Yottamaster PS500RC3 5-bay HDD enclosure, or why sellers hide the real specs of HDD enclosures
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2024
- There is confusion on the market, as slow USB 3.0 models are sold along with models featuring the faster USB 3.1, 3.2 and 4 speeds.
Another point of confusion is the RAID availability.
I found this model, that features both: fast USB 3.1 speed and a hardware RAID. Even Yottamaster isn't trying hard to clarify the difference between their models, so I decided to share my findings.
www.amazon.com/dp/B07WRBJ3N4
This is my new set up! I got a Hp elite desk 800 G3 with 1 TB SSD, I installed a 2.5GPBS Ethernet m.2 and I run Proxmox with Samba. I then bought the Yottamaster 5 Bay and have 44 TB connected as ext4 HDDs!
It's a beast set up for less than $400 bucks. I run so many containers on my Proxmox VM that just write to the external HDDs
I bought two enterprises used 14TB HDDs from eBay for $90 and one 16TB that I already had (this one was more expensive but 3 year old).
The HP was $140 I think and the 2.5 gbps m.2 was $20 on Alibaba.
Yottamaster 5bay used with NO raid was $85 on eBay.
EliteDesk G3+ is a hell of a machine.
What you said about USB Type-C model being faster is not correct. It really does not matter if you get a model with Type-A/B or Type-C connector, because both uses exactly the same USB interface and have the same max speed. Note also that USB 3.0, USB 3.1 and USB 3.2 refer to the same interface and the biggest difference is that with each newer version there comes more complexity in what those standards support. At base level all of those standards guarantee just 5 Gbps speeds and connector will not make any difference.
For you to have a quicker model you would have to get a unit with USB 3.1 Gen 2 or USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 or USB 3.2 Gen 1x2, which would allow max 10 Gbps connection. Note also that USB 3.1 Gen 2 allows 10 Gbps on both USB-C and USB-A connectors, so again, just choosing the USB Type-C connector will not guarantee you any advantage in performance.
Finally, even if you got the model with 10 Gbps connection, your PC must also support it. If you have only 5 Gbps USB ports on your PC, then you will still be able to only get up to 5 Gbps speeds.
A good video which explains the differences of USB standards: ruclips.net/video/FnCoALB1dcU/видео.html
Based on the Amazon link you provided, your unit uses the 5 Gbps connection which is the same as models with USB Type-A/B connectors and it looks like they do no have this model with USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection. For that you would have to get the Yottamaster FS5C3 model
I'm glad you left this comment. The video shows (7:24) a sheet where the company explicitly says that models with USB-A are support up to USB-3.0 while models with USB-C are on the faster USB 3.1+ standard.
@@Orlin_does_stuff The USB-C connector is part of USB 3.1 specification, but the speed is the same as for USB 3.0. Your unit complies with USB 3.1 Gen 1 specification which is essentially the same as USB 3.0 except that it has a USB-C connector instead of USB-A connector.
For performance to be better it must comply to USB 3.1 Gen 2 standard and you do not have it in your unit.
So essentially you could just buy a USB 3.0 version and use USB-A to USB-C converter on the cable and then practically you would have exactly the same unit.
You can also see that the prices for USB-A vs. USB-C versions are practically the same and if the USB-C unit was better in any way than just a connector, then you would have to pay much higher price premium for that version.
I wouldn't trust some random raid controller in a random enclosure! I would configure it as JBOD and use software for raid. I recommend btrfs, mdadm or even zfs over hardware raid. If the controller dies, you can use every other enclosure.
Windows allows you to use software raid. But who cares about windows, I don't. I know that it works but haven't used it. Also the speed isn't questionable, unless you have some ancient CPU - but then, a random raid controller without a lot of battery backed RAM connected via USB is probably also questionable.
This is a valid point. The RAID controller is JMicron (unknown model), so it's an OK controller. And it adds about $30 to the price. I'd say it's somewhere in the middle between 'Buy it' and 'Don't buy it' :)
My comment wasn't about the cost. It was about the pain and suffering caused by proprietary raid controllers.
My general advise is to not use hardware-raid at all, just use what the operating system offers. Use the money saved on hardware-raid to get more RAM and maybe a CPU with a few cores more (ram is more important).
Linux natively has mdraid and lvm2 that operate on the block-level and btrfs that operates on filesystem-extents. Windows also has software-raid and a volume manager that works on the block-level (don't know the details). FreeBSD and Linux (with patches because of the CDDL, free but intentionally incompatible with the GPL) support ZFS, which is comparable to btrfs but with more/other features. This makes it much easier to replace hardware or repair it if something breaks.
A few examples of the mentioned pain and suffering caused by proprietary raid controllers: No compatibility between vendors and even models. Broken tools with horrible user-interfaces like megacli/storecli and so on. Broken firmware, raid controllers may crash if queried by an old version of the management software.
@@zvpunry1971 3 months later, I can share an update: the RAID array did not cause a single issue.
Speed test ?