Discussion Long term storage solution for server

[MCH170]

I want to add 4TB of storage to my home server and I am weighing my options. The drive(s) will be powered on 24/7, fully written, and mostly being read from. The stored data isn't critical but it would suck to lose it. Speed isn't an issue, but faster is better. The options are:

• 4TB m.2 ssd

Undoubtably the fastest but I read that they tend to run hot and that leads to lower than expected lifespans (for a solid state component). That said, I doubt that sporadic read bursts will have any effect on its lifespan, what do you think?

• 4TB sata ssd

Held back speed-wise by its SATA interface but it definitely runs cool.

• 4TB + 4TB RAID-1 hdd

The advantages here are price and the ability to lose a drive without losing any data. Downside is that it's a mechanical component that will fail faster than a solid-state one.

What are your opinions? Thanks for your help.

 

[USAFRet]

1. RAID 1 is only good for continued uptime. Not data security.
Any RAID 1 also requires a good backup routine. And if you have a good backup routine, you probably don't really need the RAID 1.

Home server....how is this accessed? Over a standard gigabit LAN? If so, HDDs are just fine.
In my QNAP NAS, the system drive and small shared space is a SATA III SSD. The other 11 drives are all HDD.
Accessing either type, can't really tell the difference.

 

[Lafong]

If you chose a non-RAID solution, would the data nonetheless be backed up somwhere??

 

[thestryker]

If when you say "fully written" you mean the drive is at or near capacity then SSDs aren't really going to net you much of anything. In fact that might cause them to be more problematic than using a HDD.

Looks like budget SATA and M.2 will be pretty close in price to one another for 4TB, but if your network interface is less than 5gb you wouldn't notice any difference between them unless interacting with smaller file sizes as NVMe controllers are better at this than any SATA controllers I've seen.

Realistically without full setup information and budget it's hard to say what would be the best choice for your situation. Personally speaking I would likely look at 8TB HDDs.