Need more storage

Cavallino · 23 Oct 2021 at 15:37

So folks, Im finding that with a 350mbit connection, more games, more family photos being taken I am running out of storage more quickly that I thought I would.

I currently have as follows:
3 drives. C System drive SSD @ 0.5TB, D Storage drive HDD @ 2TB, E Games drive SSD @ 2TB.

I understand solid state drives have limited read/write and not ideal for long term storage? (please correct me if I am wrong).

At the same time I would still like to have a "fast solid state" storage drives so I can edit photos etc, for faster drive access.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts and advice on this... e.g.

Should I perhaps go with a series of HDDs for more storage or perhaps one super big HDD?
And perhaps get a couple of SSDs/NVME drives?

andy_mk3 · 23 Oct 2021 at 15:43

Cavallino said:
I understand solid state drives have limited read/write and not ideal for long term storage? (please correct me if I am wrong).

They do have a limited amount of writes, but the average consumer will never get close to this. Plus with that being the case, long term storage would mean they're being written to fairly infrequently. SSDs are absolutely fine for long term storage, but not always the best in terms of value.

Perhaps replace the 500GB with a 1/2TB SSD for OS and storage. Then add a 4-14TB drive as long term storage. That way you have a fair bit more SSD storage and can have a huge amount of HDD storage. A HDD is going to be fast enough for image editing anyway, it's not a drive intensive task at all.

At this point I would also suggest a decent backup is in place if not already, as is often overlooked

Cavallino · 23 Oct 2021 at 15:54

andy_mk3 said:
They do have a limited amount of writes, but the average consumer will never get close to this. Plus with that being the case, long term storage would mean they're being written to fairly infrequently. SSDs are absolutely fine for long term storage, but not always the best in terms of value.

Perhaps replace the 500GB with a 1/2TB SSD for OS and storage. Then add a 4-14TB drive as long term storage. That way you have a fair bit more SSD storage and can have a huge amount of HDD storage. A HDD is going to be fast enough for image editing anyway, it's not a drive intensive task at all.

At this point I would also suggest a decent backup is in place if not already, as is often overlooked

Thanks for the quick response andy_mk3!.

500GB drive = I would like to leave this untouched if I am being honest as my "system drive". Even if there is still space (Im considering this for future OS's etc).

Regarding 4-14TB drive, presumably an HDD of some kind? I would like to get a beefy HDD like this actually so I dont have to worry about storage. Any recommendations?

i suppose I could get another 2TB SSD as a psuedo games/data drive?

2TB NVME drive for games which I have can stay the same.

Incidentally what is the best bang for buck these in terms of SSD storage? Is 2TB still the sweet spot or could I go higher without paying too much premium at 4TB for eg?

andy_mk3 · 23 Oct 2021 at 15:58

That's fair enough if you want to leave your OS drive as is.

2TB still seems to be around the best value for SSD storage, moving up to 4TB they are usually over 2x the price.

HDD storage depends on your budget but something like this would be ideal, or larger if you need: https://store.overclockers.co.uk/se...nternal-hard-drive-st8000dm004-hd-39z-se.html

Cavallino · 23 Oct 2021 at 16:20

Thanks andy_mk3.

Actually I dont mind going even bigger on the HDD, but from risk point of view am I better off splitting the HDDs? or just going for one big one?
I know you mentioned the 8TB one in the link, I dont mind going higher e.g. 12TB?
E.g. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-g...atacenter-hard-drive-wd121kryz-hd-54y-wd.html
(are these WD Gold drives overkill? any difference to the one you mentioned earlier?)

And then separately I might pick up another 2TB SSD/M.2/NVME to go alongside my existing one.
(Can M.2/NVME drives be RAID-ed for faster access? or not worth the hassle these days?)

andy_mk3 · 23 Oct 2021 at 16:33

It is overkill yes, but at that price point it's not such bad value either. Having one big drive vs two or more smaller drives, yes you will lose everything vs only losing half or a third of your data, but really anything you don't want to lose should be backed up in two locations anyway.

Personally I run a NAS with several drives & a parity drive which allows for one drive to fail at a time without any data loss. But that's a whole different rabbit hole

I think in your case I would go for the single larger drive and have a backup in place.

