NVME cache drive recommendations


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The main factors will be your use case. I use my server for Plex and for my lightroom catalog. The biggest bottleneck isn't my NVME Cache speed (I have 2 Intel 660p 500gb Crucial P3 Plus 1TB (Gen 4) in a RAID 1 cache), instead, the biggest bottleneck is my network card being 1gbit (125 mbyte/s). Even then, my upload speed is a measly 20mbit/s. Realistically, I won't really fully saturate my NVME read/write speads. 

Edited by Shu
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What temp does it overheat at? I was having issues with overheating too and I decided to add these to my rig: NVME Heatsink & 120mm Panteks T30 Fans; since adding them, I rarely get overheating issues (at 41ºC+). 

 

As to the mover, it will only transfer at the write speeds of the HDD it's writing to. Read speeds for basically all NVMEs will outperform write speeds for HDD (don't forget your Parity, too, as it will need to write to that drive at the same time). 

 

I would say go with what your budget affords. I used to run the 2 500gb 660p's but I found that I would consistently fill up the 500gb forcing a manual mover run so I swapped them with 1tb NVMEs instead. 

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Hi, I'm going to piggy back as there's a lot of sales on and I was hoping to snap up.

  • I download erm... lots of linux isos.  I use bit torrent and newsgroups near constantly, my partials and completes are on the same drive.  I run these on a CT2000MX500SSD1
  • I'm a heavy plex user, so its appdata is on a dedicated ssd (copied periodically to the array) and transcoding directory on the same SSD.
  • I have a cache drive for many shares, but the 'linux isos' I turned it off and nohup mv periodically instead so there's no caching there.
  • I have 600/600 internet, I frequently copy to the array and the drives on that are quite slow (a lot of shucked WD hdd).

 

Experience:

  • I've found my crucial ssd keeps showing ECC error 1 then 0, seems to be a bug as there's no issues or corruptions. 
  • My Samsung 970 Evo that I used for my cache drive had massive input/output corruption and many bad blocks.  I lost a lot of files this way before I found out and they don't seem recoverable. is this a Samsung problem?  Should I be put off this brand?  Samsung_SSD_870_EVO_2TB is the drive.
  • My other Samsung 920 Evos silently swallow the bad blocks, which makes me think this is normal SSD wear and tear?

 

I'm planning a big upgrade and the motherboard I am looking at has 3x PCIe 4.0 NVMe ports I plan to utilise.

 

Questions:

  1. Is endurance a big factor and where's the sweet spot?  I am looking and the Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 M.2 has high read/write, and a better price point.  However compared to the WD_BLACK its 1/3rd of the endurance number.  Does this make it unsuitable for download / cache?
  2. The drives take a price hike above 1TB, and limits the brands available at a price point.  Is size in a cache array cumulative or will I be limited?  I figured I would move my temporary/downloads back to the array if its cumulative as that would give 3TB.
    Its up to me: RAID0 would give me full accessible if I want.
  3. Based on the EVOs, I'm worried about corruption if I were to use an array, is this a valid worry?
  4. What would you buy? :)

 

I'm looking at the storage black friday deals:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/deal/8c2fa30b?showVariations=true&moreDeals=72ffb4e3%2C73328860%2C7ac861f5%2C2544300d%2C68453adb%2C3c4d5364&ref=dlx_black_gd_dcl_tlt_7_8c2fa30b_dt_sl6_9d

 

Some examples:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08QJHLC8J/ref=ewc_pr_img_2?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD_BLACK-SN850X-Gaming-Heatsink-speed/dp/B0B7CPSN2K/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?geniuslink=true&keywords=Apacer+AS2280F5%3Ftag%3Dpcguideuk-21&qid=1669035176&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-Plus-CT2000P5PSSD8-PCIe-6600MB/dp/B098WKQRDL/ref=sr_1_6?crid=140MOJB990MX8&keywords=2tb+nvme&qid=1669035276&s=computers&sprefix=2tb+nvme%2Ccomputers%2C52&sr=1-6

 

 

Thanks in advance

Edited by spamalam
Added internet speed and array speed.
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I found WD_BLACK 850X is the best option, whilst it doesn't have the raw throughput it's close to the Samsung Pro, it seems to handle thermal throttling better (I got it with a heatsink) and it's endurance number is much, much higher.

 

 

There's a sale on for black Friday:

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/internal-drives/wd-black-sn850x-nvme-ssd?ef_id=CjwKCAiAyfybBhBKEiwAgtB7ftlmB5tiE-9NiMxYSd3pvAvf7hL64vQ6O7Z94kauIZmHgM98JNi7jxoCyhkQAvD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!15012!3!!!!x!!!18143230712!&utm_medium=pdsh2&utm_source=gads&utm_campaign=PMax-WDBLK-PHASE2-EU-UK-PLA&utm_content=&utm_term=WDS100T2X0E#WDS100T2X0E

 

169 brexit beans for 2TB 

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