I was thinking of just sticking with a USB boot drive for ESXi but maybe SATA DOM is a good option. But $50 for a 16GB boot drive seems steep.
M.2 drive for SM X10SDV-F
- Thread starter JimPhreak
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$50 isn't bad for specialized hardware. I've overall had good luck with USB drives and ESXi, but expect the SATA drive to be more reliable and much quicker. Although a vSphere boot drive failure wouldn't be a showstopper, it would definitely be annoying, especially if I'm not around home to get it fixed. I actually have an extra 60GB Intel 330 drive lying around, but that would require running another cable from my power supply (current cable has 3xSATA power connectors). My ITX case is already pretty tight as it is.
Truth.
So I decided to pick up on those of those XP941 512GB for my VM storage as well. I also have 2 brand new Intel 730 SSD's that I now need to figure out what to do with in this build or else they are going back. I think I'm going to use one as a cache drive for my unRAID VM but unsure about what to do with the 2nd.
EDIT: Is there any reason not to go with the Samsung SM951 over the XP941 since the price is virtually the same? However the sequential read and write speeds are a good deal faster on the SM951.
EDIT #2: I see Samsung came out with an NVMe version of the SM951 but I can't find it for sale ANYWHERE.
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Yep, officially the NVMe SM951 variant is not for sale (yet?). They are however able to found in some newer HP enterprise flash drives and in some upcoming laptops.
Interestingly enough, they seem to bench better then the Intel 750 at lower wattage too.
Should probably point out that the 750 is no where near M.2 form factor.
First time working with an M.2 SSD. I just installed a Samsung SM951 512GB M.2 drive into my SuperMicro X10SDV-TLN4F board. It doesn't seem to be detecting it. Is there something specific that I need to configure in the BIOS for this to be detected?
EDIT: Posted in my workstation thread as it seems I'm having a multitude of issues.
EDIT: Posted in my workstation thread as it seems I'm having a multitude of issues.
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Very strange. With the Samsung XP941 it was literally screw it in and it was detected/ worked.
FWIW, I have a Plextor M6e 256GB, a 941 128GB, and a 750 PCIe 400GB model (which I'm starting to regret - the form factor, not the drive). I got the Plextor because it was the only PCIe B+M card (2x2.0) I could find (Sandisk A110 being the other, quite old, warranty-less option) but unlike the other two, it's given me nothing but problems. Anecdotal, single sample, but there you go.
I needed B-key for my vPro NUC 5i5 (why, Intel, why) and if doing it all over again, I'd just go with a S3500 M.2 for reliability, especially if I were using it as a hyper visor boot drive -- and in fact, as I do use my NUCs, especially the vPro ones, as test or supplemental VM hosts, it's on my shopping list for exactly that purpose.
I needed B-key for my vPro NUC 5i5 (why, Intel, why) and if doing it all over again, I'd just go with a S3500 M.2 for reliability, especially if I were using it as a hyper visor boot drive -- and in fact, as I do use my NUCs, especially the vPro ones, as test or supplemental VM hosts, it's on my shopping list for exactly that purpose.
Yup, been out a couple of months. 80GB is about $100.
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...oduct-specifications/ssd-dc-s3500-m2-spec.pdf
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...oduct-specifications/ssd-dc-s3500-m2-spec.pdf