Hardware Bargains - Open Thine Wallet

Status
Not open for further replies.
weelzSA said:
Any deals on external HDD’s? Anything 4tb and up 2.5” ideally. Saw TA have some deals but checking if there anything better?
Click to expand...
These seem like the best deals on 2.5" drives, I don't like 3.5" because of the size and external power as I'm trying to keep everything low power with a Raspberry Pi. I suspect both will be SMR drives, so rather intended for read mostly/archive type of use.

5TB cheap storage storage R1998 inc delivery for Seagate STJL5000400, I think 12 month warranty: https://www.loot.co.za/product/seagate-basic-5tb-2-5-portable-hard-drive-usb-3-0/cwnb-6635-g110
4TB better casing as it's rubber/rugged and 3 year warranty for Transcend TS4TSJ25H3P, R2258 inc delivery: https://www.loot.co.za/product/transcend-storejet-25h3-2-5-rugged-external-hard-drive/bmml-4333-g840
 
Swa said:
Yes we've been through that. It's for storage NOT recording your 8k 120Hz pron. Going to search hard to find PMR for a good price.
Click to expand...
I've been looking. Only thing I could find thats decent is the 16TB on Amazon.


Shipping makes it $$ though. I do need a Dock for my Macbook though, so I can connect it to the TV, so may just buy both, damn the expense.
This is what I'm looking at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HR3T837/ref=ewc_pr_img_2?smid=A3HIHADV23VGU1&psc=1

Neither are "cheap", but both are good products.
 
Last edited:
Sayf777 said:
Would the dureacells be chargeable with the energiser charger?
Click to expand...
airborne said:
Yes any NiMH charger can charger any make of NiMH battery
Click to expand...
Unfortunately does not seem to be working for me at the moment :(

I have a Duracell charger, model CEF 15 (bought somewhere around 2015 I think). It charges the older (green label/cover) Duracell batteries I have just fine.

I purchased these new black label/cover batteries about 2 weeks ago. Tried 2 of them last week in the charger and it didn't charge... lights came on initially and then went off. Think I'll try charging again when these new batteries completely discharge. Disappointed it didn't work, even in their older charger
 
j2000 said:
Unfortunately does not seem to be working for me at the moment :(

I have a Duracell charger, model CEF 15 (bought somewhere around 2015 I think). It charges the older (green label/cover) Duracell batteries I have just fine.

I purchased these new black label/cover batteries about 2 weeks ago. Tried 2 of them last week in the charger and it didn't charge... lights came on initially and then went off. Think I'll try charging again when these new batteries completely discharge. Disappointed it didn't work, even in their older charger
Click to expand...
Get the nitecore smart charger from takealot.
 
Hi. Any NAS storage deals? Needs to be bigger than 4Tb. Will be mainly used for movies/series. Thanks in advance
 
lsheed_cn said:
SMR - the S stands for slow as poop
Click to expand...

Thanks - had a quick Google.

www.synology.com

What are PMR and SMR hard disk drives? - Synology Knowledge Center

Synology Knowledge Center offers comprehensive support, providing answers to frequently asked questions, troubleshooting steps, software tutorials, and all the technical documentation you may need.
www.synology.com www.synology.com

Hard Drive Buying Tips: Figuring Out What Hard Drive You Should Buy

If you have “buy a hard drive” on your shopping list, here is a checklist based on your needs of everything you need to know to make the right purchase.
www.backblaze.com www.backblaze.com

If SMR is used infrequently (household /archive usage) will speeds be similar if it gets the required 'down time' to re-organise itself? Seems so, meaning SMR isn't all bad, just understand your use case.

I'm waiting for this to drop back closer to R2k (pre Black Friday price was R2,199.00 IIRC): https://www.takealot.com/seagate-6tb-3-5-backup-plus-hub-desktop-external-hard-drive/PLID44311574

Amazon Review:

Update, December 2018

I've been using this for 21 months to back up my MacBook Pro hourly with Time Machine. No problems at all, still works (and sounds, thumpety thump) like it has from the start.

Original review

The Backup Plus Hub series appears to consist of SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives. We know the 8 TB version is SMR because another reviewer (Pacific coast) opened it up (voiding his warranty) and found a Seagate Archive drive, which is SMR. I asked Seagate if the 6 TB version I got is an SMR drive, and they said "Unfortunately, we do not have this information available." Ha ha! Their reticence is understandable, the more common PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) technology is generally preferred. The prices of these Backup Plus Hub drives are less than Seagate's bare PMR drives of equal capacity, which also supports the idea that the Backup Plus Hub series is SMR.

SMR technology allows more physical bits of memory in the same space without decreasing the size of the bits.

