YouTube premium would fullfil any music or video niche you might have.

 

I'm relaxing on a break in Udon Thani now at a hotel.  With my Nvidia shield I can literally watch anything without the need for a NAS setup. 

 

All you need is WiFi and a decent android Box. 

 

 

[ozimoron]

34 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

All this sounds great perhaps 5-10 years ago.  

 

Why not just stream any movie, TV show, adult video, cartoon, etc via an Android Box with WiFi?  KODI or Bee TV app provide practically anything ever produced on video to be streamed all for free.

 

Spotify or YouTube premium would fullfil any music or video niche you might have.

 

I'm relaxing on a break in Udon Thani now at a hotel.  With my Nvidia shield I can literally watch anything without the need for a NAS setup. 

 

All you need is WiFi and a decent android Box. 

 

 

Or Tide if you want the better quality FLAC format.

[recom273]

1 hour ago, Mickeymaus said:

2290 Baht for 4 TB => 2290/4 = 572.50 Baht only per 1 TB ????. It is really a very good price.

 

It’s a blue drive - they are the budget line - as @OneMoreFarang mentions, there are advantages to using “correct drive” for the job, NAS drives are designed to be used 24/7 they have features like less aggressive head parking, better vibration dampening, better heat resistance due to better and more expensive build quality.

 

I don’t know, tbh, could be a load of marketing bully. I have 4x 4TB wd red that I have used in servers for 8+ years now, all OK. Along with another 10 drives I’m running at home used to replace the originals. I can’t comment on the budget line, I have no experience.

 

 

[gamb00ler]

3 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

All you need is WiFi and a decent android Box.

This seems to be such a common assumption.  My media diet doesn't resemble that of most AN posters.  My Thai family are also not typical.  They are well educated and interested in lifelong learning for both business and recreation.

 

IPTV will provide a lot of content but of course not all.  If my internet is down, it doesn't.  It also seems that at our new house, our mobile signal is not that great.  I've only tested our current provider so far.

 

Is IPTV consistent at 1080P or 4K?  I prefer to watch the excellent nature documentaries at 4K.

 

I still want to store my digital books that I've collected and not yet read.  I need to retain articles that I've saved as PDF.  Many I have read quickly and would like to read again for better retention.  On a drive, text can be scanned for keywords and accessed much faster than doing a Google search and having to check again which articles truly discuss what I'm looking for.

 

It's quite clear to me that Android/IPTV provides everything for mamu posters but doesn't in our case.

 

I will almost certainly have IPTV as well for current broadcast/cable content.

Edited April 30, 2023 by gamb00ler

[Mickeymaus]

10 hours ago, recom273 said:

It’s a blue drive - they are the budget line - as @OneMoreFarang mentions, there are advantages to using “correct drive” for the job, NAS drives are designed to be used 24/7 they have features like less aggressive head parking, better vibration dampening, better heat resistance due to better and more expensive build quality.

 

I don’t know, tbh, could be a load of marketing bully. I have 4x 4TB wd red that I have used in servers for 8+ years now, all OK. Along with another 10 drives I’m running at home used to replace the originals. I can’t comment on the budget line, I have no experience.

Of course there are faster drives. This is an SMR drive. I have both SMR and CMR drives. When I write many GB to an SMR drive at once, the write speed drops to around 30MB/s. But for normal use they are okay. And for his purpose it is an inexpensive storage. 

 

Regarding vibrations. Some of my disks are mounted with these wooden sticks. This disk tray has rubbers on the side where the screws are so that vibrations are not transmitted. A killer for the disk access times. Therefore the sticks. Be careful with such special trays. 

 

[KannikaP]

13 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

All this sounds great perhaps 5-10 years ago.  

 

Why not just stream any movie, TV show, adult video, cartoon, etc via an Android Box with WiFi?  KODI or Bee TV app provide practically anything ever produced on video to be streamed all for free.

 

Spotify or YouTube premium would fullfil any music or video niche you might have.

 

I'm relaxing on a break in Udon Thani now at a hotel.  With my Nvidia shield I can literally watch anything without the need for a NAS setup. 

 

All you need is WiFi and a decent android Box. 

 

 

And an Amazon Fire TV stick is just as good, if not easier.

[Henryford]

Are HDDs expensive here? I recently bought a 5 TB WD drive from the WD shop on Lazada, about 2500 baht $74. Seems really cheap to me, half the price of those in the UK.

Edit Amazon sells them for $108 in the USA

Edited May 1, 2023 by Henryford

[Roger That]

8 hours ago, Henryford said:

Are HDDs expensive here? I recently bought a 5 TB WD drive from the WD shop on Lazada, about 2500 baht $74. Seems really cheap to me, half the price of those in the UK.

Edit Amazon sells them for $108 in the USA

Is that for an external? Agreed, seems like a good price for a new one.

 

Hard drives in general seem to be priced similarly to western Europe here, IMO.

 

Higher end models / large capacities are more expensive than Europe though, that goes for IT equipment in general here in my experience.

 

Of course they're cheaper in USA, almost all branded consumer electronics are.

[wprime]

Why do you need so many 2.5Gbps links? Two links is enough not to bottleneck your disks. One link is enough to watch your "entertainment" in 4K.