How to Shop for SAS External Hard Drives
If you've been thinking about getting an external hard drive or require one for your business, you may be not sure which one to choose. Of course, there are SSD and HDD drives, as well as SATA and SAS. When it comes to high-speed drives that you plan to use for enterprise or other commercial uses, SAS is a top choice. There are many features and benefits associated with a high-capacity, high-speed SCSI interface.
Why Do You Need a SATA Drive?
There are a few reasons that you should consider a SATA external drive. If you're shopping for one for home use:
- Security: Having an external drive, and not on your home computer, helps you keep data safe especially for those who do not back up often.
- Efficiency: Having too much data on a computer can slow it down and an external drive gives you option for more storage, for larger files like multimedia.
If you are considering an external hard drive (or a bank of them) for enterprise or commercial use:
- These types of SAS devices are terrific for the transfer of high-speed data, such as from a tape drive to a hard drive.
- A SAS form factor requires very low energy, allowing you to run it cotinuously
- MTBF (mean time between failure) for SAS is also quite high (roughly 1.2 million hours)
What Is the Difference Between SAS and SATA?
If you've decided that you need external drives for business use, you now must make the decision between SAS and SATA drives. As you're considering, keep in mind:
- SAS have a higher speed than SATA. SAS drives have two different speeds that refer to rotations of the hard driveL 10K and 15K.
- SAS drives are considered more reliable enclosures than SATA. They are especially built for use at high speeds.
- SATA drives offer have a higher capacity offering than SAS which make them a good choice for consumer markets. SAS drives max out at a 900 GB capacity which is less than a terabyte.
- Both drives can connect with a USB interface, however the more logical way to connect them is through an enclosure form factor.
- HDD and SSD drives are also types of external hard drives but are more often used for consumer use. SATA can be a type of HDD as well.
What Are Some SAS Types and Brands?
When it comes to these types of drives, there are several common brands to choose from. As opposed to HDD or other USB type drives, you may find with SAS is you will recognize a lot more brand names (such as Dell). Choose from:
- Seagate
- Dell
- IBM
- Net App
- StarTech
Also known as SCSI but there are several types of SAS types or enclosures to choose from, like:
- 4-bay enclosure (use several at once)
- Mini-SAS
- Ones designed to fit rackmount enclosures
- Ones with USB