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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-323 => Topic started by: Lee.K on September 13, 2010, 12:00:27 PM

Title: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Lee.K on September 13, 2010, 12:00:27 PM
Has anyone actually used the above drive in the DNS-323? I'd like to use two of these for RAID1 but the specs show '4K Sector with Emulation'.

I know the WD 4K sector drives supposedly aren't compatible with the DNS-323 but does the emulation make the Samsung F4 ok to use?

I need to replace failing 500 GB drives pretty quickly.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on September 13, 2010, 02:17:59 PM
No, but I'm using a Samsung 2TB HD203WI with no problems. Admitedly, not in RAID.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Lee.K on September 13, 2010, 02:23:59 PM
Thanks, I know there's no problem with the Spinpoint F3 series drives but they don't use the 4K sectoring. I might have to go for the older F3s instead of the brand new F4s.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on September 14, 2010, 08:01:39 AM
I could be wrong, but I doubt you'll notice any difference - apart from price :)
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: KK on September 14, 2010, 08:47:33 AM
I have just bought a DNS-323 and two pieces of HD154UI.  They work fine in RAID1.  Don't know how relevant this is to your situation.  Hope it helps.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Lee.K on September 14, 2010, 08:48:46 AM
It seems no one's really done any speed testing, but I found some info on another forum which theorized that misaligned blocks shouldn't affect the read speed in most cases (I'm dealing mostly with large video files anyway), but the write speed may be slower.

I didn't want to take a chance, so just ordered 2 of the previous generation Samsung HD203WI 2TB drives. Newegg is sold out of these but Provantage has them (at a good price).
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Lee.K on September 14, 2010, 08:51:02 AM
Thanks, but again this isn't the F4 series which is the only one with the new 4K sectoring.

I have just bought a DNS-323 and two pieces of HD154UI.  They work fine in RAID1.  Don't know how relevant this is to your situation.  Hope it helps.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on September 15, 2010, 02:20:29 AM
Thanks, but again this isn't the F4 series which is the only one with the new 4K sectoring.

Why would you want a potentially incompatible, more expensive drive?  :-\
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on September 15, 2010, 05:09:15 AM
Why would you want a potentially incompatible, more expensive drive?  :-\
Especially since installing faster drives in this box is pointless, it's limited by the processor speed anyway.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Lee.K on September 15, 2010, 08:53:55 AM
Why would you want a potentially incompatible, more expensive drive?  :-\

Less power, lower heat. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to risk buying incompatible drives so as I posted previously in this thread, I bought two of the F3 series drives (HD203WI). As for as more expensive though, the new F4 series is less expensive, not more. They're $99. each with the current promo code (expires today) from Newegg. I paid about $15 more each for the F3 drives at the best deal I could find.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Cokeisit on September 29, 2010, 01:06:34 PM
Has anyone tested this drive in a DNS-323 yet?

I need a new drive and the Samsung EcoGreen F4EG 2TB is the only 2TB from Samsung that I can get hold of, it looks like it's replacing the F3 2TB.

Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Lee.K on September 29, 2010, 02:33:08 PM
Has anyone tested this drive in a DNS-323 yet?

I need a new drive and the Samsung EcoGreen F4EG 2TB is the only 2TB from Samsung that I can get hold of, it looks like it's replacing the F3 2TB.



Don't know if anyone's tried the F4 in any NAS yet, but you can still get the F3. I know most places don't seem to have them anymore, but they're still shown as in-stock at the place where I purchased mine...
http://www.provantage.com/samsung-hd203wi~7SAMA05L.htm

I'm running two as RAID1 and everything's working fine as expected.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Cokeisit on September 29, 2010, 11:47:58 PM
Don't know if anyone's tried the F4 in any NAS yet, but you can still get the F3. I know most places don't seem to have them anymore, but they're still shown as in-stock at the place where I purchased mine...
http://www.provantage.com/samsung-hd203wi~7SAMA05L.htm

I'm running two as RAID1 and everything's working fine as expected.