Advantages of SMR

-- Fast burst sequential writes are possible due to higher density and allied technology.
-- Larger drive capacities in same-size enclosures.
-- Cheaper to produce in large capacities.

Disadvantages of SMR

-- Slower random writes. SMR drives use large write heads relative to the width of the tracks of bits, so writing one track affects the next tracks of bits too. This limits SMR drives to sequential writing, where the next tracks don't matter. To do random writes (such as changes to data on the drive already), data must be arranged sequentially in cache, by the drive in this case, and entire sections of the drive must be rewritten sequentially. Some of this can be hidden by the use of large cache on the drive, believed to be 20 GB or more on Seagate SMR drives. Data can be written quickly to cache and then rewritten more slowly to another part of the drive.
-- Highly variable sequential write speeds, due to the particular ways the drive manages where to put data.

Read speeds aren't affected as much.

The consensus about SMR drives is that they're well suited to backup use, which is reflected in the name of this series of drives. They probably aren't as suitable to use as a main drive to run a computer from, and are generally *not* recommended for RAID configurations (which wouldn't be likely uses for a single external drive anyway).

Real-life speeds

The 6 TB version of this drive hasn't been tested by professional reviewers, but the 8 TB version has tested very well in standard benchmarks in numerous professional reviews, often well over the 160 MBs maximum rate claimed by Seagate. It's been more variable in practical use. I'm unable to test it myself with a USB 3.0 connection, but one professional reviewer who did got an average of 72 MB/s for a write of a little under 90 GB of files. That's a little over 20 minutes. (A customer review here--Pacific coast again--gets a similar 75 MB/s.)

[Update December 2018: Someone asked for speed test now that it's two years old, and since I have a USB 3.0 connection for it now, I was able to test it at full speed. For 20GB of photos from my MacBook Pro it took right about 3 minutes, or 110MB/s write speed. To copy them back took just over 2 minutes, about the rated 160MB/s read speed. I've only used 450GB of the 6TB capacity, so it's not congested yet.]

Differences between Windows and Mac versions

According to Seagate, the only differences between this Windows version and the Mac version of the Backup Plus Hub series are the initial formatting of the drives and the cosmetics of the cases. The formatting can easily be changed at home, so buy whichever drive you please for either OS.

System requirements

-- Windows 7 or later
-- Mac OS 10.7 or later
-- for Mobile Backup app: iOS 8 or higher, Android 3.0 or higher

Other points

-- Doesn't run too hot. I've seen measured temps of 100 and 113 degrees inside, which is fine for a hard drive.
-- A little noisy when operating, not any worse than most computers.
-- No fan, has passive cooling through vents on the bottom.
-- Includes USB 3 (or 2) cable, type A to micro-B.
-- 2-year warranty.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Swa
Budza said:
Thanks - had a quick Google.

www.synology.com

What are PMR and SMR hard disk drives? - Synology Knowledge Center

Synology Knowledge Center offers comprehensive support, providing answers to frequently asked questions, troubleshooting steps, software tutorials, and all the technical documentation you may need.
www.synology.com www.synology.com

Hard Drive Buying Tips: Figuring Out What Hard Drive You Should Buy

If you have “buy a hard drive” on your shopping list, here is a checklist based on your needs of everything you need to know to make the right purchase.
www.backblaze.com www.backblaze.com

If SMR is used infrequently (household /archive usage) will speeds be similar if it gets the required 'down time' to re-organise itself? Seems so, meaning SMR isn't all bad, just understand your use case.

I'm waiting for this to drop back closer to R2k (pre Black Friday price was R2,199.00 IIRC): https://www.takealot.com/seagate-6tb-3-5-backup-plus-hub-desktop-external-hard-drive/PLID44311574

Amazon Review:

Update, December 2018

I've been using this for 21 months to back up my MacBook Pro hourly with Time Machine. No problems at all, still works (and sounds, thumpety thump) like it has from the start.

Original review

The Backup Plus Hub series appears to consist of SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives. We know the 8 TB version is SMR because another reviewer (Pacific coast) opened it up (voiding his warranty) and found a Seagate Archive drive, which is SMR. I asked Seagate if the 6 TB version I got is an SMR drive, and they said "Unfortunately, we do not have this information available." Ha ha! Their reticence is understandable, the more common PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) technology is generally preferred. The prices of these Backup Plus Hub drives are less than Seagate's bare PMR drives of equal capacity, which also supports the idea that the Backup Plus Hub series is SMR.

SMR technology allows more physical bits of memory in the same space without decreasing the size of the bits.

Advantages of SMR

-- Fast burst sequential writes are possible due to higher density and allied technology.
-- Larger drive capacities in same-size enclosures.
-- Cheaper to produce in large capacities.

