Has anyone had success running third-party 3.5" SATA drives in a current Dell R570 server? I'm curious if you can actually get the drive cradles directly from Dell or if you have to source them from third-party suppliers. We're looking to install 12 large surveillance-grade drives for video storage, and cost is a major concern for us. We're already leaning towards the after-market refurbished route. Any insights would be appreciated!
3 Answers
I've had good luck with third-party drives, but the caddies can be a hassle. iDRAC might throw warnings about non-OEM drives, but those can usually be ignored. I suggest getting Dell caddies since they're available widely; just ensure they match the part number for your server.
I’d recommend looking into refurbished options, or even considering a refurbished external SAS enclosure. You could keep the OS on warranty drives and use refurb drives for video storage, setting them up in RAID with online spares. Check out Sti kc dot com; they have great setups for this sort of thing.
Be careful when using non-OEM drives, as some servers ramp up power and fans to maximum if unsupported hardware is detected. I'm not sure if that's the case for Dell servers, but it's worth keeping in mind!
Yeah, the caddy issue is a classic! OEMs don’t exactly make it easy to buy those separately.