In Sweden the F3 is sold out almost everywhere (and those few that still have them in stock have them at a high price). The F4 started arriving in stores 2 days ago and almost all stores are replacing the F3 with the F4.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on September 30, 2010, 01:31:04 AM
Plenty in the UK

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products)
http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-1tb-spinpoint-f3-7200rpm-sata-3gb-s-32mb-65QC.html (http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-1tb-spinpoint-f3-7200rpm-sata-3gb-s-32mb-65QC.html)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001U3S5S0/ref=asc_df_B001U3S5S0978191?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B001U3S5S0 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001U3S5S0/ref=asc_df_B001U3S5S0978191?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B001U3S5S0)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=1072299&source=froogle (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=1072299&source=froogle)

And more...

All around £45
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Cokeisit on September 30, 2010, 02:15:32 PM
I ordered the F4, I will have it tomorrow :)

I'll let you all know if it works in the DNS-323.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Cokeisit on October 02, 2010, 08:25:51 AM
I have installed my new F4 2TB in my DNS-323 and it works like a charm :)

No problem at all, it just works :)
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: delphigreg on October 02, 2010, 02:09:38 PM
I just set this up today.  While it works fine out of the box, I am seeing large transfers at only 8.5MB/sec on a hardwired gigabyte network.  Time to start reading up on the 4k sector formatting procedures or RMA the drives for something else.  ???
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on October 02, 2010, 03:45:58 PM
I think the general opinion here is that the performance bottleneck is the 323 rather than any drive you put in it.

That said, Windows reported I was getting around ~10MB/s on 100Mbps network connection.

Perhaps it's the jumbo frames setting?
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Cokeisit on October 03, 2010, 02:54:04 AM
I did some speed testing.

My really old 250GB Hitachi transferred a file at 19.5-20 MB/s and the F4 was a little bit slower, 19 MB/s. My other Samsung F1 500GB transferred a file at 19.5 MB/s.

This was on a gigabit wired network. The F4 uses EXT3 and the other 2 uses EXT2 (EXT3 should be a little slower).

The conclusion is that the speed was almost the same for all three drives.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: delphigreg on October 03, 2010, 11:20:11 AM
@Cokeisit, those are about the same benches I've seen elsewhere.  While not spectacular, I should be seeing between 16-20MB/sec for file transfers.

My assumptions is the drives need to be realigned.  Problem is, all of the 4k sector format guides do not include instructions for RAID1. 

Help!
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on October 03, 2010, 03:02:21 PM
I don't know why the fuss about 4K sector drives. The OP specifically wanted it. It's not supported and from what I can make out, is just a pain.

F3s are fine... But I did already say that ::)
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Rocky03 on October 20, 2010, 07:46:44 AM
Can anyone else confirm that the Samsung F4 HD204UI 2TB works in RAID1 on the DNS323?  It appears that everyone is going the 4K 2TB drives and the older drives are harder to get.  Does it work out of the box or do you have to do the 4k alignment thingy?

I'm currently using two Samsung F1 HD103UJ in raid1 but is almost full.  Looking to double the capacity with the two F4s.

Anyone else try the F4s in RAID1 on the DNS323?
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Lee.K on October 20, 2010, 12:04:23 PM
I don't know why the fuss about 4K sector drives. The OP specifically wanted it. It's not supported and from what I can make out, is just a pain.

F3s are fine... But I did already say that ::)

As the OP, I'd suggest to go back to the post and re-read it. I did not want 4K sectors at all. I just had access at a good price to drives that used them and was questioning whether they would work.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on October 20, 2010, 02:21:11 PM
They're not supported.

First post in forum
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=12977.0 (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=12977.0)
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Rocky03 on October 21, 2010, 08:21:34 AM
They're not supported.

First post in forum
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=12977.0 (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=12977.0)

I did read the first post in the forum and did a search as well.  It doesn't mention anywhere regarding the Samsung F4s regarding their 4K sector with emulation.

Are you speaking from experience or from the WD 4K thread?
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on October 21, 2010, 08:30:46 AM
Well, there were general comments in that thread about the 4K sector drives in general, so I'd be somewhat cautious if you're buying. 

