Cheap but fully compatible M.2 drives?

Coojeekitten · 29 Jan 2020 at 21:35

Hi

I'm building an editing rig & for main storage, I'm thinking of a RAID0 M.2 array instead of a platter drive. For my main drives I'm using Samsung, but for RAID, I'm wondering that the forum feels about the Intel 660p drives?

Mcnumpty2323 · 29 Jan 2020 at 21:44

Qlc memory
Once cache is full speed will drop
Rapidly
Corsair mp510s would be my choice
First ssds I have bought not
Samsung
Though cost more than the intel
Obviously as the Intel is a budget
Drive
How will you benefit from raid0?
Microsoft storage spaces is more versatile in my opinion

Coojeekitten · 29 Jan 2020 at 21:51

Thanks for your reply.

I was going to use 4x 1tb to make a 4tb drive.

I don't want it to cost way more than a platter though. I was going to use this:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...roller-card-v2-90mc06p0-m0eay0-cc-001-as.html

Not sure about Microsoft Storage spaces - I had to look it up.

But I'm after the physical space, which I don't think Storage Spaces gives to me?

I'll check out Corsair.

Mcnumpty2323 · 29 Jan 2020 at 21:57

You using a vroc Intel cpu
Or thread ripper
That Asus card specifically mentions
Those so may need them
Storage spaces is very versatile
Can add as many drives as you like
Can mix and match ssds, M2. Hdd
No space loss if you use different
Size drives unlike raid 0
Is free
Survives Windows re~install
Can do a lot with it
Uses refs file system
No idea on size limit I set mine to 10tb
But goes way higher
You set size limit at beginning
And can switch drives out for larger
Drives etc

Coojeekitten · 29 Jan 2020 at 22:01

Thanks, I will read up on it more, but I'm sure it needs the physical space to start with? This is to provide medium term storage for my work.

It's for Intel, but I think the motherboard supports RAID, so I'm hoping I can use the motherboard as the controller?

Mcnumpty2323 · 29 Jan 2020 at 22:09

Not sure you can use the motherboard
As controller
That may be why it says vroc
Virtual raid on cpu
I think it stands for
Or something similar
But not used those Asus cards so
Could be wrong
With storage spaces
Once windows is installed
You go to storage spaces
Set it up
Only need 2 drives to start or can use more
no matter if identical or mismatched
You tell it an upper size limit
Could say 50 terabytes to allow for future expansion
Not quite sure what need the physical
Space means
Bit of a doh! Day from me
Probably lol
But sometimes I read stuff over and over but it still doesn't register
Properly

Coojeekitten · 29 Jan 2020 at 22:12

Sorry, I meant that I need the physical storage space to start with. I don’t have that. I will read more about it tomorrow.

flea.rider · 29 Jan 2020 at 22:13

Kingston A2000 NVMe got a 500gb for £56 .. do a google and find it .. good price half decent

Mcnumpty2323 · 29 Jan 2020 at 22:18

Coojeekitten said:
Sorry, I meant that I need the physical storage space to start with. I don’t have that. I will read more about it tomorrow.

No worries
It has definite advantages over hardware raid
Especially refs~resilient file system ~for critical data it's better than ntfs
If reading up try to find a recent article
Some of the older ones don't give full picture of its capabilities

Coojeekitten · 30 Jan 2020 at 08:19

Thank you all.

When I mention storage space, I mean physical places to plug in M.2 drives. My motherboard has 3 slots & I will be using them all. O/S, Project, Scratch. So for main storage, I was originally going to use a 4gb platter drive. Then I thought, maybe I'd try to use that Asus kit & that would give me another 4 slots for M.2 drives.

Coojeekitten · 30 Jan 2020 at 08:32

I've been reading up, the Asus M.2 unit look really complex to set up. So instead I'll get a 4tb SSD, or maybe 2x 2tb.

Mcnumpty2323 · 30 Jan 2020 at 18:20

Coojeekitten said:
Thank you all.

When I mention storage space, I mean physical places to plug in M.2 drives. My motherboard has 3 slots & I will be using them all. O/S, Project, Scratch. So for main storage, I was originally going to use a 4gb platter drive. Then I thought, maybe I'd try to use that Asus kit & that would give me another 4 slots for M.2 drives.

