Ryan Wagoner wrote:

I used to buy Seagate drives for their 5 year warranty. However with
the capacities increasing like they are the 5 vs 3 years doesn't
really matter as much. Out of the 4 Seagate drives (2 160GB and 2
320GB) in my server that are 2.5 years old, the one is already showing
13 reallocated sectors. This might be due to non Barracuda drives
being certified for only 8 hours a day.
  

Note that Seagate makes two similar but not quite drives in many 
capacities. As example the drives ending with "AS" or "A" are desktop, 
and those ending with "NS" are for server use. Now the recent "ES" line 
shows 7x24 for the duty cycle, and 1.2M hours MTBF. I doubt you will 
have a problem with longevity.

The 500GB runs <$100, the TB ~ $210.

These are probably a good fit with your budget and reliability needs.

Anyone who has a pointer to information on the "write same" command for 
raid which Seagate mentions, or what the "SV" line of drives actually 
offer could enlighten us.

-- 
Bill Davidsen [off-list ref]
  "Woe unto the statesman who makes war without a reason that will still
  be valid when the war is over..." Otto von Bismark