FWIW, I just ordered a pair of these Seagate ST32000542AS drives, they're conventional 512 byte sectors and should be more than fast enough for any NAS use.  They're also low power drives, and Newegg has them for $89 if you're a mailing list customer.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Rocky03 on October 21, 2010, 08:37:54 AM
As the OP, I'd suggest to go back to the post and re-read it. I did not want 4K sectors at all. I just had access at a good price to drives that used them and was questioning whether they would work.

I did read it and thanks for you input.  My question still sits.

In this thread:
Lee.K (yourself) says that no one has done any testing and you are using the F3
Cokeisit is using the 2TB 4k drive but don't know if it's RAID1 but indicates is fine
delphigreg is using the 2TB 4k drive and reports 8.5MB/sec transfer

My question WAS:  Can anyone ELSE confirm?
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Rocky03 on October 21, 2010, 08:45:24 AM
Well, there were general comments in that thread about the 4K sector drives in general, so I'd be somewhat cautious if you're buying. 

FWIW, I just ordered a pair of these Seagate ST32000542AS drives, they're conventional 512 byte sectors and should be more than fast enough for any NAS use.  They're also low power drives, and Newegg has them for $89 if you're a mailing list customer.

Thanks for your input.  I've had bad experience with Seagate drives.  I used to have 4 1TB seagate drives on my system and ALL of them click.  I ended up swapping them out for 4 1TB Samsungs and never looked back so I would rather find the Samsung F3s before anything else but they are hard to locate for a good price.  But if the 4k issues are that much of a hassle, I might have no other option and go with the Seagates.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on October 21, 2010, 09:38:03 AM
To rule out an entire manufacturer is a bit silly. There's no such thing as a hard drive manufacturer that doesn't have its share of bad drives and experiences.

There are plenty of other manufacturers and drives to choose from that aren't 4K anyway.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on October 21, 2010, 09:43:15 AM
I did read it and thanks for you input.  My question still sits.

He was replying to me ;)
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: tfiveash on October 21, 2010, 08:38:11 PM
How about Hitachi drives.  They are not 4k sectors and seem to be rated high for raid applications.  They run a few more dollars than Seagate but I am seeing some bad reports on Seagate.  I have not seen any bad things on Hitachi.

Terry
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on October 22, 2010, 05:30:45 AM
Here's a bad report on Hitachi, I have two 1TB drives, and one had always had just enough issues that I can't trust it.  However, I ran the full diagnostics on it and it passed, so Hitachi doesn't want to exchange it under warranty. :(

I've had drives from every major manufacturer fail, there are occasionally bad models, but one maker doesn't make all bad drives, just as one manufacturer doesn't make all good drives. 

This is perhaps the best treatment of the topic I've seen: 

Which is the most reliable brand . . .
of hard disk drive?

http://www.data-master.com/hard-drives-BestMake.html (http://www.data-master.com/hard-drives-BestMake.html)
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: vishnumrao on October 22, 2010, 06:25:15 PM
I have 5 Hitachi drives (a 2TB external, 2 each of 1 TB & 500GB internal). None of them have failed on me since using for 3-4 years. The 1 TB drives run a little hot as they were the 1st gen 1TB drives, with 5 platters. I agree with the above post. Every manufacturer has bad products once in a while.

IMO, irrespective of manufacturer what matters most when considering drives for a NAS are the number of platters, spindle speed i.e. RPM, price, power consumption and acoustics. Number of platters is a double edged sword. One one hand it decreases power consumption as the motor has to move less mass. The downside is that data is packed so densely into the disks that the servo control of the drives has a hard time reading and writing data.  Lowere RPM is a big plus. It reduces heat and is more silent.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: tfiveash on October 22, 2010, 09:56:24 PM
Here's a bad report on Hitachi, I have two 1TB drives, and one had always had just enough issues that I can't trust it.  However, I ran the full diagnostics on it and it passed, so Hitachi doesn't want to exchange it under warranty. :(

I've had drives from every major manufacturer fail, there are occasionally bad models, but one maker doesn't make all bad drives, just as one manufacturer doesn't make all good drives. 

