September 26, 20232 yr Saw this deal - might pick up for my cache: https://slickdeals.net/f/16946068-2tb-solidigm-p41-plus-m-2-2280-pcie-4-0-nvme-gen-4-solid-state-drive-65-free-shipping?src=frontpage&v=1 Right now I have a 860 Evo 2.5" SSD as my cache drive. This is an m.2 so it would free up a SATA drive as well. I'd imagine any SSD is better than reading from the array, but should I go for something higher quality? 2TB for $65 seems like a good deal.
September 26, 20232 yr That depends on how much writing to it you will be doing. My primary cache drive is a 5TB spinner. I use my SSD's as pools for Plex and a couple other apps where the increased speed pays more noticeable dividends.
October 2, 20232 yr Author On 9/26/2023 at 4:31 PM, whipdancer said: That depends on how much writing to it you will be doing. My primary cache drive is a 5TB spinner. I use my SSD's as pools for Plex and a couple other apps where the increased speed pays more noticeable dividends. Do you run any vms? Right now I have windows on a SSD that is not part of my array, but if it were on the array like most - wouldnt I need a really good SSD cache to use with it?
October 2, 20232 yr No VMs. I ask my server to do enough to keep it busy already (20-ish docker containers) and it's just running a pretty ordinary desktop cpu. If you want to run a vm, you would probably want to run it on an SSD. I personally wouldn't spend the money on a high-end drive for a VM because I don't expect to see a difference between a Gen4 x8 and a Gen3 x8 NVME running through a hypervisor. I've never measured so, I could certainly be wrong. It's not something I would even worry about - I'm all about the value curve, not the performance curve.
October 5, 20232 yr It depends how much you depend on your cache data being safe. I don't like surprises, so I wouldn't trade an EVO drive for a cheap SSD of any kind. I have thrown away many lesser SSDs but used some of my forty or so Samsung SSDs for 8 years already. They make the NAND flash memory, they make the controller, they make the firmware. Their reputation is all over their drives inside and out. I discovered that Intel's 5-year warranty means precious little if you don't have your data when you come home from a long day of video production. Eight SSDs and all of them failed more than once within the first year, in the case of that particular hard-learned lesson.
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