Intel 520 series SSDs

[ullbeking]

Hey all,

I'm in need of SSDs for many of my 1U servers, and I've been offered a very good number of Intel 520 series 240 GB, at a great price.

I know these SSDs are old but I keep hearing such great things about them, such as their longevity. The value for money also means that I can stock up a bit.

SSD technology is improving all the time and drives can and do fail. A Samsung 850 series 256 GB is probably just as good for longevity, surely faster (in theory), and will come with a warranty. An EVO is about 50% more expensive than a used Intel 520, and a Pro is almost twice the price. I wouldn't expect the speed difference to be very noticeable because they will be installed in good but older servers (based on Supermicro X9 series).

In my case, the overall picture is important: accepting that SSDs can and do fail; being prepared with a backup supply of replacement SSDs; and considering that my servers are X9's rather than the latest technology.

It's doubtful that I'll use mirrored RAID as each server will have two hot-swappable drive bays at its front. I'm thinking of a single SSD for the OS and any VMs, plus a single HDD for bulk storage (such as external volumes for the VMs). Instead of RAID, I may try to configure the nodes in active/active pairs (plus, perhaps, another machine on warm standby). Whenever anything fails, not just a disk, failover over should be automatic.

If a node drops out because a disk failed, the hot-swappable drive bays at the front of the chassis will be important because an engineer in a remote data centre can change a disk without unracking the whole chassis. I really don't want want any untrusted person opening up any of my servers.

Really, this is an educational project for me to learn about distributed computing, and hosting services that need resilience and high availability. In particular, the hardware I've been procuring makes it relatively affordable to build my own infrastructure.

I digress and want to draw our attention back to the topic of refurbished Intel 520 series SSDs. What do you think? Thanks!!

ullbeking

 

[Evan]

Refurbished ??
Hmm that’s what I would be a bit worried about, that word always scares me, simply used is less worrying somehow

 

[i386]

I have one in my pc



Sequential read performance is good, but writes are okayish (s3710 and other enterprise ssd spoiled me).

If you need performance (under sutained workloads) use other drives (intel s3710/s4600, hgst husmm or if you have a empty pcie x8 slot 900p optane ssd).

 

[ullbeking]

Refurbished ??
Hmm that’s what I would be a bit worried about, that word always scares me, simply used is less worrying somehow

I guess I was never very clear about making a distinction between refurbished and second-hand and yes, I agree that for plain SSDs it doesn't inspire confidence. Looing back through our email history, we simply called them second-hand most of the time, which is what I expected and wanted, i.e., old disks pulled out of old but working machines, tested for SMART results, and if OK then put up for sale.

On the other hand, if I was in the market for an already assembled, second-hand server, then "refurbished" takes on a different meaning. For example, that the system has been taken apart and inspected for mould, condensation, other forms of physical damage; fans replaced where needed; excessive dust has been cleared out; parts checked for correct operation, etc. Which doesn't sound so bad.

I think I shold get back to the seller and ask about the history of these days drives. He said he keeps a lot in stock because they have very low failure rates, and that if they were any higher he wouldn't bother.

Obviously I've considered Samsung 850 EVO and Pro, but I'm getting mixed messages.

There are other options too, such as second hand Intel S3500 series if I need to go up to 800 GB. For similar money I could get new 150 GB -240 GB SSDs, in Intel S3520 or S4500, or Samsung PM863a or SM863a.

Whichever SSD I end up choosing, I don't expect them to be getting hammered. But I do need to consider that these machines might end up in faraway locations, so I won't be around often, if at all, to service them myself when they do finally die (hence my comment earlier about hot-swappable, front-loading drive bays).

The question really is this: How do I finish provioning my servers so I can get them online, accepting that some of the hardware might be second-hand and out of warranty, and may fail quickly. In this case I'd ensure I've already got a decent backup supply at hand. (Not to mention that new SSDs can fail early too.). The other options are low capacity, new, Intel or Samsung "Enterprise" SSDs.

I don't want to buy very expensive hardware until I know whether or not this project is working out. If it does work, then I'll be so happy just for that, and only too enthusiastic to upgrade to newer or more powerful hardware in an incremental way then.

 

[ullbeking]

Sequential read performance is good, but writes are okayish (s3710 and other enterprise ssd spoiled me).

If you need performance (under sutained workloads) use other drives (intel s3710/s4600, hgst husmm or if you have a empty pcie x8 slot 900p optane ssd).

I don't need performance as much as I need durability and something that just gets the job done without causing me grief. I don't expect these disks will be taking a hammering.

 

[Evan]

Intel S series and Samsung pm/sm863 are all solid.
I am sure the intel 520’s will be good also.

 

[ullbeking]

Thank you @Evan and @i386 !