Enterprise SATA SSDs 1.92TB $205-229 (10+Petabyte Endurance - Micron 5100 MAX / Samsung SM863)


Shunz

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2 really great enterprise grade SSDs going at what I'd feel is a steal. Both appear to be HPE (HP Enterprise) branded SSDs.

 

They each have a ridonculous 2-digit Petabye endurance!

 

For comparison, at time of writing, a 2TB Samsung 860 Pro and a 860 EVO goes at $477 and $297 respectively. (Endurance 2400TBW and 1200TBW)

 

Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to find side-by-side reviews and benchmark comparisons of these type drives against consumer SATA drives, but they are certainly more than capable (especially the Samsung) for read-intensive server/enterprise types of heavy loads. I'm personally really curious how these would fare against consumer drives in a PC desktop environment. But being so heavily over-provisioned and having insane endurance, these should be perfect for heavy downloading/par/unrar, and for content creators (render videos without worry of NAND wear).

 

 

Micron 5100 Max 1.92TB - Around $200 to $220

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Micron-2-5-inch-Internal-MTFDDAK1T9TCC-1AR1ZABHA/dp/B07R3BYPM6/

17.6PB (17,600 TBW) endurance

 

The Amazon page says its MLC, though according to Micron brochures it is eTLC NAND.

Reviews are decent, but the Sammys seem to perform better.

 

 

Samsung SM863 1.92TB - Around $215-229

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Samsung-MZ-7KM1T90-2-5-inch-Internal/dp/B07SNH1THV

12.32PB (12,320TBW) endurance

Probably a bona fide MLC NAND drive.

 

I splurged on 2 of these SM863s a week ago for my cache pool (RAID 1), from eBay. Seems to work really well so far, just that these being HPE drives, the model displayed on Unraid isn't Samsung SM863, but the HPE rebrand. Temperatures appear to be wrongly reported by the SSDs as 10+ degrees lower than ambient temp. Will post some pictures and CrystalMark benchmarks if anyone is interested (summary - they perform roughly similar to my 850 Pro 512GB, 860 EVO 4TB, 850 EVO 512GB)

 

Am I missing something - are there problems with these HPE ssds? (e.g. dated firmware that's difficult to upgrade)

Edited by Shunz
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Quote

Micron 5100 Max 1.92TB - Around $200 to $220

 ...

The Amazon page says its MLC, though according to Micron brochures it is eTLC NAND.

Well, that "Amazon page" is, of course, the responsibility of the seller, GoHardDrive.  Are they incompetent, or dishonest? [Remember, drives are their specialty--they should be held accountable for correctness.]

Quote

Samsung SM863 1.92TB - Around $215-229

 ...

Probably a bona fide MLC NAND drive.

Yes. From a 4 yrs ago press release [Link],

Quote

[ The 3-bit MLC V-NAND-based PM863 is developed for mixed pattern applications and ideal for use in content delivery networks and streaming or Web servers. ] Alternatively, the write-intensive SM863 based on 2-bit MLC V-NAND is an optimal choice for online transaction processing (OLTP) and serves as an ideal choice for email and database servers.

[ That SM863 link on AMZN is also sold by GoHardDrive.] I have no evidence, or direct experience, but my gut tells me to question their integrity.  Keep in mind that, while I (and probably you) am (are) not able to modify/reset SMART data, it is definitely possible. A perusal of Google results for <<goharddrive honest>> is enlightening (though not ALL bad).

 

Who did you buy from on ebay?

 

Good luck with your new toys.

 

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13 hours ago, UhClem said:

Well, that "Amazon page" is, of course, the responsibility of the seller, GoHardDrive.  Are they incompetent, or dishonest? [Remember, drives are their specialty--they should be held accountable for correctness.]

Yes. From a 4 yrs ago press release [Link],

[ That SM863 link on AMZN is also sold by GoHardDrive.] I have no evidence, or direct experience, but my gut tells me to question their integrity.  Keep in mind that, while I (and probably you) am (are) not able to modify/reset SMART data, it is definitely possible. A perusal of Google results for <<goharddrive honest>> is enlightening (though not ALL bad).

 

Who did you buy from on ebay?

 

Good luck with your new toys.

 

 

I bought mine here.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113767323096

Reviews of this seller looks good (at least not much issues). The seller also sells the 5100 Max (among other server SSDs like the Intel DC 3520), I wonder if they are the same merchant as GoHardDrive.

 

Bought 4 units including 2 for my friends. They arrived in a proper 5-unit carton packaging, and serial numbers are very close to each other. Anti static wrap looks great, SSDs look brand new as far as I can recall, and maybe I should take a look at any traces of usage on the connector pins on that last unit when my friend opens his.

 

Basically, at this moment everything looks legit, and both my drives has been working well, and appear to perform better than the advertised speeds, at least based on Crystalmark and some unraid situations.

 

Again, the only problem is that I can't upgrade the firmware (being HPE drives), and the temperatures posted are a good 13-15 degrees lower than what they should be. I even did a preclear on them (I know I should NOT do so to SSDs, heh) to make sure everything reads okay, before using them as my cache drives. They also do not support the low sleep power states that consumer drives have.

 

At this moment, at these prices, these feel like wonderful drives for cache pools, and can support high write intensive usage or dockers or VMs. My hypothesis is that such enterprise drive names and specific capacities (e.g. 1.92TB) are not what most people search for, and being HPE re-brands, hence merchants find it good to sell at a low price if they have ample surplus stock to clear.

(heh, I shouldn't talk about this so much, if I want things to keep this way)

 

CrystalDiskMark shots below. They probably can't tell the whole story (e.g. no latency values, etc), but I ran these tests anyway for the sake of making sure they aren't lemons.

 

 

CrystalDiskMarks for both my SM863 1.92TB

20190610_204128_resize.jpg.8bfac1b2fa3f1b7651961a7f123c4e93.jpg20190610_203436_resize.jpg.7a602d8224531ba3f342b8125c153b3e.jpg

 

CrystalDiskMarks for 850 Pro 512GB, 860 EVO 4TB, and an Intel DC 3.84TB

20190610_231044_resize.jpg.0bb7798c5e97d827c2524ce3b58844f3.jpg20190610_232635_resize.jpg.8d8b866dc325bce88fc92c80886e59ea.jpg20190610_231859_resize.jpg.d7ef923c53949c7730e777b42d90ee33.jpg

 

The carton the bunch of SM863 drives arrived in

20190614_213540_resize.jpg.8b1e255a85409eb108b516329dadb57c.jpg

Edited by Shunz
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The 2 HPE Samsung SM863 SSDs running as a RAID 1 cache pool on my Unraid. Works perfectly so far, though temps are wrongly reported, around 12 to 15 degrees reported too low - which according to some reddit threads, can be a common issue for certain enterprise drives not being used in environments they were customized for.

 

Still, cheaper than a QVO, but faster, more reliable, and endurance of, what, 15x more? (though I'll probably never even reach 10% of the endurance before it's time to change them again)

 

Anyway, sharing the good deal!

 

0631513e-8185-4fec-91be-c5e80656d0de-ori

Edited by Shunz
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