Can I mix 7200rpm with 5400rpm disks in one Raid5 array?

Currently have two 3TB 5940rpm disks (Toshiba E300) in a mirrored array, but looking increase capcacity by buying some more disks and moving to Raid5.

Would it be ok to use two additional 3TB 7200rpm disks or is it better to get two more 3TB 5940rpm disks? Both disks have a 64MB buffer.

Thank you.

Hi @John, you can do that, but your raid will have performance limited to the lowest disk speed. When building raid usually it’s a good recommendation to have same speed disks.
You could add faster disks now and change slower disks in the future

Flyer/Mirko

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Hello Mirko - thank you for your reply.
The slower 5490rpm disks are considered more suitable for a small NAS so I went with them initially, I can purchase two more identical disks from the same manufacturer, but was considering their 7200rpm (Toshiba P300) disks as they have been reduced in price and are less than the 5490rpm (Toshiba E300) ones. Guess I’ll keep to the E300s for now.

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