PCIe SSD boot options

[pincorrect]

I'm starting to plan a new system and would appreciate some recommendations on selecting device(s) for the boot drive. If I did not want to boot from a USB stick or get an SSD that uses up a SATA port, it seems that the most likely option is a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD. Most of those are M.2 connector devices. There are some that have a PCIe connector, but they seem overpriced, maybe because M.2 is more popular. If I go with a Supermicro X10*** or X11*** motherboard, there are several versions with an M.2 connector. Am I on the right track, so far?

However, I have seen a few posts that recommend mirroring the boot device. Is this still desirable even if the boot device is an SSD? In that case, I'd need to figure out how to add a 2nd SSD. I don't think there are any mb's with 2 M.2 connectors. However, I see that there are some pretty inexpensive M.2 to PCIe x4 adapter cards. Would it be viable to plug one SSD in the M.2 connector on the motherboard, and then put the other one of these PCIe adapters and plug it into a PCIe slot? Both SSD's would be using the PCIe bus, but would timing differences between using these two different paths to get to the bus interfere with mirroring the devices, or degrade performance?

Thanks for you advice!

 

[chris crude]

Many people mirror their USB drive because they have been known to fail. From what i've read, SSD's do not have the same failure rate and definitely have the bonus of being faster. Even if you do have a boot drive failure, if you keep regular copies of your config file it is quick and easy to replace the failed drive.

 

[Spearfoot]

I'm starting to plan a new system and would appreciate some recommendations on selecting device(s) for the boot drive. If I did not want to boot from a USB stick or get an SSD that uses up a SATA port, it seems that the most likely option is a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD. Most of those are M.2 connector devices. There are some that have a PCIe connector, but they seem overpriced, maybe because M.2 is more popular. If I go with a Supermicro X10*** or X11*** motherboard, there are several versions with an M.2 connector. Am I on the right track, so far?

However, I have seen a few posts that recommend mirroring the boot device. Is this still desirable even if the boot device is an SSD? In that case, I'd need to figure out how to add a 2nd SSD. I don't think there are any mb's with 2 M.2 connectors. However, I see that there are some pretty inexpensive M.2 to PCIe x4 adapter cards. Would it be viable to plug one SSD in the M.2 connector on the motherboard, and then put the other one of these PCIe adapters and plug it into a PCIe slot? Both SSD's would be using the PCIe bus, but would timing differences between using these two different paths to get to the bus interfere with mirroring the devices, or degrade performance?

Thanks for you advice!

First of all... Welcome to the forums!

Booting from an M.2 device is fine, and you can get by without mirroring the boot drive, provided you always keep a copy of your FreeNAS configuration. Be sure to store it somewhere other than the FreeNAS system itself, of course! With a copy of your configuration available, a failed boot drive is no problem at all: simply replace the failed disk, re-install FreeNAS, restore your configuration, and you're 'off to the races'. So you may want to consider buying a spare M.2 device to keep on-hand in case this happens.

Good luck!

 

[BigDave]

I have recently begun to play with this type hardware. I currently have an Asus Hyper M.2 X4 Mini
expansion card with an Intel 512GB 600P series SSD.
I have managed to format it as a working storage drive on a ASRock Z87 Extreme6 motherboard
running Windows 7 Pro 64bit (this was not easy, at least for me)

I'm going to try to get this going as a boot drive in Linux and Windows first, and then possibly FreeNAS.
I'm just having fun with it right now.

 

[pincorrect]

Very good. Thanks for the quick replies. I'll go with one M.2 SSD.

 

[chris crude]

Very good. Thanks for the quick replies. I'll go with one M.2 SSD.

I have read that the m.2 that uses the PCI lanes are harder to find in a smaller size than the ones that use sata so make sure you don't purchase the wrong one for your board.