This is perhaps the best treatment of the topic I've seen: 

Which is the most reliable brand . . .
of hard disk drive?

http://www.data-master.com/hard-drives-BestMake.html (http://www.data-master.com/hard-drives-BestMake.html)



Dang I started with one of those blue CDC drives.  It only weighed about 100 pounds and took two guys to lift.  But we thought that we in tall cotton.  Then Seagate came out with the ST412 which was a 51/4" full height drive and was a whole 10meg and weighed about 15 pounds.  We thought that we had died and gone to heaven. Boy have times changed.

Terry
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on October 23, 2010, 06:59:02 AM
Times have certainly changed.  The first hard disk I actually owned was an 8" 20mb fixed drive, a Micropolis model.  I had to build my own controller for it to connect it to my S-100 Z-80 system.  If you told me I could buy a 2TB drive in the future for $89, I have told you that you were crazy! :D  I paid $500 for that 20mb drive, and I thought I got a bargain.  Think back to 1977 and think what $500 was actually worth in today's dollars!  What cost $500 in 1977 would cost $1749.77 in 2009.  How would you like to pay that for a 20mb drive. ;)
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: jamieburchell on October 23, 2010, 12:00:14 PM
I remember buying a 1MB upgrade card for my Amiga 500+ and that was expensive. Took the total memory to 2MB! My microwave probably has more than that :)
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on October 23, 2010, 02:48:10 PM
Yep, I was so proud of my Z-80, it had the "full" 64kb of memory, all that it could address! :D
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: tfiveash on October 23, 2010, 11:07:35 PM
I remember in the Radio Shack TRS-80 days buying 16K worth of memory for $350.00 through the computer club and that was a bargain.

GRJ: I did the math you would had to purchase 100000 of those Micropolis units to equal that 2tb drive.  I paid $350.00 for a seagate st-250 which was a 51/4" half height 40meg.  I also have a brand new 51/4" 1GIG full height SCSI hard drive that my company paid over $1,000.00 for in early eightys. These kids now a days have no clue where we came from and what we had to work with. My first color montior was green letters on a black black.  LOL

Terry
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on October 24, 2010, 07:15:42 AM
I only recently tossed my ADM3 terminal and the Heathkit Z-19 terminal that I used for many years.  ;D  I finally decided that I probably wouldn't have a use for them again.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: garyhgaryh on November 23, 2010, 11:21:18 PM
I remember in the Radio Shack TRS-80 days buying 16K worth of memory for $350.00 through the computer club and that was a bargain.

GRJ: I did the math you would had to purchase 100000 of those Micropolis units to equal that 2tb drive.  I paid $350.00 for a seagate st-250 which was a 51/4" half height 40meg.  I also have a brand new 51/4" 1GIG full height SCSI hard drive that my company paid over $1,000.00 for in early eightys. These kids now a days have no clue where we came from and what we had to work with. My first color montior was green letters on a black black.  LOL

Terry

Terry, we came from the same era! How old are you? I'm 42.

I bought a 300 baud Lynx modem for my Trs80 model 1 for $300.
I still have a seagate st-225 in the plastic bag never used.
The 5Meg Tandy HD was $1999.  That was alot of space then.
Just the other day I was calculating how may st-225 (20 meg)
would equal 2T.

Gary
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Sarvesh on March 29, 2011, 06:55:02 AM
so will the SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB work on DNS 323? As where i live only that 2TB hard disk is available.
I also read about applying some flash to make it work : http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2583829&page=6
any idea?
thanks.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: dcx_badass on March 29, 2011, 09:33:11 AM
so will the SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB work on DNS 323? As where i live only that 2TB hard disk is available.
I also read about applying some flash to make it work : http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2583829&page=6
any idea?
thanks.
I had two in mine with no problems used beta 1.10 to format them properly though.
Title: Re: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB
Post by: Sarvesh on March 29, 2011, 08:22:34 PM
The beta 1.10 is the firmware upgrade? My DNS 323 will arrive shortly thus am preparing for it and get the hard disk too afterwards.Hope everything works as planned.
thanks  :)