Feedback on Small Form Factor Drives

[JimSLI]

I haven't purchased an HP server since they started using Small Form Factor Drives (SFF). These are the Notebook size hard drives that are in all of the new Proliant Servers.

Can anyone tell me what they think about the drives (are they as fast, are they as reliable, good experiences, bad experiences, etc.) and the RAID controllers?

Thanks in advance!

[Igor Karasik]

Hi,
We have several DL360 G5 with SFF drives (72 Gb, 15 K) and we very satisfied.
I think 3.5 " drives will go out in 2008.
And at least theoretically, SFF 10k drives works ~ same speed as 15K 3.5 " drives

P.S. Recently we start to use IBM servers as well, and I surprised what IBM still don't have 15K SFF drives.

[Marek Nelec · Accepted solution]

I've got several customers using these drives - no problem so far, not a single drive failed. I've installed first systems with 2.5" SFF HDDs some 2 years ago (IBM servers running GIS software, so the drives are pretty busy). And they are not exactly notebook sized hard drives - they are thicker. According to HP they use less power, generate less heat and vibrations, so theoretically they should be more reliable than 3.5" HDDs. RAID controllers are OK.