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DL360 G4p SAS - Can i use regular 2.5" SATA drives?

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Kasper Hansen [8270]

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Oct 7, 2009, 2:55:07 PM10/7/09
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I bought myself a cheap DL360 G4p server on eBay. It's a Dual Core
model which means it comes with a SAS controller.
I know that SAS controllers are compatible with SATA drives, and that
the quickspecs for the server indeed states this. However I'm a bit
worried that the quickspecs say that maximum capacity is 240 GB using
SATA (4 x 60 GB), since my logic tells me that I could plug in 4 x 320
GB WD Caviar black for example.

Is this just because the QuickSpecs are outdated? Or is there some
sort of difference between HP SFF SATA drives and regular 2.5" SATA
2.0 drives?

I know that this is not recommended by HP, but I'm looking to see what
is practically possible - not what's endorsed by HP.

Best regards,

Kasper Hansen

Benjamin Gawert

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Oct 8, 2009, 1:19:04 AM10/8/09
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* Kasper Hansen [8270]:

> I bought myself a cheap DL360 G4p server on eBay. It's a Dual Core
> model which means it comes with a SAS controller.
> I know that SAS controllers are compatible with SATA drives, and that
> the quickspecs for the server indeed states this. However I'm a bit
> worried that the quickspecs say that maximum capacity is 240 GB using
> SATA (4 x 60 GB), since my logic tells me that I could plug in 4 x 320
> GB WD Caviar black for example.

The quickspec says that because at that time it was the maximum capacity
obtainable with the SATA hard drives HP sold.

> Is this just because the QuickSpecs are outdated?

They are not outdated. They just list what was supported by HP for this
specific model.

> Or is there some
> sort of difference between HP SFF SATA drives and regular 2.5" SATA
> 2.0 drives?

Other than the firmware, no. HP SATA drives for ProLiants usually are
Seagate ES series or similar server-class SATA hard drives. However, you
can use generic SATA hard drives just fine. BTDT many many times.

> I know that this is not recommended by HP, but I'm looking to see what
> is practically possible - not what's endorsed by HP.

I have a ProLiant ML350 G5 which is my Windows Home Server. For a long
time I used generic Seagate 750GB SATA hard drives, now they have been
replaced by cheap Seagate Barracuda LP 1.5TB drives.

However, stay away from WDC drives. For some reason some of the newer
drives (like the WD20EADS 2TB drive) cause sporadic errors which
degrades your RAID array. Iwould recommend to go with Seagate.

Also, before you move to non-HP drives, do an upgrade of server and
controller BIOS to the latest version.

Benjamin

Kasper Hansen

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Oct 8, 2009, 2:42:41 AM10/8/09
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> Benjamin

Thanks Benjamin, you confirmed all my suspicions. I'll have a look at what
drive options i have. I wanted to go with WD both because of previous good
experiences (although not on HP servers) and because I can adjust the TLER
of the drives.

Best regards,

Kasper Hansen


Benjamin Gawert

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Oct 8, 2009, 12:07:04 PM10/8/09
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* Kasper Hansen:

>> Benjamin
>
> Thanks Benjamin, you confirmed all my suspicions. I'll have a look at what
> drive options i have. I wanted to go with WD both because of previous good
> experiences (although not on HP servers) and because I can adjust the TLER
> of the drives.

You could try the WDC RE series which may work better than the Caviar
models, however I would recommend to buy where you can return the drives
in case it doesn't work.

Benjamin

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