As for RAID on NVME drives, absolutely no point these days

Cavallino · 23 Oct 2021 at 21:24

Ok great, cheers andy_mk3. I think Ill go with the 12TB Gold and the SN750 2TB.

Incidentally, I have a NAS but its a very bog standard one and must be 10 years old now?

Any recommendation for something not overly complicated for a novice

?
(storage wise I would like there to be around 6 to 8TB at least in the NAS.

Snapshot · 24 Oct 2021 at 08:37

There's not really any difference in complication between NASs. Just buy from one of the three major brands (Asustor, QNAP & Synology) and they'll all be equally easy to set up. The major choice is that of RAID level and that only becomes a real issue with four drives or more. For your use I'd suggest a two-drive unit using RAID1 with HDDs each equal to the total storage you want.

Cavallino · 24 Oct 2021 at 13:05

Cheers Snapshot.
So I have a DS115J Synology which has served me well.
Its a single drive affair so Im not fussed about RAIDing at this time.

What I dont get is that in the manual it says the max supported capacity is 5TB.
https://global.download.synology.co...on/15-year/DS115j/enu/Syno_QIG_DS115j_enu.pdf

But here:

https://www.synology.com/en-uk/comp...&category=hdds_no_ssd_trim&p=1&change_log_p=1

It says I can get up to 10TB or even 14TB?

Any thoughts on this?

andy_mk3 · 24 Oct 2021 at 13:31

It's possoble that software/firmware updates have allowed it to support larger drives and the manual hasn't been updated to reflect that.

Cavallino · 24 Oct 2021 at 13:42

Ah fair comment!

On reflection I was thinking about what some of you were mentioning about RAIDing, I guess its always useful to have a back up of the backup....
Anything in the Synology range which would suit this for having 2 drive bays?

(or is it overkill for now?)

Donnie Fisher · 24 Oct 2021 at 17:51

5tb might have simply been the normal max capacity hdd at the time of original print. Since then larger drives may have come out , but they wouldn’t go back and change the original doc files. Not unusual to happen in the tech world.

Cavallino · 24 Oct 2021 at 19:16

Thanks Donnie.

Now all I need to think about is either sticking with a 1 drive NAS or should I get a new 2 drive NAS....

Snapshot · 27 Oct 2021 at 08:24

For me there's nothing to decide there. My data are valuable so they're properly protected.

Cavallino · 27 Oct 2021 at 19:45

So I got the 6TB WD Gold for the DS115J NAS.

Is it me or are these things a big loud? (or have I just been used to SSDs and a crappy slow HDD?)

Cavallino · 27 Oct 2021 at 21:36

Ok for a NAS this is ok... but for my rig? It will drive me crazy so I will send back the WD Gold 10TB for sure.

I do want a high performing drive but I am not fussed about Data server/enterprise level.

Something with 7200rpm... any suggestions folks?

Cavallino · 27 Oct 2021 at 22:34

Sorry for an additional post folks, so I think Ive narrowed it down to :
(10TB drive)

WD Red Pro, Red Plus, Purple Pro, Black
Or the Seagate Ironwold or Skyhawk...

I
am
Confoozed

The gold is much too loud as I discovered above, perhaps the Black would be better?

Snapshot · 28 Oct 2021 at 08:25

The WD Reds and Seagate Ironwolf are intended for NAS use so you can discount those straight away. Similarly, the WD Purple is intended for use in surveillance systems so not appropriate for your use. That just leaves two to choose from.
A small amount of initial research would have shown you the drives' intended use, would have prevented you buying the Gold in the first place and being confused with your later choices.

Cavallino · 30 Oct 2021 at 22:09

So returning the Gold 10TB I ordered for my PC (Im keeping the 6GB for my NAS, to be honest Im not too fussed about the sound from it as I back up once a week or so).
Instead I just received my WD Black 10TB...
and have to say... its spot on, I honestly cant hear it over the case fans (which are not that loud anyway).

I also bought another 2TB WD Black M2 drive, so got plenty of storage now

Thanks to all for your advice and comments.

Incidentally, what is the defacto HD benchmark software to use to make sure Im getting what Im supposed to be getting out of the drives?

Snapshot · 31 Oct 2021 at 06:32

I don't know if it's the most popular but I use CrystalDiskMark.