Recommend me some reliable M2 Cache drives

[WardyBoi]

I have just had 2 Sabrent Rocket 4 NVME drives spew I/O errors in BTRFS. So i'm after 2 1TB drives to replace these that are reliable and don't crumble when they get slightly warm.

 

I'm looking at 980 Pro's or Crucial P5 Plus, which would be better, or are there others that would be better?

 

Appreciate the help.

[C4RBON]

Have you considered "enterprise" m.2 drives?  I haven't used these, but I'm shopping for new ssd drives as well.  Something like this:

 

Supermicro (Micron) 960GB M.2 22x80mm 7450 PRO HDS-MMN-MTFDKBA960TFR1BC Solid State Drive (SSD)
https://store.supermicro.com/960gb-nvme-pcie4-hds-mmn-mtfdkba960tfr1bc.html

Enterprise drives typically have power loss protection, and much longer durability.  These Micron ones are 1 DWPD for 5 years.  $143 for 960Gb doesn't seem like much of a premium vs consumer drives.  You can get add-on heatsinks for m.2 drives (that don't come with a heatsink) which might also help with temps.

Edited February 22, 2023 by C4RBON

[MadMatt337]

I agree with C4RBON in regards to temps, even the cheap add on heat sinks make a huge difference and IMO heat is one of the biggest killers of any SSD outside of pure write endurance. That is if your MB does not have heatsinks on the NVME's already. I have 3 NVME's on mine, all have been fine for over 2 years now, 2 are WD SN750's and one is just a WD SN550 which actually sees the most traffic as is my media cache (300Tb written, 200tb read) drive but the temps stay low (highest I have seen is 42C) and I have had 0 issues. 2 are MB built in heatsinks and the one is an aftermarket one, temps are pretty similar.

 

I have heard good things about the new WD Red SN700 drives as well, still decent speeds but 2000TBW on a 1TB drive as compared to 600TBW of most conventional drives. Probably my next drive when my media one dies.

[C4RBON]

I picked up one of the 960Gb Optane drives for my cache drive, but those are U.2.  That is rated for 17,500 TBW.

 

Downsides are it is only PCIe Gen 3, and the sequential read/write speeds aren't nearly as good as traditional NAND.  But the endurance and random read/write speeds are exceptional.  This particular U.2 drive comes with a nice M.2 adapter/cable, so if you have room to mount a 2.5" drive, and can give it some airflow, it could be an alternative.

 

Intel Optane 905P Series 960GB, 2.5" x 15mm, U.2, PCIe 3.0 x4, 3D XPoint Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDPE21D960GAM3 - Newegg.com

https://www.newegg.com/intel-optane-ssd-905p-series-960gb/p/N82E16820167463?Description=optane&cm_re=optane-_-20-167-463-_-Product

 

Currently $400, but it was on sale (further on sale) for $340 when I bought it about a week ago.

[Lolight]

On 6/16/2023 at 1:47 PM, jasonjulius1122 said:

Even affordable additional heat sinks can make a significant difference in maintaining optimal temperatures. Heat can indeed be a major factor in reducing the lifespan of SSDs, especially when it comes to write endurance.

The use of SSD Heatsinks in data centers is an absolute must.

But it doesn't make much sense to use them in a home NAS, as long as the drive's temps stay within the 30°C - 50°C range under load.

 

[Pascal51882]

The WD Red M.2 1TB with 2PB TBW sounds amazing for the price.

Should I mix different M.2s for Raid 1 cache? Could 2 identical SSDs fail at the same time?