1x P3600/3700 or 4x S3500 for VM Storage

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Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
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Hi,

After swapping out my data storage disks, I'm swapping out my VM storage for something quicker.

Currently debating between:
  • 480GB Dell S3500 for ~ $200 (Intel lists warranty till 2019)
  • Samsung PM853T 960GB ~$330 ( can't find the warranty check tool lol)
  • Intel DC P3605 1.6TB $850,- (no warranty / OEM)
  • Intel DC P3700 800GB - $780 (new)
Local deals (EU) exist as well:
  • Samsung SM843TN 480GB (SATA3) ~€110,- OEM ( 3month warranty)
  • Samsung SM843T 960GB (Sata3) €220,- OEM ( 3month warranty)
  • Samsung SM843T 240GB (SATA3) €70,- OEM ( 3month warranty)
  • Samsung SM863 960GB (SATA3) €300,- OEM (3 month warranty)
  • HP Z Turbo Drive G2 512GB NVMe €300,- OEM (DOA arrival warranty)

I have about 30 VM's (and plan to expand), ranging from SQLServer / MariaDB / Plex / Wordpress & Flask websites. This is a homelab/hobby thing, so not production.

Any recommendations (been reading through the forum and it didn't help hehe - e.g. fusion = cheap, fast, but uses a lot of power).

4x S3500 (Storage Spaces Dual Mirror (raid 10'ish) + REFS) would be cheaper than the 1x 1.6TB P3605...
 
Last edited:

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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Just to be clear I said you would need more than 4, and you should use S3700 not S3500 if you want to compete with P3700 performance.

Also, if you're using Napp-IT VM NVME doesn't pass-through like a HBA at this time... at-least I haven't gotten it to work and every post/thread here I've bumped inthe last 3 mo asking and no one has claimed to have gotten it to work. I haven't tried ZoL but you could try Ubuntu VM and run ZFS or mdadm RAID for NVME if you wanted to go that route if not then I use it as a datastore in ESXI direct.
 

jjoyceiv

Member
May 31, 2016
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Just to be clear I said you would need more than 4, and you should use S3700 not S3500 if you want to compete with P3700 performance.
What of the reliability of one NVMe drive vs. being able to tolerate at least one drive failure? Are these late-model Intel cards *that* dependable?
 

Mirabis

Member
Mar 18, 2016
113
6
18
29
Just to be clear I said you would need more than 4, and you should use S3700 not S3500 if you want to compete with P3700 performance.

Also, if you're using Napp-IT VM NVME doesn't pass-through like a HBA at this time... at-least I haven't gotten it to work and every post/thread here I've bumped inthe last 3 mo asking and no one has claimed to have gotten it to work. I haven't tried ZoL but you could try Ubuntu VM and run ZFS or mdadm RAID for NVME if you wanted to go that route if not then I use it as a datastore in ESXI direct.
Aye understood. I purchased 2x P3700 800GB and will utillize Tiered Storage Spaces to add some slower spindles or ssds as cold storage for the VM data. Will do for now :)
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
113
What of the reliability of one NVMe drive vs. being able to tolerate at least one drive failure? Are these late-model Intel cards *that* dependable?
Being tolerant to a failure = more reliable no matter NVME, SSD, Spinner, etc... so keep that in mind with any drive setup :)

Are the S3500, S3700 etc... dependable? Yes... Myself, and many many others here are using MANY of them :)