Hi All,
I currently have 3 external Seagate 2 TB Drives that hold of my data, documents, files, backups etc. I am currently looking to make the upgrade to SSD External storage for multiple reasons - speed, reliability, noise to name a few.
Can anyone recommend particular SSD Drives, enclosures, setups or otherwise that they would recommend.
I was thinking 2 x 4TB SSD drives or even 4 x 2TB drives will work (plenty of USB type A & type c Ports available)
Thank you in advance.
My initial comment was based on what must have been previous Backblaze reports, so it's fascinating to see how AFRs have changed since!
As long as users don't assume an SSD is a fail proof option, then I'll be happy
problem with SSD is that when it fails, it's just dead …
disk drives would give you a clicky sound so that you knew it was time to get your data off :)
4 x 2tb ssd would be at least 1k without the enclosures
For that type of money I would be looking at a nas and a bunch of drives
Do you really need high-speed access to 8 terabytes worth of files on SSD's? You'll be paying a lot of money for relatively little real world advantages.
If you're concerned about noise and don't want a bunch of noisy HDD's humming on your computer desk, I'd look into shucking those seagate drives and putting them into a NAS, that you can place somewhere else in your home. You can use RAID arrays to either improve performance, redundancy or both.
If you want even more performance you could consider SSD caching on NAS but most people won't need this.
I guess the only real benefit other than possibly noise that you've mentioned (speed being neutered by USB unless you go NVMe/USB-C Gen3.2) would be drop/shock resistance, but the 2.5" spinning rust drives have that so long as you don't drop them while they're on and spinning you don't really gain much. I'm personally considering a USB SSD for mobile use/posting to family members for when a USB stick isn't enough space.
For bulk storage SSDs are a WOFTAM - as has been said by scrimshaw the NAS with your existing drives shucked and add some more (or just new big drives external drives shucked from Amazon) - it would sort the noise by moving it away from you with little or no speed loss IF your main PC and NAS are hard wired (WiFi could slow it down more than USB, which won't limit individual HDDs as the drives are slower)
SSDs are NOT more reliable except for that shock/drop resistance thing - being more reliable is a myth, their failure rates are basically the same. Backblaze have released data on this
BTW a cheaper option for posting to families is to check out MicroSD cards they are cheaper than the equivalent USB stick, but you need to watch the cost of the USB MicroSD card reader as it makes it cheaper if you can get a cheap one or if you use it multiple times (aka 3 cards and one reader). This assumes you are comparing ones with a reasonable speed and not the sloooooowwwww very cheap USB 3.x sticks that max out at 3 to 8Mbps.
Hi All, thank you for taking the time to reply, will review my options before making a final decision however looks like a hybrid of both upgrading a small amount to SSD storage and also moving the other HHD to be a part of a NAS system to reduce noise may be the best of both worlds whilst making financial sense.
If you're going to burn that much cash on SSDs, might as well go the whole hog and get m.2 drives with external USB enclosures. You'll never utilise the capacity or speed, but it'll be quiet.
SSDs are no more reliable than HDDs so keep that in mind.