Question Tracking SSDs for NAS or video storage use?

[strayer27]

Is Tom’s or any other site tracking SSD offerings with a focus on camera, NAS and / or other consumer-level, endurance-focused use?

Not running a datacenter, just looking for drives to use in home NVR and NAS scenarios where absolutely speed is less important than value and reliability. Seems like there must be somebody aiming to serve that market?

I see a handful of reviews like this one from October, but only cursory coverage in the “Best picks” and nada in deal-tracker content. I end up cross-checking TBW ratings and warranties, some of which can be hard to pick out at Amazon and Newegg, etc. My bad if I’ve missed something!

 

[kanewolf]

Is Tom’s or any other site tracking SSD offerings with a focus on camera, NAS and / or other consumer-level, endurance-focused use?

Not running a datacenter, just looking for drives to use in home NVR and NAS scenarios where absolutely speed is less important than value and reliability. Seems like there must be somebody aiming to serve that market?

I see a handful of reviews like this one from October, but only cursory coverage in the “Best picks” and nada in deal-tracker content. I end up cross-checking TBW ratings and warranties, some of which can be hard to pick out at Amazon and Newegg, etc. My bad if I’ve missed something!

Since the cost of spinning disks at the 8TB and above is so much lower than solid state, there is very little justification for solid state in NVRs. Unless you have greater than gigabit network infrastructure you don't benefit from solid state.

 

[USAFRet]

The System drive in my QNAP is a 480GB Seagate IronWolf. SATA III.
(mainly because I got it for free)

Near 24/7 use for over 5 years.

Still reporting 100% Estimated life.

However, the other 11 drives in or attached are spinning. The price per TB just isn't there yet for all SSD.
100TB would be extremely expensive to replace with solid state.

And over a standard gigabit LAN, there is no difference accessing the SSD or any of the HDDs.

 

[strayer27]

Thanks to you both - that makes sense and certainly explains the gap I was finding.

For better or worse my NVR hardware is SSD-only. Seems like the tipping point is still a ways out, so I may be stuck in a niche market for now.

 

[Misgar]

where absolutely speed is less important than value and reliability

Perhaps you should concentrate on TLC SSDs and not QLC, which may come with a lower TBW (Tera Bytes Written) endurance rating than TLC.

In the past I bought MLC instead of TLC for this reason. I have some old SATA enterprise-grade (server pulls) with nearly 2,000 days use, but they're still good for old systems.

As for value and reliability, you may find it difficult to get both in the same package. Really cheap "no-name" SSDs on AliExpress might be less reliable, than more expensive "well-known" brands from your local supplier.

You can keep an eye on the TBW for heavily stressed SSDs in video editing systems and replace when their health status deteriorates, but even at low health levels, an SSD may still continue to give good service.

 

[kanewolf]

Perhaps you should concentrate on TLC SSDs and not QLC, which may come with a lower TBW (Tera Bytes Written) endurance rating than TLC.

In the past I bought MLC instead of TLC for this reason. I have some old SATA enterprise-grade (server pulls) with nearly 2,000 days use, but they're still good for old systems.

As for value and reliability, you may find it difficult to get both in the same package. Really cheap "no-name" SSDs on AliExpress might be less reliable, than more expensive "well-known" brands from your local supplier.

You can keep an eye on the TBW for heavily stressed SSDs in video editing systems and replace when their health status deteriorates, but even at low health levels, an SSD may still continue to give good service.

Many newer NAS units have the option of M.2 NVMe SSDs as cache for spinning disks. To me this is a good compromise. A pair of 500GB or 1TB NVMe SSDs in RAID1 as cache to the spinning disks. That is how I have my two Synology DS720+ units configured.

 

[strayer27]

Perhaps you should concentrate on TLC SSDs and not QLC, which may come with a lower TBW (Tera Bytes Written) endurance rating than TLC.

In the past I bought MLC instead of TLC for this reason. I have some old SATA enterprise-grade (server pulls) with nearly 2,000 days use, but they're still good for old systems.

As for value and reliability, you may find it difficult to get both in the same package. Really cheap "no-name" SSDs on AliExpress might be less reliable, than more expensive "well-known" brands from your local supplier.

You can keep an eye on the TBW for heavily stressed SSDs in video editing systems and replace when their health status deteriorates, but even at low health levels, an SSD may still continue to give good service.

Thanks for these, and the reassurance that there’s a difference between health status and total failure.

I’m absolutely watching for mainstream brands for reputable sellers - thus the question about who might be tracking with these parameters in mind.

I figure if Tom’s mentions a deal it’s likely to be a decent manufacturer, and I’m limiting myself to resellers like Newegg, MicroCenter, etc where I’ll have recourse if things go sideways. Just wishing for a recommendations shortcut that doesn’t seem to exist!

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for these, and the reassurance that there’s a difference between health status and total failure.

Of the couple dozen SSDs I've had in the house here...1 abject fail.
3 year old 960GB SanDisk SATA III. Still reporting "100%" life left. 605GB data on it.
Turn PC off, 10 minutes later, turn on. Hey, where's the G drive?
Simply died. Nothing I could do would make it reappear.
Different port, different cable, external enclosure, Linux....nothing.

Slot in a new temporary drive, click click in Macrium...all 605GB data recovered exactly as it was at 4AM that morning, when it ran the nightly Incremental backup to the NAS.

Bottom line - storage devices can and do die at any time.

Bonus...even though it was 33 days past the 3 war warranty, SanDisk replaced it for free anyway.
I knew it was over, they knew it was over, they replaced it anyway.
The replacement is still going strong 6 years later.

That is why you buy a reputable brand. Other companies would have said 'too bad, so sad...'