Thanks
That's the part my brain was struggling with understanding lol
There are cards that take 2 x m2
Those aren't raid or vroc needed
2 of those assuming you have 2 pci~e
Slots free
And storage spaces will still see
Them as 4 x M2 and use them
That's where it has advantages over
Hardware raid
Simply put
Any drive connected to your pc
Storage spaces can use it
No complicated set up involved
Might be an akasa card
I saw on ocuk that took 2 x m2

pc-guy · 30 Jan 2020 at 18:42

If you want to use the ASUS adaptor for JBOD there is no setup required.

mid you want to raid them then that’s a different ball game. From what I ascertained is that you will likely to need raid capable riser cards. But even those will have some performance limitation due to the massive data rate (potentially saturating the PCIe lanes). It can be done but not cheaply. If you want cheap use the 4 slots as individual drives.

Raid0 is dangerous tho. I would only ever think you want to use Raid0 for your scratch disk. But having scratch as raid0 is kinda pointless as it is unlikely to be the only bottle neck in your system. Since you have 3 M.2 in your motherboard why not out your NVMe drives in those and then raid the SATA HDDs to form your scratch. You can get decent performance from 4 lots or even 5 lots of spin disks.

maybe with the thread ripper the setup is easier for raid as the supported motherboards are very rich in features as opposed to intel ones.

Mcnumpty2323 · 30 Jan 2020 at 18:51

pc-guy said:
If you want to use the ASUS adaptor for JBOD there is no setup required.

mid you want to raid them then that’s a different ball game. From what I ascertained is that you will likely to need raid capable riser cards. But even those will have some performance limitation due to the massive data rate (potentially saturating the PCIe lanes). It can be done but not cheaply. If you want cheap use the 4 slots as individual drives.

Raid0 is dangerous tho. I would only ever think you want to use Raid0 for your scratch disk. But having scratch as raid0 is kinda pointless as it is unlikely to be the only bottle neck in your system. Since you have 3 M.2 in your motherboard why not out your NVMe drives in those and then raid the SATA HDDs to form your scratch. You can get decent performance from 4 lots or even 5 lots of spin disks.

maybe with the thread ripper the setup is easier for raid as the supported motherboards are very rich in features as opposed to intel ones.

Thanks
Didn't know if the Asus card
Could do jbod or not
Storage spaces can use them then
And it does support refs file system
So less likely than ntfs to corrupt
Also supports a form of mirror if
Required
Though then you lose some size
And performance

Coojeekitten · 30 Jan 2020 at 19:09

Thanks for your help. I won't use the ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Card V2 as it looks too complicated & the design means that it's right in the way of the graphics card fans. For storage, I will probably use an SSD. I just need to check the costs. With a single SSD, I don't need to bother about RAID or JBOD & can keep things simple.

pc-guy · 30 Jan 2020 at 20:18

Coojeekitten said:
Thanks for your help. I won't use the ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Card V2 as it looks too complicated & the design means that it's right in the way of the graphics card fans. For storage, I will probably use an SSD. I just need to check the costs. With a single SSD, I don't need to bother about RAID or JBOD & can keep things simple.

watch out for the industrial grade drives getting dumped onto the second hand market by data centres - the famous auction site.

Innodisk, tosh, intel etc.

they are not M.2 format tho and will almost certainly need some kind of adaptor as well. but may save a lot of money.

otherwise for 4TB drives you will have to go with QLC drives which are really in its infancy as well as the tech behind it has pitfalls, ie the slower than HDD speed once the (dynamic) cache runs out and the fact that the more you stick on these drives the less cache it has as it is dynamic.

Coojeekitten · 31 Jan 2020 at 07:16

Thanks.

I was looking at this one for 4tb storage. I can't see a mention of QLC?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...olid-state-drive-mz-76e4t0b-eu-hd-236-sa.html

tamzzy · 31 Jan 2020 at 07:46

That's TLC nand

Coojeekitten · 31 Jan 2020 at 07:51

tamzzy said:
That's TLC nand

Thanks.

pc-guy · 31 Jan 2020 at 08:48

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15442/enmotus-midrive-rethinking-slc-caching-for-qlc-ssds

This is an interesting read. Looks like the right way to go about it for QLC. But may need the system to be fully in for it to work as the SLC caching needs time to distribute to the QLC