Hard Disks 101 - explained

bikegremlin

@somik said:

@bikegremlin said:

@somik said:

@bikegremlin said:
Good quality hard disks should not be underestimated.

Having said that, good quality SSDs are still better and faster. Samsung has served me well over the past... if not a decade, then getting close to that. Both in 2.5" and in M.2 format.

I had around 4 samsung SSDs. 1 of the 500 GB nvme (970 evo from 2019) died on me. Rest are still working fine. So agree with you on the quality for samsung SSDs.

Decided to use one of the samsung 2.5" SSDs for the OS disk and use the corsair nvme for just downloads and data extraction. Seems to somewhat fix the issue, specially if I read from one and write to the other. Issue is that the speed is comparable to a good HDD, around 150 MB/s. But at least I dont have to buy one for now...

Yeah, there is a limit of SATA connection for those 2.5" SSDs, so sustained transfer of large amounts of data is limited.
For general use (lots of random reads, mostly), they are still a lot faster than HDDs.

Yea, that's why I was wondering if i should go with a HDD, cause my use case is sustained transfer of large amounts of data, where HDD and SSDs perform almost similarly until SSDs hit their cache limit and slows down, while HDDs will keep chugging along. I would never replace my OS drive or Games drive with a HDD. Only the bulk data storage drive that contains files ranging from 5GB to 100GBs...

If your SSD is of a high quality, it will sustain higher speeds for longer (and have the SATA lane be the limiting factor).
Also, the newer SSDs that use PCIe can sustain much higher speeds for a long time - especially if you provide good cooling airflow.

Of course, HDDs are still robust, durable and cheaper for high-volume storage, so probably a wiser choice.

somik

@bikegremlin said:
If your SSD is of a high quality, it will sustain higher speeds for longer (and have the SATA lane be the limiting factor).
Also, the newer SSDs that use PCIe can sustain much higher speeds for a long time - especially if you provide good cooling airflow.

Yep, the issue being when shopping SSDs online, i tend to go with the "cheaper" option over good quality one... Last time i even got a PNY brand SSD that was slower then a actual HDD. Well, next time need to remember to go with good name brand SSDs...

host_c

@somik said:

@bikegremlin said:
If your SSD is of a high quality, it will sustain higher speeds for longer (and have the SATA lane be the limiting factor).
Also, the newer SSDs that use PCIe can sustain much higher speeds for a long time - especially if you provide good cooling airflow.

Yep, the issue being when shopping SSDs online, i tend to go with the "cheaper" option over good quality one... Last time i even got a PNY brand SSD that was slower then a actual HDD. Well, next time need to remember to go with good name brand SSDs...

I will just underline this:

Go with Enterprise Hardware, even 3-5 year used Flash based ones beat current Premium Consumer grade HW in reliability. ( always had )

Reliability usually out-passes Performance in the long run, at least for most.

somik

@host_c said:
Go with Enterprise Hardware, even 3-5 year used Flash based ones beat current Premium Consumer grade HW in reliability. ( always had )

Reliability usually out-passes Performance in the long run, at least for most.

I do that for buying server hardware for my homelab, but did not consider it for storage... Just CPU & RAMs. Will give it a try, thanks for the idea.

host_c

@somik said:

@host_c said:
Go with Enterprise Hardware, even 3-5 year used Flash based ones beat current Premium Consumer grade HW in reliability. ( always had )

Reliability usually out-passes Performance in the long run, at least for most.

I do that for buying server hardware for my homelab, but did not consider it for storage... Just CPU & RAMs. Will give it a try, thanks for the idea.

I remember my first home-lab setups using whatever I could get from the used market locally.

Back then ebay was, well, not existent, but today this is a different story.

Have fun

Need any ideas/help - Shout here

3K33

Thanks for this great post you have shared! Damn good job!

ahnlak

I smell a new wannabe host

imok

Sorry I don't have anything useful to contribute.

Wonder_Woman

@imok said:

Sorry I don't have anything useful to contribute.

This... hurts to see...