Not really needed as long as the drive is SMART capable and SMART is enabled.  If SMART lists a lot of reallocated sectors on a drive I'll consider replacing it because that's a very good sign that the drive is going to be dead soon.  This is in addition to relying on the raid array to mark dead/dying drives as failed.

Not really needed as long as the drive is SMART capable and SMART is enabled.  If SMART lists a lot of reallocated sectors on a drive I'll consider replacing it because that's a very good sign that the drive is going to be dead soon.  This is in addition to relying on the raid array to mark dead/dying drives as failed.

 

That's what I use as well and it's really what I meant by diagnostics. I also personally like to proactively run a burn in test on new drives using badblocks (or any program that'll systematically read/write every block on a drive), I've found that prunes out any drives that inevitably end up with an early death.

to proactively run a burn in test on new drives using badblocks

 

That's a very good idea, since in most cases if a drive is going to die it'll happen within the first month of it's use.

That's helpful, thank you both!

Thanks for the feedback guys, it has been helpful. So I finally decided on the 1512+ since it is way more than I need now by itself and when I need to expand in 2 years, I can add a 5 bay expansion unit. I'm definitely going to take my time and make sure I set everything up right. I bought a new gigabit switch that is compliant with the link aggregation capability of the NAS and will switch out all Ethernet cables to and from the switch with Cat6. Also bought a dedicated UPS for the unit. Should be plenty fast enough as my main concern is reliability and constancy of data access. Currently have 2 WD red 3Tb HDDs and have just ordered 4 more. 15 Tb should be a good start.

Oh, and the 2 HDDs came from Newegg and each drive was bubble wrapped, put in its own box and then the two boxes were packed in a larger shipping box. Looked good but I have not tested them yet. Anyone have a MAC or Windows counterpart to badblocks? Not going to mess with Linux.

Grats on the purchase and it's good to hear that Newegg shipped the hard drives well. A somewhat comparable Windows counterpart would be Barts Stuff Test which I've used before. It looks like they've discontinued the pro version so you're limited to file level , but that should generally be good enough.

Why'd you get the drives from Newegg? They appear to be cheaper at Amazon.

I bought them when they had a coupon code and they were under $150 each.

Nice!

There's no need for Cat6 as long as your existing cables are Cat5e your fine for gigabit.

Yep, but this is Head-Case after all. Seriously, I had to change the switch anyway and most of the cables were cat5 so it seemed like a good idea to just go cat6 for a little future proofing.

That's not just a little future proofing, that's h-c level future proofing

Latest shipment of drives from newegg was significantly worse in packaging:

 

 

The side that was basically resting on the box had a couple of popped bubbles, so we'll see how well these drives fare though a break-in session.

Newegg drive packaging is usually pretty bad - the only way to guarantee good packing is if you get 5 or more at a time, then usually they'll just re-use the original packing from the HD manufacturer.

This is good to know about Newegg.

Newegg drive packaging is usually pretty bad - the only way to guarantee good packing is if you get 5 or more at a time, then usually they'll just re-use the original packing from the HD manufacturer.

 

In this case I ordered 5 and they cut a section of the original packing from the HD manufacturer. Last time around they sent 5 with the full crate and box, which is perfect. This time around they didn't

How many are in the manufacturer's packaging?  6?  12?  It'd probably behoove to just get the same number.

 

That said -- good to know.  I'll get my hard drives from MicroCenter from now on.  Not that I am not hard on drives.

Full Mfg case holds 20

Latest shipment of drives from newegg was significantly worse in packaging:

 

 

The side that was basically resting on the box had a couple of popped bubbles, so we'll see how well these drives fare though a break-in session.

They must not like you . My drives were packaged about like yours but with a lot more bubble wrap and they were enclosed with paper padding on all sides. So definitely a step down from the previous packaging, but not really bad.

or just buy retail packaged drives

or just buy retail packaged drives

 

Yeah, I thought of doing that but remembered they packed it well last time...back to the retail drives I go for any future purchases!

Synology DSM 4.2 is out:

 

http://www.synology.com/support/download.php?lang=us&b=5%20bays&m=DS1512%2B

 

Release notes:

http://www.synology.com/releaseNote_enu/DS1812+.php?lang=us

I am finally ready to put one of these together.  My wifi HD is on its way out so I need to build up a replacement.  If I am looking for between 6-12TB of storage, which box would be my best investment?

I think the 1512/1513 is the sweet spot in their lineup. With 3Tb drives you get about 12 Tb of usable space.

Agreed - I've been using a 1511 for a couple years now and it's been trouble free and performs well enough to easily max out a single gigabit connection..