Subscriber Discussion

Add Storage To An Exacq A Series NVRS Myself, Save Money?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Feb 10, 2016

$700.00 question here, I have an A series 2U NVR with (2) 3 TB Drives, and I would like to add an additional drive. Looking at Exacq Vision, their costs for an additional SATA drive are through the roof.

PN# - 5000-36001 - 6TB Spare/replacement hard drive for all LC, ELP and non-RAID A-series = $1,057.00

From Western Digital, I can get a similar 6TB Sata drive for ~$300.00.

WD_Purple_NV

The $700.00 question is will it work instead of buying the super marked up version from exacq. Or has exacq caught up with Dell and HP and only allows hard drives with their "firmware" to work in their systems.

The Tech guy in me says should work, the frugal part of me says do it, but the voice in the back of my head says there is a reason they are charging that much, and I would like to know why.

Thanks all

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Ryan Hulse
Feb 10, 2016

Hi Undisclosed 1, exacqVision Product Manager here.

Tech Support won't be able to assist you upgrading the machine if you are acquiring your own drives, but we don't do anything specific to lock down the hardware to prevent you from adding your own drives.

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U
Undisclosed #2
Feb 10, 2016

I'm inside sales support for an Exacq rep firm. I often get this question.

That 2U chassis is pretty tight in the "A" series units but it should have three bays and can hold that 6TB drive, # 5000-36001. I generally am advised that the Exacq drives are "enterprise-level" drives optimized for 7/24/365 usage and have been tested for use with Exacq NVRs. Sometimes external storage is preferred especially if technical resources are not available due to the possibility of losing video that has been recorded during the installation of the additional drive.

There is no reason the WD drive should not work but then the question that looms is what if you have problems after you install that drive and call Exacq for tech support. Like most technology, the first thing that will be addressed is the "foreign" drive having been added as the reason for any future problem.

$700.00 is a big delta for that peace of mine but I think it is the reason for the difference in price aside from perhaps the "enterprise" description of the Exacq drives and their known and tested compatibility with Exacq NVRs.

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U
Undisclosed #3
Feb 10, 2016
IPVMU Certified

The first thing that will be addressed is the "foreign" drive having been added as the reason for any future problem.

It sounds to me like the OP isn't tied to the "foreign" WD drive per se, he was just pricing what he considered a comparable drive.

Is there a drive that he could buy that wouldn't be considered foreign?

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Luis Carmona
Feb 10, 2016
Geutebruck USA • IPVMU Certified

Anything that comes with warranty and support has a cost associated. That is what you are buying when you buy the hardware.

But no reason it should not work, especially if it is Windows. You just have to assume that issues that could be related to the drive are you're own to deal with.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #4
Feb 10, 2016

The Bottom Line is why would you expect exacq to take responsibility for something you do the a unit and then warranty or support it. Most dont support once you break into it.

Exacq has supported my company over the years and given great advice to install my own drives with great success. If exacq sell s it they stand behind it , same expectation of the others . But i have had off market brands and they barely lasted the year or just off warranty failure.

Purchasing direct from manufacturer is great as long as you replace all equally to spec's.

Exacq should be given a hand for support ,as some others don't support if you touch or break the label . in fact the Dell , hp refused support without payment 1st when out of warranty.

Good Luck

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Ryan Hulse
Feb 10, 2016

I should mention that the A-Series has WD Purple HDDs and that is what the original poster mentioned he is comparison shopping.

I definitely do not recommend adding any other type of drive that is only "comparable". As our Inside Sales Support pointed out, a foreign brand/model of HDD would be a cause for Technical Support to disengage if the root cause pointed to the storage at all.

If the HDD is "original equipment manufacturer" that you sourced yourself, it's not going to be a point of contention with Support.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Feb 10, 2016

Thanks Ryan, you have been very helpful with your responses. I appreciate it.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #5
Feb 13, 2016

We upgrade almost every machine we've installed with additional drives. Over the years it has saved us countless thousands compared to what they want for storage. For the A series if you need more storage just remove the CD drive since you won't need it anyways. There is nothing special about the drives you get from them other than paying 3X the price. We use WD RE drives but if you want to go 6TB then that isn't an option. No experience with the purples yet.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Feb 15, 2016

What are you guys doing about the hole in the front? I thought the A series had 3 HD Slots and 1 DVD Slot? Where are you mounting the Hard drives at then? Forgive me its been a long time since I popped one of those thins open.

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Jon Dillabaugh
Feb 14, 2016
Pro Focus LLC

We have no issues adding our own drives to the Dell servers we buy? We buy the barebones R520/530 and buy the caddies and drives separate. We also have to buy some specialty cables to connect everything, but we save thousands per server.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #6
Feb 21, 2016

Absolutely no issue with any of the multiple (100+?) hard drives we have installed in Exacq A series units, both desktop and 2U chassis. But we have exclusively used Western Digital, the same brand Exacq has been using for years. We have used mostly the RE Enterprise line. Some Black occasionally. I had a bad experience with the initial Purple drives and steered clear of those for any systems with more than 8-10 cameras on them. But the new Purple "N" line seems to be geared for a bit higher camera counts. So the one you linked would be something I would use and in fact have ordered just last week for a system.

We have swapped drives that had failed that were beyond Exacq warranty, added drives to allow for increased retention when customer expands their camera count and as a preventative measure when drives reach parameters that exceed our customers tolerance for usage.

Like others said, you can't call Exacq tech support and say I have a bad hard drive when you do it yourself. You take responsibility for the cost associated with processing the warranty work yourself. You also have to be cognizant of the additional heat when you add a drive to replace the DVD drive. You can buy drive chassis like the Kingwin Single Bay 3.5-Inch Internal SATA Trayless Hot Swap Rack with Key Lock (KF-1000-BK) to use to swap the DVD drive out with. If you don't you will need a 3.5" to 5.25" Bay Hard Disk Drive HDD Mounting Bracket Adapter.

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