T2 - HDD Z-height

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 23:00

I;m about to add a T2 to my household (barebones via eBay auction).
I'm looking at fitting a 1TB or 2TB 2.5 inch drive.

I have noticed that there are 'slim' drives of Z-height 7 mm, plus the (apparently) common 9.5 mm, and the higher 15 mm.
I know from the forum that some folk are running the 9.5 mm height WD 1TB WD10JPVX (Blue) - so I'm thinking drives of that height will be no issue.
Fitment-wise, can anyone advise of the suitability of 'slim' drives of 7 mm (e.g. Seagate 2TB ST2000LM015) or the higher 15 mm drives (e.g. WD 2TB WD20NPVZ)

Any other advice?

Cheers
Geoff

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 23:54

It's just an open tray with side mounting holes, so the 7mm drives won't be a problem.

I haven't tried it, but there looks to be plenty of height available between the tray and the to cover to fit a 15mm in the tray. The top of the drive tray is level with the top of my 9mm drive, and there looks to be about another 7mm clearance above that to the cover.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Fri Dec 16, 2016 16:20

Thanks MrQuade.

I'm guessing there'll be a bottom gap if a 7mm-thick drive is screwed into the HDD cage. If so, will it matter that that the drive is not supported at its base, as I imagine that a 9.5mm drive would be?

The only 2TB drives I can find at PLE, MSY and Austin are the Seagate BarraCude Compute and the WD Blue.

The Seagate 2TB ST2000LM015 uses SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) technology.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10757/sea ... b-capacity
I'm guessing that's not such a big deal for a PVR which doesn't re-write its data.

The other 2TB drive I can find is the WD Blue WD20NPVZ 15mm thickness. As you say, that wouldn't leave much gap between it and the T2 cover. I'm not sure, but wouldn't that WD Blue drive be what is fitted to a pre-installed 2TB T2 from Beyonwiz? I think I remember reading that Beyonwiz were originally fitting WD Green drives - that could possibly have been the WD Green WD20NPVX 2TB which is also 15mm thickness.

Cheers
Geoff

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Fri Dec 16, 2016 16:35

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: I'm guessing there'll be a bottom gap if a 7mm-thick drive is screwed into the HDD cage. If so, will it matter that that the drive is not supported at its base, as I imagine that a 9.5mm drive would be?

A drive can remain happily suspended from the side screws like in many PC cases. The 7mm, 9.5mm and 15mm drives mounting screws are all aligned at the same distance from the bottom of the drive chassis anyway, so matter which one you use, they should all be flush with the bottom of the mounting pan.

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: The Seagate 2TB ST2000LM015 uses SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) technology.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10757/sea ... b-capacity
I'm guessing that's not such a big deal for a PVR which doesn't re-write its data.

I don't know much about that shingle technology, but the write issues don't seem to be directly related to re-writing of data. It talks about writing data onto tracks that are adjacent to tracks that already contain data. In that instance, the drive needs to re-write the data that is on the adjacent tracks (since I assume that the write head element is actually passing over three tracks at once at any time due to the track overlap).
But the relatively low data write-rate required of a T2 harddisk would more than likely not stress it at all.

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: The other 2TB drive I can find is the WD Blue WD20NPVZ 15mm thickness. As you say, that wouldn't leave much gap between it and the T2 cover. I'm not sure, but wouldn't that WD Blue drive be what is fitted to a pre-installed 2TB T2 from Beyonwiz? I think I remember reading that Beyonwiz were originally fitting WD Green drives - that could possibly have been the WD Green WD20NPVX 2TB which is also 15mm thickness.

Even if it was touching the chassis of the T2, it shouldn't matter. In fact it could even be beneficial to conduct the heat into the case like that. The vents are plentiful above the drive, so the clearance isn't a problem. I'm not sure what they ship with now, mine was a BB model.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Sat Dec 17, 2016 02:04

I would not go with a shingled drive.

As far as I know, no-one has tested the real world performance, but it has plenty of potential to go wrong when you have multiple recordings and trash cleanup (or other read-modify-write activity) kicks in.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Sat Dec 17, 2016 16:24

Thanks MrQuade and peteru.

I'll get the WD Blue 2TB (WD20NPVZ).

Cheers
Geoff

Nugs · Post by **Nugs** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:40

Geoff,

"I'll get the WD Blue 2TB (WD20NPVZ)."

Did you?

How does it go?

There are green ones on ebay for <$100 (discontinued?)