Disadvantages of SMR

-- Slower random writes. SMR drives use large write heads relative to the width of the tracks of bits, so writing one track affects the next tracks of bits too. This limits SMR drives to sequential writing, where the next tracks don't matter. To do random writes (such as changes to data on the drive already), data must be arranged sequentially in cache, by the drive in this case, and entire sections of the drive must be rewritten sequentially. Some of this can be hidden by the use of large cache on the drive, believed to be 20 GB or more on Seagate SMR drives. Data can be written quickly to cache and then rewritten more slowly to another part of the drive.
-- Highly variable sequential write speeds, due to the particular ways the drive manages where to put data.

Read speeds aren't affected as much.

The consensus about SMR drives is that they're well suited to backup use, which is reflected in the name of this series of drives. They probably aren't as suitable to use as a main drive to run a computer from, and are generally *not* recommended for RAID configurations (which wouldn't be likely uses for a single external drive anyway).

Real-life speeds

The 6 TB version of this drive hasn't been tested by professional reviewers, but the 8 TB version has tested very well in standard benchmarks in numerous professional reviews, often well over the 160 MBs maximum rate claimed by Seagate. It's been more variable in practical use. I'm unable to test it myself with a USB 3.0 connection, but one professional reviewer who did got an average of 72 MB/s for a write of a little under 90 GB of files. That's a little over 20 minutes. (A customer review here--Pacific coast again--gets a similar 75 MB/s.)

[Update December 2018: Someone asked for speed test now that it's two years old, and since I have a USB 3.0 connection for it now, I was able to test it at full speed. For 20GB of photos from my MacBook Pro it took right about 3 minutes, or 110MB/s write speed. To copy them back took just over 2 minutes, about the rated 160MB/s read speed. I've only used 450GB of the 6TB capacity, so it's not congested yet.]

Differences between Windows and Mac versions

According to Seagate, the only differences between this Windows version and the Mac version of the Backup Plus Hub series are the initial formatting of the drives and the cosmetics of the cases. The formatting can easily be changed at home, so buy whichever drive you please for either OS.

System requirements

-- Windows 7 or later
-- Mac OS 10.7 or later
-- for Mobile Backup app: iOS 8 or higher, Android 3.0 or higher

Other points

-- Doesn't run too hot. I've seen measured temps of 100 and 113 degrees inside, which is fine for a hard drive.
-- A little noisy when operating, not any worse than most computers.
-- No fan, has passive cooling through vents on the bottom.
-- Includes USB 3 (or 2) cable, type A to micro-B.
-- 2-year warranty.
Click to expand...
SMR would be horrific for backups - the more you write, the slower it gets.

SMR
CON's -
Not good for backups.
Not good for RAID
Slow, even slower once drive fills up - common to see speeds of KB/sec on writes when the drive is more than say 30% full.
Not cheaper than CMR drives.

Pro's -
I think uses less power for reads.
Allegedly cheaper to produce, but so far the savings have NOT been passed onto consumers.
Instead drive manufacturers have been sneakily adding SMR drives into existing product lines with same model numbers, even into existing raid branded drive lines - like WD Red, when they're explicitly NOT suitable for raid.

Personally I would not use an SMR drive - its all downside and zero upside.
Issue is that under 8TB most manufacturers are SMR now. >8TB is ok still.
So, you need to look carefully at the model number and google what drive type it is. Its a complete ****up is what it is.
 
Judge-ZN said:
Hi. Any NAS storage deals? Needs to be bigger than 4Tb. Will be mainly used for movies/series. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

NAS, even at 1Gbps, is too slow. USB3.0 or 3.1 is best- that Seagate Hub linked to above can have multiple transfers to multiple drives over USB3 (main plus extras via Hub).

Unless you use something with dual GBE or even the new 10 GbE.

Does your router support USB3 external HDD?

I need to look into one that does and that can saturate that link with something like the Seagate Desktop Hub.

Might be more expensive ;)

/derail
 
Budza said:
NAS, even at 1Gbps, is too slow. USB3.0 or 3.1 is best- that Seagate Hub linked to above can have multiple transfers to multiple drives over USB3 (main plus extras via Hub).

Unless you use something with dual GBE or even the new 10 GbE.

Does your router support USB3 external HDD?

I need to look into one that does and that can saturate that link with something like the Seagate Desktop Hub.

Might be more expensive ;)

/derail
Click to expand...

The bottleneck on any home nas is going to be the disk controller or the disk(s) itself. What network is this magical usb 3.1 router of yours going to be plugged into? most likely 1Gbps. Then will the router manufacturer spend the cash on a fancy nic or cpu to shunt traffic at max network throughput for sustained periods, probably not. You don't need 10Gbps networking for a home nas.
 
OT but can you run a network over USB like you could over serial? Also is it possible to share files between PCs by just plugging in a USB cable?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X