Recommended m.2 for ESXi datastore

[MortenB]

Hey

Im building a new server based on Supermicro X11SPI-TF and a Xeon Gold Cascade Lake.
Board has PCIe x4 m.2 slot, and the possibility of using something like a Asus Hyper card for the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot.
I have a Samsung PM981 512GB in my old host, but its a bit small.

Im thinking 1TB is a decent middle ground, otherwise 2 TB can work too.

Any suggestions on some m.2 model that makes sense given these PCIe 3.0 limitations?

I also have a Samsung PM1643 1.92TB SAS SSD free(and also several Sandisk Optimus Eco 1.92TB SAS SSDs), but Im thinking that running this + a SAS3008 type controller is a total waste of power consumption?
Will be running 16 x 3.84TB Sandisk SAS SSDs on Lenovo 430/530-16i, so thats gonna pull some as well for sure

 

[DavidWJohnston]

I have 2 ESXi servers with similar motherboards, and I run the Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB in the M.2 slots. The performance has been excellent, but they are not intended for enterprise use. My workload is speed-sensitive, but not write-intensive.

The 2TB version has double the write endurance, and having a larger amount of free space will help as well. I also run the Oracle F-series PCIe card SSDs which have a much higher endurance, and can be bought inexpensively used, with all the caveats that come with buying used SSDs.

If you give more info about your workload and how write-intensive it is, I could suggest something else.