Help with SAS understanding

[Newtofreenas]

First I have
AsRock Rack EP2C602-2L+/D16 SSI EEB Server Motherboard
Rosewill RSV-L4500
6x 6TB drives. (3 seagates, 3 WD Red)

My question is, looks like my HD is bad (one of the seagates), I need to replace a 6TB drive

I am looking at
Seagate IronWolf 6TB NAS Hard Drive 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s which is on sale from adorama for 152
this is the simple option as the HD I am taking out is a SATA drive and I know how to use SATA.

I see Newegg has Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5'' HDD 6TB 7200 RPM 512e SAS 12Gb/s 256MB ST6000NM0285 for 135.
Now this would be faster and looks to be a better overall drive. Probably a good thing to do as the HHDs fail to upgrade speed and life expectancy.
(There is also a Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V.5 ST6000NM0095 6TB, maybe a newer model? still cheaper than the IronWolf at 150)


Question is HOW.
I have 2 sff-8087 ports on the motherboard that have sata breakout cables attached. so I have 4 sata ports per sff-8087. I have 3 drives hooked up to each 8087 port. If I understand correctly I need to buy a Mini SAS to SAS Cable (SFF-8087 to SFF-8482) and now I have 4 SAS ports per 8087? Which means I move 1 drive to the open SATA port on 8087 port 1 and replace 2 sata drives with the new SAS drive and hook them up to the 8087 port 2?

Is this correct? is this the best way? should I just go sata and be done? will there be a problem with data loss if I move 1 drive to a different sata port AND replace the bad HD with a new one? Is there anything special I need to know about a SAS 512e drives, maybe extra drivers or something?

Yes i understand that this method requires me to buy 2 HDs and a cable which will cost more than 1 sata drive. but I think cost aside this is the better idea. MAYBE?
Please please part some wisdom on me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

I see Newegg has Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5'' HDD 6TB 7200 RPM 512e SAS 12Gb/s 256MB ST6000NM0285 for 135.
Now this would be faster and looks to be a better overall drive. Probably a good thing to do as the HHDs fail to upgrade speed and life expectancy.
(There is also a Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V.5 ST6000NM0095 6TB, maybe a newer model? still cheaper than the IronWolf at 150)

Generally I opt for 5400 or 5900 rpm drives because they have lower operating temperatures. I think the most important thing is that you opt for a drive which is not SMR.

I see Newegg has Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5'' HDD 6TB 7200 RPM 512e SAS 12Gb/s 256MB ST6000NM0285 for 135.
Now this would be faster and looks to be a better overall drive. Probably a good thing to do as the HHDs fail to upgrade speed and life expectancy.

That drive will not really be faster. From Seagate, its max published bandwidth is 226MB/s. The SAS drive you listed lists as 210MB/s. I think you can simplify your setup significantly by sticking with SATA. The 12Gbps describes the SAS protocol in use which is a bit misleading. Yes, its theoretical max bandwidth per lane is 12Gbps; but many devices which use this protocol will not reach this speed.

 

[Newtofreenas]

Generally I opt for 5400 or 5900 rpm drives because they have lower operating temperatures. I think the most important thing is that you opt for a drive which is not SMR.


That drive will not really be faster. From Seagate, its max published bandwidth is 226MB/s. The SAS drive you listed lists as 210MB/s. I think you can simplify your setup significantly by sticking with SATA. The 12Gbps describes the SAS protocol in use which is a bit misleading. Yes, its theoretical max bandwidth per lane is 12Gbps; but many devices which use this protocol will not reach this speed.

You are my new favorite person. Thanks for helping 2 days in a row!