pfSense hardware

[anodos]

I'll just use a "regular" sata drive. No biggie

Or if you want to spend more money on less performance, you can use a satadom.

 

[Jailer]

I'll just use a "regular" sata drive. No biggie

They're generally cheaper too.

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

Well, i've decided to give myself another treat. Bought a Samsung 850 EVO 120GB. For 65 euro i just couldn't resist.

 

[jgreco]

The modern generation of SATA SSD's are pretty amazing.

That's what's inside.

 

[Ericloewe]

The modern generation of SATA SSD's are pretty amazing.

That's what's inside. :)

That's why SSDs are close to overtaking HDDs in the density metric.

 

[jgreco]

Yeah, it's all totally crazy. I fondly remember the days back when you could actually look at the schematic for a CPU. Ah, yes, transistor counts in the few thousands.

 

[joeschmuck]

I'd actually like to have a smaller case if the electronics are that small, just have a cheap plastic adapter to fit it into 2.5" hardware where needed.

 

[jgreco]

You have your wish. You can yank it out of the "cheap plastic adapter" that they include, if you really want. ;-) But for true space savings, go to M.2 form factor. Gets rid of those monster power and data connectors too.

 

[joeschmuck]

You have your wish. You can yank it out of the "cheap plastic adapter" that they include, if you really want. ;-) But for true space savings, go to M.2 form factor. Gets rid of those monster power and data connectors too.

I like the M.2 form factor quite a bit but in my reading, it sounds like some solid research must be done to ensure compatibility of the device to the MB, and I would not want the SATA version, I'd want the PCI-Express interface. Which one is more problematic, I'm not sure. The only downside to using the M.2 form factor is it not being portable to all machines.

 

[diedrichg]

Don't forget you need to choose between AHCI or NVMe too.

 

[joeschmuck]

I think AHCI is currently the most compatible but honestly I'd have to do some serious research.

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, every OS has an NVMe driver by now, and the newer platforms (Z97, X99 and Sunrise Point PCHs) support NVMe booting.

The real issue is SATA vs PCI-e. I don't enjoy this tendency newer interfaces have of supporting a lot of incompatible things without it being obvious. USB Type C does it too...

 

[jgreco]

I think AHCI is currently the most compatible but honestly I'd have to do some serious research.

SATA... (Samsung 850 EVO 500GB on a 9211-8i HBA port)

Code:

# dd if=/dev/da0 of=/dev/null bs=1048576 count=16384
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
17179869184 bytes transferred in 36.181637 secs (474822882 bytes/sec)

AHCI...(Samsung XP841 256GB)

Code:

# dd if=/dev/ada0 of=/dev/null bs=1048576 count=16384
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
17179869184 bytes transferred in 15.697701 secs (1094419445 bytes/sec)

NVMe... (Samsung 950 Pro 512GB)

Code:

# dd if=/dev/nvd1 of=/dev/null bs=1048576 count=16384
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
17179869184 bytes transferred in 10.635523 secs (1615329030 bytes/sec)

NVMe... (Intel 750 400GB)

Code:

# dd if=/dev/nvd0 of=/dev/null bs=1048576 count=16384
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
17179869184 bytes transferred in 7.060023 secs (2433401281 bytes/sec)

Research done. Answer: Find a board that supports NVMe and then let the bits fly.

 

[diedrichg]

I'll post an article from the most recent PCWorld about all the new SSD options.

 

[jgreco]

I'll post an article from the most recent PCWorld about all the new SSD options.

What, this?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2977...dup-tiny-drives-deliver-huge-performance.html

 

[diedrichg]

What, this?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2977...dup-tiny-drives-deliver-huge-performance.html

Yeah, there you go. Saved me from having to create a PDF from my iPad screenshots. Thanks.

 

[joeschmuck]

Research done. Answer: Find a board that supports NVMe and then let the bits fly.

You have entirely too many toys to play with.

What, this?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2977...dup-tiny-drives-deliver-huge-performance.html

Nice article. I need a napkin, I'm drooling again. When the prices drop to 40 cents per GB, I'll seriously consider the upgrade.

 

[jgreco]

Yeah, there you go. Saved me from having to create a PDF from my iPad screenshots. Thanks.

Yeah, you can't just post a comment like that and then leave us all hanging. ;-)

 

[jgreco]

You have entirely too many toys to play with.

Perhaps. Those were actually all from the VM filer, which is currently in light production use. The Intel 750's for SLOG, the SM841 was the original L2ARC, the 950 Pro is the new L2ARC addition, and the 850 EVO's are for an SSD pool. So not so much play as it is stuff that's eventually going to be suffering in constant low level pain.

Nice article. I need a napkin, I'm drooling again. When the prices drop to 40 cents per GB, I'll seriously consider the upgrade.

The price is already there for the SATA stuff. Even for the Intel stuff. NewEgg recently had the Intel 535 480GB (SSDSC2BW480H6R5) for $139.99 on ... maybe Cyber Monday? A tiny 29 cents per GB. Even at a more normal price of $189.99, that's still 40c/GB. SanDisk (recently eaten by Western Digital) was seen at Best Buy selling the SanDisk Ultra II 960 for $199.99, or 21 cents per GB. Even the M.2 SATA based 850 EVO 500GB was going for $148.

But even on the NVMe front, prices are falling rapidly. The Intel 750 1.2TB is now only $799, or 67c/GB. Pretty sure we'll hit your 40c/GB next year for NVMe.

 

[diedrichg]

NVMe or bust!

I just assumed that article hadn't made it to their website yet since it was in their most recent publication.