Chris's Wiki :: blog/sysadmin/SSDIn3.5DriveBayProblem Commentshttps://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/sysadmin/SSDIn3.5DriveBayProblem?atomcommentsDWiki2017-06-12T21:01:18ZRecent comments in Chris's Wiki :: blog/sysadmin/SSDIn3.5DriveBayProblem.By Chris Siebenmann on /blog/sysadmin/SSDIn3.5DriveBayProblemtag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/SSDIn3.5DriveBayProblem:3e3ca56c47e972062c492f92c5556dac8acfa7bcChris Siebenmann<div class="wikitext"><p>We're using basically the bottom end of SSDs, so the $15 for an
enclosure is a real price increase. We're not using SSDs as system disks
because of performance (and not really because of durability), but
because <a href="https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/sysadmin/SSDsAsSystemDisks">big enough and good enough SSDs have reached the practical
minimum price of HDs</a> and so we more or less might
as well.</p>
</div>2017-06-12T21:01:18ZBy Ewen McNeill on /blog/sysadmin/SSDIn3.5DriveBayProblemtag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/SSDIn3.5DriveBayProblem:9631f2431fed67e2e192c5d24f63fc4807c46cbcEwen McNeill<div class="wikitext"><p>As a suggestion it's possible to hack the "extra part" friction by always ordering SSDs and sleds together, treating the "$n drive + $15 sled" as one "$n + $15" item. Maybe even going as far as to physically put them together like that as the deliveries come in, so what you have on the shelf is a <em>3.5" SSD/sled combination</em>, and make that the "stocked unit" internally. I'm a bit surprised there isn't a distributor already doing that integration for a margin. (I can see some "2.5" SSD + Desktop Upgrade Kit" ones, but they seem to be the mounting brackets and cables, rather than a sled.)</p>
<p>If the $n drive is $50 it's hard to justify. But if the $n drive is, eg, $100-$250 then $15 extra is a smaller fraction. So it possibly depends on just how small/cheap the drives you were planning on putting in are. From what I can see here $50 is pretty close to "non-prime brand, tiny, SSD", which would cause me to reject it on both fronts. (In practice I'd probably want 128GB-256GB as root disk even on a mostly-NFS server, and those seem to be $100+ even in MLC/TLC.)</p>
<p>Ewen</p>
<p>PS: Yes, 2.5" bays seem to be the future. Most of the 2017 model equivalents of older servers I have/help maintain seem to be 2.5" bays by default, some with an option to order with 3.5" bays if you have to.</p>
</div>2017-06-08T09:30:02Z