[SOLVED] Considering Intel & Samsung NVMe M.2 Disks

gossamer

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Nov 17, 2018
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Hi, I'm looking for an entry-level datacenter 1TB NVMe SSD and not sure what the available options are. I need two of them - one is for a joomla web server and the other is for a mariadb and mongodb database running on another server. Most of the activity will be read operations, not write.

The Intel line appears to be very confusing. Is the "Intel SSD DC P4511 Series" their current offering?

What are the datacenter NVMe offerings from Intel?

They are the M.2 form factor, right?

I'm also considering the Samsung PM982a.

I'm also considering this "Samsung 983 DCT Series SSD 960GB - M.2 NVMe" that also appears to be suitable for datacenter environments.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-983-DCT-MZ-1LB1T9NE-Warranty/dp/B07L8HVXKT/
 
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Yep, Intel SSD DC P4511 Series is their data center line of M.2 NVMe SSDs.

Samsung PM982a 960GB
Interface: NVMe
Interface bandwidth: PCIe 3.0 x4
Sequential Read: 3200 MB/s
Sequential Write: 1100 MB/s
Random Read:400K IOPS
Random Write:31K IOPS
Read Latency: NA
Write Latency: NA
Power Load: NA
Power Idle: NA
Max Temp: NA
Min Temp: NA
Endurance Rating: DWPD 0.26 / 0.45 PBW (GB/day: 249.6)
MTBF: NA
UBER: NA
Warranty Period: 5 yrs

Intel SSD DC P4511 1TB
Interface: NVMe
Interface bandwidth: PCIe 3.0 x4
Type: 64-Layer TLC 3D NAND
Sequential Read: 1950 MB/s
Sequential Write: 1000 MB/s
Random Read:295K IOPS
Random Write:31K IOPS
Read Latency: 85 µs
Write Latency: 40 µs
Power Load: 7.6W
Power Idle: 3.5W
Max Temp: 55 °C
Min Temp: 0 °C
Endurance Rating: Up to 0.98 PBW / DWPD 0.55 (GB/day: 536.9)
MTBF: 2 million hours
UBER: 1 sector per 10^17 bits read
Warranty Period: 5 yrs
 

gossamer

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Nov 17, 2018
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And it looks like in both random read and sequential read the Samsung PM982a performs significantly better, which are the two metrics that matter most for a database, correct?
 
Random read and Sequential read aren't everything, specially on a datacenter.
To get the real performance numbers you need to calculate both, random speed and IOPS and looking at those numbers Samsung is ahead.

MB/s = (IOPS * KB per IO) / 1024
 
And it looks like in both random read and sequential read the Samsung PM982a performs significantly better, which are the two metrics that matter most for a database, correct?
It depends on how your database system is setup. If your database uses a sort of caching system in RAM before comitting the contents, then higher raw bandwidth performance is better, though this comes with the caveat that if the hardware reboots before the commit happens, you lose all those transactions. If the database system prefers to ensure every transaction is committed to storage before calling it good, then 4K random performance is better, as transactions tend to be smaller and more numerous.

It just depends on what you value more in your system.
 

gossamer

Commendable
Nov 17, 2018
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1,510
I'm still a bit confused, mostly with how these manufacturers label their parts/models and which ones I should even be looking at. I'm sure the database system uses a sort of caching system in RAM, but I'm not sure that's a big concern for me. I can be sure the database is shut down properly (it's also in a datacenter with power conditioning, etc).

So far, I'm seeing the following datacenter devices from Samsung:

  • Samsung PM982a
  • Samsung 983 DCT Series (MZ-1LB1T9NE)
I'm now thinking the Samsung MZ-1LB1T9NE and MZ-1LB960NE (Samsung 983 DCT Series) is a better idea - they are apparently the Samsung options for the datacenter, but I don't know what the DWPD values are for them.

The DWPD value for the PM982 drive is very low.

How do I compare these two series products?

Here is the datasheet for the PM983 series:
https://image-us.samsung.com/SamsungUS/samsungbusiness/pdfs/SSD-983DCTDSHT-OCT18T-Final-10-26-18.pdf