NVMe Suggestion

[Fastline]

Hello guys,

So, I have a PCIe 4.0 system in which I plan to use 4 NVMe M.2 SSDs using AIC.

I'm having a few questions

1. Is using AIC is a good choice here? After researching, I came to know that HBA aren't good for NVMe (U.2) as that does not connect directly to the CPU and increases the latency which affects the speed.

2. I'm looking for 2/4TB Gen3/Gen4 (preferred) SSDs. After researching, I came up with two models. Intel 670p and WD SN850X.

Both, Intel 670p and WD SN850X are client drives. However, the endurance for Intel is very low. Although the endurance for WD SN850X is standard, I'm not sure about the random read/write performance.

The another SSD I looked at was Micron 7450Max. But considering it's Gen4, the Read Write Speeds are quite low for the M.2 variant.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

Thanks

EDIT: Also looked at Solidgm P44 Pro and that seemed to outperform all. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Davvo]

What is your use case going to be? What about network and CPU?

 

[Fastline]

What is your use case going to be?

Some video projects and scratch data.

What about network and CPU?

For the network side, having a couple of 10GbE, 25GbE, 40GbE and also 100GbE NICs. For the CPU, I'm having 2nd Generation and 3rd Generation Xeon Scalable with Supermicro Motherboard.

 

[Davvo]

The Solidgm P44 Pro is one of the best drives around performance-wise, not sure about its endurance but do note it has DRAM on board. If you expect mixed reads and writes (which as far as I know you shouldn't given your expected usage) you want to go with Optanes.

I am going to suggest you getting a good quality UPS, it being kinda mandatory without any PLP on the drives themselves.
Also, you want to have an heatsink on those drives since you can likely make use of your network's speed; about the CPU, if you are going to use SMB do note that it's better to have higher clock than core count.​

 

[nabsltd]

2. I'm looking for 2/4TB Gen3/Gen4 (preferred) SSDs. After researching, I came up with two models. Intel 670p and WD SN850X.

How many drives per card? There aren't many reliable PCIe 4.0 cards that hold 4x NVMe.

If you insist on PCIe 4.0 drives, you aren't going to have much choice in the Enterprise arena, as most PCIe there are either U.2 or EDSFF. That said, the Samsung PM9A3 is a PCIe 4.0 drive with PLP, and is technically available in M.2 format in sizes up to 3.84TB, but anything larger than 1.92GB is hard to find. Micron also makes a 7450 Pro in M.2, and they are easier to find, but more expensive per TB.

 

[nabsltd]

The Solidgm P44 Pro is one of the best drives around performance-wise, not sure about its endurance​

Fairly pitiful:

512GB: 0.54 DWPD
1TB: 0.41 DWPD
2TB: 0.76 DWPD

 

[Davvo]

Still better than Kingstone's KC3000.

Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe Flagship SSD Hits Retail

www.anandtech.com

And MSI's SPATIUM M480 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 (0,40 for the 4TB model).

https://www.msi.com/Storage/SPATIUM-M480-PRO-PCIe-4.0-NVMe-M.2/Specification

EDIT: I believe Seagate's Firecuda is the best you can get, with a DWPD of 0,96 for the 2TB version.

https://www.seagate.com/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/firecuda-520-ssd-DS2024-2-2012IT-it_IT.pdf