I went with the stock drives since Backblaze tested them and suggested they performed the best. Since that time, there have been several new drives to hit the market and like you said, the 2TB drives have come down considerably. My budget was flexible as well, but since this is a mostly experimental setup, I had to cut costs where possible.

The guys over at Backblaze are fairly responsive to questions, you could always drop them a line and see if they’ve upgraded their pods with 2TB drives and see what they’re using and how they’re performing. I’d take their opinion highly since they’ve got their company on the line when it comes to hardware.

-Steve

The orders were placed today and I’m STRONGLY (but reluctantly) considering using a different brand/size of Hard Drives. The 2TB have come down in cost and my budget (since this is work related) is fairly flexible. I’m open to any suggestion (more weight given to suggestions from experience rather than theory… but all are welcome).

~Q

Very cool to have found a vendor that has the exact model Backblaze called for. When I was building my pod, this wasn’t an option for me. I tried to stick to the recipe the best I could, and obviously this helps for anybody trying to do the same. Here’s my other post on building my pod, which discusses the PSU’s:

http://www.speakingdigital.com/2009/11/27/further-along-in-the-backblaze-storage-pod-build/

What are you planning on using for an operating system?

Thanks,
Steve

I notice that Plexson is selling 2 Zippy PS with custom wiring:
http://www.plexson.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=251 ($453.90)
http://www.plexson.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=250 ($453.90)

Before committing to anything I was wondering if anyone can send me a link to the PS that worked best for them.

~Q

I had major issues with OpenSolaris booting the pod. It would either hang or get stuck in a startup loop. I haven’t had a chance to investigate much, but am planning on exploring a different OS.

-Steve