Mixing Seagate IronWolf drives in a RAID5

[Enquiries]

I own a QNAP 4 bay NAS TS-431-P2 with 3 Seagate Ironwolf drives (IronWolf ST4000VN008) in a RAID5 configuration. Now I want to add the 4th drive. I have seen a Seagate IronWolf ST4000VN006 that is currently cheaper then the Seagate IronWolf ST4000VN008 drive. Should I stick to the type of drive that is already installed or can I mix the existing drives with the cheaper IronWolf ST4000VN006. As far as I know the differences between the two drives are only in cache size and RPM.

[ed]

Certainly! Yes, you can mix the Seagate IronWolf drives in your RAID5 setup. While there is a slight difference in speed, with the IronWolf ST4000VN006 having 202MB/s compared to the IronWolf ST4000VN008's 180MB/s, the variation might not be noticeable when using a 1GbE LAN connection in a RAID configuration. If speed and IOPS are critical for your use case, then sticking with the original drives might be preferable. However, if you're looking for cost-effectiveness and don't require the maximum speed, the cheaper IronWolf ST4000VN006 can be a suitable addition. For more detailed specifications, you can check the datasheet here: https://www.seagate.com/files/www-conten...-en_US.pdf