Recommended SSDs for servers

[cyde_ePhex]

I just got my first server as a Christmas gift to myself, a used IBM x3650 M3 off eBay (2x E5530 2.4GHZ with 16GB RAM). It'll mainly be used for testing or teaching myself about servers. I'll be running ESXi (Windows Server 2016 Essentials, FreeNas or Xpenology (haven't decided which yet), Untangle, and other software). My question is, which consumer grade SSDs would you recommend? I'm looking into getting a few Adata SU800 drives mainly due to cost. I also believe I heard or read somewhere that Samsung EVOs are not recommended for server use and Kingstons are?

 

[fencepost]

Others can speak to the specifics for brands, but even though it's a server I'm not sure I'd consider a low-user setup like that to be "server use."

One thing to keep in mind is that a big part of the difference between server-targeted SSDs and consumer-targeted ones is what percentage of the actual physical storage capacity is actually presented and visible - basically with a true enterprise-grade production SSD there may be 1TB of physical storage but the drive presents with 512-750GB so the drive firmware can do a better job of wear balancing when writing to the drive. You can emulate that by not allocating the entire visible drive capacity - if you have a 500GB drive, only create 400GB of partitions because the actual data will still be written across all of the physical chips in the drive.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

SSDs are still sorta like spindle drives...a few categories.
Spindle drives...you have your entry level cheapo 1 year warranty drives, you have your 3 year drives...biz grade, and you have your enterprise grade (server grade) drives...5 year drives, over 1 million hours rating (MTBF)

SSDs are still relatively new, and they're still working on longevity ratings. But there are already "server grade" SSDs...much higher write life span, endurance ratings. error proofing.

Intel and Samsung make some good ones.
For smaller servers I use Crucial MX series.
I don't touch anything Kingston.

 

[Markverhyden]

What do you have for controller(s)? If you have SAS just pick up some 10k/15k SAS drives. You'll save a lot of money and the performance is great. Not as good as SSD but still way better than SATA.

 

[cyde_ePhex]

@fencepost -this won't be used for the business, just personal use. Again, just learning servers. I'm jut looking to pick up a couple of 128GB drives to host some VMs and not much else at the moment

 

[cyde_ePhex]

What do you have for controller(s)? If you have SAS just pick up some 10k/15k SAS drives. You'll save a lot of money and the performance is great. Not as good as SSD but still way better than SATA.

I believe it has an M1015. It didn't come with any drives although this will work with either SAS or SATA, I just have 4 500GB SATAs in it right now. However, regarding price I have seen some decently priced SAS drives so that is an option.

 

[fencepost]

@fencepost -this won't be used for the business, just personal use.

Yeah, my basic message there was meant to be "Don't worry about whether the drives are officially intended/marketed for use in servers." The Samsung drives aren't going to detect that they're being used in a server, it's more that their warranty now is (IIRC) based on the total amount written to them and if you're actually using them in a production server environment you may blow past that cap.

 

[cyde_ePhex]

@fencepost - gotcha, sorry I misunderstood. Thank you