modern 24/7 NAS drvives, like the WD Red Pro or WD Red Plus, come with mechanisms to reduce vibrations. For some of the drives the manufacturer mentions a maximum number of drive bays per chassis (e.g. 8 bays for the Red Plus). Other drives like the WD Ultrastar series seem to not have the NAS software applied.
Is it possible to combine WD Red Pro, WD Red Plus, WD Ultrastar and, maybe, further Seagate drives in the same chassis without problems coming up because of vibrations between different drive models (assuming that all the drives have at least the same rotation speed)?
Will the drives influence each other which could result in problems?
What about the limit of a maximum of 8 bays for Red Plus drives?
Do you see any long-term issues that could come up or do you think that mixing different drive models will never be a problem?
I’m wondering how much of an issue it would be even with the same model drives. To my understanding most drives have firmware on the controller tuned to the specific hdd as they all generally have their own quirks.
Anecdotally most every drive I’ve had from the same model (let alone manufacturer or family) have had slight variations in read/write & their own ‘hum’. At some points I think I get too crazy with my data because I can identify a few of them based on sound alone.
Checking how different model vibration impacts drive, whether or not you should dampen the vibration, etc. is a rabbit hole. If you’re really paranoid then you might have to spend the extra money on drives that have a suggested per chassis limit that suit your needs. or move some of the drives outside of the case with a jbod (still additional money).
