Question SSD vs HDD (7200rpm) NAS for Game Server Storage

[Gamefreaknet]

In short I am considering getting a PC for running a server. I know SSDs have better ReadWrite Speeds however going for a HDD designed for constantly running 24/7 (a NAS HDD) confuses me. I am not sure how well a regular SSD would work since it isn't a NAS SSD so it isn't designed to run 24/7?
NAS HDD - here
SSD - here
I do know NAS SSDs exist however I assume they cost a ton of money which I don't have.
Which one would be the better option (or a different drive)?

 

[kanewolf]

In short I am considering getting a PC for running a server. I know SSDs have better ReadWrite Speeds however going for a HDD designed for constantly running 24/7 (a NAS HDD) confuses me. I am not sure how well a regular SSD would work since it isn't a NAS SSD so it isn't designed to run 24/7?
NAS HDD - here
SSD - here
I do know NAS SSDs exist however I assume they cost a ton of money which I don't have.
Which one would be the better option (or a different drive)?

An SSD would be fine as a game server. You don't have constant writing like a video recorder
If you plan on using it for some other "server" functions, then you may want to have both an SSD and HDD.

 

[Gamefreaknet]

An SSD would be fine as a game server. You don't have constant writing like a video recorder
If you plan on using it for some other "server" functions, then you may want to have both an SSD and HDD.

Is there that much of a performance difference/reliability between a SSD and 7200rpm NAS HDD?
I know generally SSDs are faster but do HDDs or SSDs have better lifetime/speed maintenance overtime?
(Simply put which one will last the longest but maintain its high write speeds without deteriorating away?)
The SSD is £150ish and the NAS HDD is £100ish)

 

[USAFRet]

This is the system drive in my NAS.
480GB Seagate 2.5" SATA III SSD

Almost 24/7 use for over 4 years...

 

[kanewolf]

Is there that much of a performance difference/reliability between a SSD and 7200rpm NAS HDD?
I know generally SSDs are faster but do HDDs or SSDs have better lifetime/speed maintenance overtime?
(Simply put which one will last the longest but maintain its high write speeds without deteriorating away?)
The SSD is £150ish and the NAS HDD is £100ish)

They will run until they die. There is no predicting when a disk will die.
How many years do you believe you will run this server without ever updating it? My guess would be less than 3... At 3 years, it won't matter. After 5 years, all bets are off with spinning disks as well.

 

[Misgar]

I have some 4TB hard disks retired from a server which had been running 24/7 for over 1700 days (over four and a half years) with only 60 on/off cycles. They are Enterprise quality drives though, not standard desktop drives.

More importantly, how fast is the link between your proposed server and other machines on your LAN?

If you're using Gibabit Ethernet, your maximum transfer rate will not exceed 125Mbytes/second. Most hard drives run faster than this, for large files.

The extra speed of SSDs, especially M.2 NVMe drives, will only come into its own if you are transferring hundreds/thousands of small files over the LAN, to similar high speed drives.
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2022/building-fast-all-ssd-nas-on-budget

Some SSDs designed for use in a large server/NAS systems are expensive because they're used for cache operations and subjected to continuous read/write operations in SLOG/ZIL/L2ARC. Similarly, Enterprise main storage SSDs will also be expensive due to extended TBW guarantees and very high capacity. None of this affects home users with a single SATA SSD or HDD.

I have six 6TB Toshiba N300 drives running RAID-Z2 under TrueNAS Core in an old HP Server and so far they've worked fine. A good choice if you need a hard disk.

Just remember that drives can fail at any time, so backup your important files elsewhere.

 

[USAFRet]

More importantly, how fast is the link between your proposed server and other machines on your LAN?

If you're using Gibabit Ethernet, your maximum transfer rate will not exceed 125Mbytes/second. Most hard drives run faster than this, for large files.

^^^^^^
This.

In working with my QNAP, there is no difference between the SATA III SSD and any of the HDDs.

The gigabit LAN is the limiting factor.
But when I say "limiting", its not something you notice. Not enough to try to bump everything up to 10gbe.

I'm currently on the hunt for a new NAS, which will probably have 2.5 and 10gbe ports.
But the connection will still be standard gigabit, because everything else in the LAN is gigabit.

 

[Misgar]

The only time my 10G RJ45/SFP+ fibre LAN really comes into its own, is when I'm copying hundreds of Gigabytes of video data between M.2 NVMe drives in two computers, at speeds up to 350MB/s. It's finished by the time I've made a cup of coffee.

10G fibre also speeds up transfers to my TrueNAS hard disk servers at roughly 150MB/s, but it's not hugely faster than Gigabit Ethernet (125MB/s).

I also find 10G handy when transferring files over the LAN to a PC controlling an LTO tape drive. Gigabit sometimes slows down file transfers to the point where the drive "shoe shines". The maximum transfer rate for LTO4 is 120MB/s which is close to Gigabit saturation. Some headroom is handy.

I've had more problems with Intel I225-V and Realtek 2.5G NICs than Mellanox and Asus 10G NICs. A lot of this could be down to my old 10G Netgear switch, but the new 10G MicroTik switch is fine.

My first network ran at 10M and used coaxial cable, T-pieces and terminators.