Help me pick a large SSD

[yaxisandxaxis]

I'm tempted by all of this cheap capacity SSDs. I've considered a Samsung EVO but I'd rather just get MLC. It isn't like the cost is 50% less.

Here's my options ---

S3500 800GB - Intel 800GB DC S3500 MLC 2 5" SATA 6GB s Solid State Drive SSD SSDSC2BB800G4I | eBay

SanDisk 800GB - SanDisk 800 GB Internal 2 5" SDLKAC6M 800G 5CA1 SSD Solid State Drive | eBay

Micron M500DC 800GB - Micron M500DC 800GB 6GB Sec SATA 2 5 inch Solid State Drive SSD New Unused | eBay

SanDisk 960GB - SanDisk Cloudspeed Eco Solid State Drive 960GB 1TB SSD SATA 2 5" Hard Drive 0619659119607 | eBay

Samsung 960GB (SV843 or PM843) Samsung Enterprise 960GB SSD MZ 7WD960T OAZ | eBay

All of these are in the $300-400 range. I would trust the Micron, Intel and Samsung drives with my data. The SanDisk's I'm worried about. Less reviews out there. STH has a few but the SanDisk's I can't tell if they are similar server drives. I want power protection and to work in Raid and on Avago or LSI adapters. I'm hoping to get more than 1 to use as l2arc but only for 10 users.

 

[apnar]

Not to go too far off topic, but that seems like a very large l2arc. Remember that l2arc has to be tracked in arc which means in memory. If you fill up 960GB of l2arc that's a ton of records to keep in memory. I don't recall the exact ratio, but you should definitely look it up before committing to such a large l2arc.

 

[Entz]

Of the list I would likely take the Samsung. S3500 is a good drive but I would worry about its endurance. L2ARC tends to have a lot of writes pushed its way.

Not to go too far off topic, but that seems like a very large l2arc. Remember that l2arc has to be tracked in arc which means in memory. If you fill up 960GB of l2arc that's a ton of records to keep in memory. I don't recall the exact ratio, but you should definitely look it up before committing to such a large l2arc.

Yeah, too much L2ARC can actually lower your performance . The freeNAS recommendation is no more then 5x 7/8th of your ram . So for example 960GB L2ARC would only be suggested on a machine with > 219GB of RAM.

 

[Patrick]

I think you have several great options available. I would mirror the thoughts/ concerns on the L2ARC size.

 

[lundrog]

Go with the Micron Enterprise drive, if your going to write a lot to it.

 

[Patriot]

Go with the Micron Enterprise drive, if your going to write a lot to it.

Negative... Stay away from micron if you are going to write a lot...
Intel or Samsung for heavy writes... and mind the model.

 

[lundrog]

Negative... Stay away from micron if you are going to write a lot...
Intel or Samsung for heavy writes... and mind the model.

I was referring to number of writes before failure not performance.

 

[Patriot]

I was referring to number of writes before failure not performance.

Fair enough... but I only recommend Micron if cheap is the #1 goal... but you can get some better Toshiba's for the same price now.

 

[lundrog]

Fair enough... but I only recommend Micron if cheap is the #1 goal... but you can get some better Toshiba's for the same price now.

Agreed.

 

[Patrick]

The SanDisk Eco (now that I am almost done testing the entire cloudspeed line) is the only one that is not eMLC in the lineup, and only has a 2M hour MTBF. The rest of the lineup hits 2.5M hour MTBF. On the other hand, the Eco is also the fastest.