Nugs

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 17:35

Hi Nugs,

Yep I did buy it and it's been in the T2 for a year and it's fine. It's recording two streams right now and the case area above the drive is only slightly warm. With the TV off, you have to get right up close to hear it.
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=11618&p=157964#p157964
viewtopic.php?f=53&t=11635&p=157815#p157825

Toshiba have 2TB and 3TB 2.5-inch models, and Samsung had a 2TB Spinpoint that is still available - see
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=11618&start=150#p159313

MacSales USA have the 3TB Toshiba for about AUD200 inclusing express delivery
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Toshiba/MQ03ABB300/

brianh · Post by **brianh** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 09:23

Just put a 1TB WD Blue in a bare bones T2 for my parents, I ended up with a -

WD10SPZX SATA 2.5" DRIVE: 1TB BLUE SATA3 6Gb/s 5400RPM 128MB Cache 7mm

- $70 at IJK, similar specs to the WD10JPVX but thinner. There was a gap between the drive and the base of the caddy, given the floor of the caddy is cut out I can't see it making any difference.

The issue I had was that due to the length of the supplied mounting screws, the drive ended up being loose in the caddy - I didn't like the chance of it rattling due to vibration so used couple of small washers under the screw heads to allow them to secure the drive in the caddy.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:46

brianh wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 13, 2018 09:23
Just put a 1TB WD Blue in a bare bones T2 for my parents, I ended up with a -

WD10SPZX SATA 2.5" DRIVE: 1TB BLUE SATA3 6Gb/s 5400RPM 128MB Cache 7mm
...

The WD10SPZX is believed to be an SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive - viewtopic.php?f=50&t=11618&p=159830#p159830
If your folks notice drive issues further down the line, then that may be the cause.

brianh · Post by **brianh** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 14:11

Ahhh, rats.............. couldn't find any reference to SMR in the specs on the IJK or span.com website where I compared that and the WD10JPVX.

Hopefully it won't be a problem - the unit is mainly as a bedroom unit for remotely watching what's been recorded on the T4 in the main lounge - I wanted to throw a drive in quickly so my parents could back up box settings and record the odd show if needed, that one was the easiest one to get hold of in a hurry.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 15:10

Any drive with a large (>64MB) RAM cache is likely to incorporate SMR technology.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 16:25

brianh wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 13, 2018 14:11
...
Hopefully it won't be a problem - the unit is mainly as a bedroom unit for remotely watching what's been recorded on the T4 in the main lounge ...

I think that'll depend on how much time the unit spends timeshifting live TV. T2s don't have an intelligent/programmable front panel, so if they boot from deep standby for a timer then they'll stay in live TV both during recording and after, so they'll be timeshifting the whole time, You can get around that with one or two Power Timers (but they'll not fire if a menu is open),

prl · Post by **prl** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 16:39

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 13, 2018 16:25

brianh wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 13, 2018 14:11
...
Hopefully it won't be a problem - the unit is mainly as a bedroom unit for remotely watching what's been recorded on the T4 in the main lounge ...

I think that'll depend on how much time the unit spends timeshifting live TV. T2s don't have an intelligent/programmable front panel, so if they boot from deep standby for a timer then they'll stay in live TV both during recording and after, so they'll be timeshifting the whole time, You can get around that with one or two Power Timers (but they'll not fire if a menu is open),

Or use an "auto standby" timer to put the box into standby automatically when not in use. Timeshifting is disabled during standby.

Or, if it's really not being used for live TV, disable timeshifting

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 17:30

prl wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 13, 2018 16:39

Grumpy_Geoff wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 13, 2018 16:25

brianh wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 13, 2018 14:11
...
Hopefully it won't be a problem - the unit is mainly as a bedroom unit for remotely watching what's been recorded on the T4 in the main lounge ...

I think that'll depend on how much time the unit spends timeshifting live TV. T2s don't have an intelligent/programmable front panel, so if they boot from deep standby for a timer then they'll stay in live TV both during recording and after, so they'll be timeshifting the whole time, You can get around that with one or two Power Timers (but they'll not fire if a menu is open),
Or use an "auto standby" timer to put the box into standby automatically when not in use. Timeshifting is disabled during standby.

Or, if it's really not being used for live TV, disable timeshifting

Yep, 'tis what I meant with my "You can get around that with one or two Power Timers" above, but I neglected to specify the timer types (auto standby/auto deepstandby).
But as you know, they'll not always fire, and the box can still timeshift away...

Disabling timeshift is a good idea for a bedroom unit though.

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