Story goes like this: In my house, there are a few very old 250-320 GB HDs still in service in my family computers. One is throwing SMART errors, the other died today with some data in it that had no backups. I will have to figure out if I can somehow revive it to copy the data elsewhere (The HD is recognized and somewhat boots, but Windows XP throws a ntfs.sys BSOD 2 or 3 minutes in. Maybe it has enough life left to manage to use Linux to do a raw copy to another disk... But I don't have one to spare), or if I will have to sell my butt to pay for a data recovery service.
Regardless these details, somehow this served as the perfect excuse to explode the wallet to replace the remaining mechanical HDs with more reliable SSDs. As here the price of consumer stuff is so ridiculous inflated, at times the decomissioned server stuff that is usually posted in the Great Deals subforum makes far more sense as it gives me the chance to go for enterprise grade gear for around the same cost than purchasing consumer here. However, I live in Argentina, so I also have to find a seller that does international shipping, and also keep in mind that international shipping also adds a significant cost and risk.
While I have some idea about what I want, I know absolutely nothing about particular models, issues, quirks, or whatever else would make one specific model better than another one if around the same price. Basically, what I should aim to buy, and what is to be avoided. There is also the problem about availability, or how often they appear used/decomissioned at decent prices.
Since the rest of my family are not big data hoarders there is no reason to even consider the ultra dense helium HDs, I think that they can go full SSD, given that good priced ones are already bigger than their current HDs. I'm currently aiming at SSDs since two 500 GB-1 TiB parts should be able to hold all their data. I'm still unsure whenever deploying them individually per machine, or if it would be worth to make a dedicated File Server and use them in RAID 1, or treat them as JBODs.
Regarding money, the whole operation (Including shipping costs and customs. Customs I think that are 50% for new stuff, but used stuff shouldn't pay it) should be around 300 U$D. Reputable sellers are a must considering the risk.
Current options:
1) Locally purchase consumer SATA SSDs
This is not my intended goal, but would do so in an act out of desesperation. Everything else requires international shipping and patiently wait at least two weeks. My go-to option would be the classical Samsungs EVO series, but they carry an absurd price premium.
2) Purchase enterprise SATA SSDs
Options seems to be the Intel SSD S3500 series or something like that. They're already rather old. I know that Samsung also have some enterprise SATA SSDs. My current idea would be to purchase two 500 GB-1 TB sized ones, one for each machine, and call it problem solved.
3) Purchase enterprise SAS SSDs
This is what I'm hoping to. However, they seem very expensive. Besides that I don't know if the price premium between SAS and SATA is worth it in quality and features, it also reduces the price gap with NVMe (Which is ridiculous, as I don't have that much money to spend, nor these computers can fit them without PCIe adapters). However, I'm aware that it will boil down to what SSDs models are available in the market at a given moment and at what price, since maybe used SAS is not priced much above SATA. For reference, I have been looking in the FS/FT/WTB subforum and saw a guy selling a 1.92 TiB SAS SSD, the HGST Ultrastar SSD1600MR HUSMR1619ASS231 for 230 U$D, which I would have to stretch the budget for but seems around what I want.
Moreover, going SAS means that I need a SAS Controller and at least a single breakout cable. I suppose that a cheap SAS2 HBA in IT mode should suffice. I would have to read older posts about what OEMs provides close to reference cards that can be flashed with LSI Firmwares and so on to know which card to aim for, but I also need to check if those cards are somewhere available.
I suppose that going for this option forces me to repurpose a computer (Probably mine) as a 24/7 File Server unless I can somehow fit in my budget 2 controllers, 2 cables and 2 SAS SSDs so that each computer may have its own local SSD.
Any particular go-to models that I should be looking for?
Regardless these details, somehow this served as the perfect excuse to explode the wallet to replace the remaining mechanical HDs with more reliable SSDs. As here the price of consumer stuff is so ridiculous inflated, at times the decomissioned server stuff that is usually posted in the Great Deals subforum makes far more sense as it gives me the chance to go for enterprise grade gear for around the same cost than purchasing consumer here. However, I live in Argentina, so I also have to find a seller that does international shipping, and also keep in mind that international shipping also adds a significant cost and risk.
While I have some idea about what I want, I know absolutely nothing about particular models, issues, quirks, or whatever else would make one specific model better than another one if around the same price. Basically, what I should aim to buy, and what is to be avoided. There is also the problem about availability, or how often they appear used/decomissioned at decent prices.
Since the rest of my family are not big data hoarders there is no reason to even consider the ultra dense helium HDs, I think that they can go full SSD, given that good priced ones are already bigger than their current HDs. I'm currently aiming at SSDs since two 500 GB-1 TiB parts should be able to hold all their data. I'm still unsure whenever deploying them individually per machine, or if it would be worth to make a dedicated File Server and use them in RAID 1, or treat them as JBODs.
Regarding money, the whole operation (Including shipping costs and customs. Customs I think that are 50% for new stuff, but used stuff shouldn't pay it) should be around 300 U$D. Reputable sellers are a must considering the risk.
Current options:
1) Locally purchase consumer SATA SSDs
This is not my intended goal, but would do so in an act out of desesperation. Everything else requires international shipping and patiently wait at least two weeks. My go-to option would be the classical Samsungs EVO series, but they carry an absurd price premium.
2) Purchase enterprise SATA SSDs
Options seems to be the Intel SSD S3500 series or something like that. They're already rather old. I know that Samsung also have some enterprise SATA SSDs. My current idea would be to purchase two 500 GB-1 TB sized ones, one for each machine, and call it problem solved.
3) Purchase enterprise SAS SSDs
This is what I'm hoping to. However, they seem very expensive. Besides that I don't know if the price premium between SAS and SATA is worth it in quality and features, it also reduces the price gap with NVMe (Which is ridiculous, as I don't have that much money to spend, nor these computers can fit them without PCIe adapters). However, I'm aware that it will boil down to what SSDs models are available in the market at a given moment and at what price, since maybe used SAS is not priced much above SATA. For reference, I have been looking in the FS/FT/WTB subforum and saw a guy selling a 1.92 TiB SAS SSD, the HGST Ultrastar SSD1600MR HUSMR1619ASS231 for 230 U$D, which I would have to stretch the budget for but seems around what I want.
Moreover, going SAS means that I need a SAS Controller and at least a single breakout cable. I suppose that a cheap SAS2 HBA in IT mode should suffice. I would have to read older posts about what OEMs provides close to reference cards that can be flashed with LSI Firmwares and so on to know which card to aim for, but I also need to check if those cards are somewhere available.
I suppose that going for this option forces me to repurpose a computer (Probably mine) as a 24/7 File Server unless I can somehow fit in my budget 2 controllers, 2 cables and 2 SAS SSDs so that each computer may have its own local SSD.
Any particular go-to models that I should be looking for?