I want to dip my toes into a raid server, and I know the star series are supposed to be pretty good. Other than refurbed, any thoughts? I did track down this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145947 for 5 bucks more, so not a stellar deal unless yu buy a few i guess.
Refurbished by who?
Most drive specs quote an unrecoverable read error every 1014 bits. One terabyte is roughly 1013 bits. So, read a brand new 1TB drive from front to back ten times and, statistically speaking, you will take an unrecoverable read error. This is an important metric to remember when building NASes and RAID arrays.
HGST Ultrastar drives, however, quote an unrecoverable read error every 10**15 bits, which affords an extra margin of safety.
A mere 3 stars in reviews, including DOA, and also it has been available for $49.99 (according to reviewer).
Fixed that for you.