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Jim Garrison · Guest

I'm planning to build a replacement for my current home
workstation/server, using hardware RAID1 for reliability. I have tried
software/hardware RAID solutions such as the Adaptec 1420SA and
motherboard-based RAID, with the predictably dismal results.

I've pretty much settled on a 3Ware 9650SE-4LPML SATA-II RAID
controller. My question has to do with which drives will work in such a
configuration. I ask because of a very bad experience 2 years ago with
Western Digital drives that weren't compatible with RAID because of
error-recovery features in the firmware.

I'm looking at the Seagate 7200.10 drives but I've read about very high
noise levels, both on this forum and in reviews on several vendor sites.
How about the Barracuda ES series (ST3500630NS)? Anyone have opinions
on these drives? Anyone have another recommendation?

I don't need the performance (or extra cost) of 10K or 15K drives.