U.2 SSDs - not a bad option and lots of storage

[LordXeb]

Hey everyone,

Has anyone used these drives for mass storage? I bought a sandisk skyhawk a couple of years ago and it has served me well. Plus, they have awesome endurance.

 

I just saw some 8tbs u.2 drives for about 500 on eBay. They also have pretty good performance.  I paid that 2-3 years ago for my 4tb.
 

the only downside is they need a pcie slot or an adapter and take up more space than a traditional 2.5.

[pio]

I was debating on grabbing an 8TB U.2 actually.  I settled on just re-using my 4x 2TB 2.5" drives I already had laying around instead, but grabbing an 8TB drive is still on my list of things to get.  

[LordXeb]

1 hour ago, pioneerisloud said:

I was debating on grabbing an 8TB U.2 actually.  I settled on just re-using my 4x 2TB 2.5" drives I already had laying around instead, but grabbing an 8TB drive is still on my list of things to get.  

They are pretty good. I think it is 3200/2400 for performance and 1DWPD endurance. Not bad for 500

[The Pook]

a few months ago I needed more storage for my server and was considering some 8TB Intel P4510s. for my array size they were a "bit" out of my price range though 

Edited January 5, 2023 by The Pook

[Avacado]

4 hours ago, LordXeb said:

Hey everyone,

Has anyone used these drives for mass storage? I bought a sandisk skyhawk a couple of years ago and it has served me well. Plus, they have awesome endurance.

 

I just saw some 8tbs u.2 drives for about 500 on eBay. They also have pretty good performance.  I paid that 2-3 years ago for my 4tb.
 

the only downside is they need a pcie slot or an adapter and take up more space than a traditional 2.5.

I have never personally used any U.2 drives re. cost. Most of the boards that I run have adapters built in and would not require an adapter. 

[pio]

1 hour ago, Avacado said:

I have never personally used any U.2 drives re. cost. Most of the boards that I run have adapters built in and would not require an adapter. 

I actually had it all planned out originally.  I was going to put an 8TB U.2 drive via adapter into my rear M.2 PCIe 3.0 slot, since there's already ample room behind most cases to fit a 2.5" SSD, usually behind the board anyway.  An adapter and U.2 card should velcro right in behind the mobo tray on most modern cases I'd wager.  As you mentioned too, some boards have the adapters built in (I don't think mine does).  The adapter point is only really relevant if you don't have space behind the mobo tray to hide something like that.  I mean its still a point, but yeah.....

 

Cost, like you mentioned was more of a factor.  I had already splurged on 2TB 2.5" drives for my last rig, had 3 of them in RAID0 and a 4th in my unused laptop.  So I just pulled those out in favor of spinny rust in their place, and used what I had.  Only reason I had so many 2TB 2.5" drives was again, cost.  When they were selling for $150-160 a pop for the 2TB BX500's, I couldn't help myself.  $500+ on a single drive is harder to do than 4x $150, even if the cost difference is more total.

 

Just my own 2 cents / unasked back story.  TLDR:  You're right, but longer.

Edited January 5, 2023 by pioneerisloud

[LordXeb]

4 hours ago, The Pook said:

a few months ago I needed more storage for my server and was considering some 8TB Intel P4510s. for my array size they were a "bit" out of my price range though 

Those can get pricy that is for sure!

20 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

I actually had it all planned out originally.  I was going to put an 8TB U.2 drive via adapter into my rear M.2 PCIe 3.0 slot, since there's already ample room behind most cases to fit a 2.5" SSD, usually behind the board anyway.  An adapter and U.2 card should velcro right in behind the mobo tray on most modern cases I'd wager.  As you mentioned too, some boards have the adapters built in (I don't think mine does).  The adapter point is only really relevant if you don't have space behind the mobo tray to hide something like that.  I mean its still a point, but yeah.....

 

Cost, like you mentioned was more of a factor.  I had already splurged on 2TB 2.5" drives for my last rig, had 3 of them in RAID0 and a 4th in my unused laptop.  So I just pulled those out in favor of spinny rust in their place, and used what I had.  Only reason I had so many 2TB 2.5" drives was again, cost.  When they were selling for $150-160 a pop for the 2TB BX500's, I couldn't help myself.  $500+ on a single drive is harder to do than 4x $150, even if the cost difference is more total.

 

Just my own 2 cents / unasked back story.  TLDR:  You're right, but longer.

It was a good plan and I hear ya on the price. Though getting 4 2TB BX500 for that price is a no brainer. 

My board doesn't have an adapter I just ordered a PCIe to u.2 adapter. Works well no issues. Though I could have gotten a PCIe to an 8468 or whatever adapter, ran the cable to a my U.2 in a drive cage or something. Simplier to just plug it in a slot. But meh. 

1 hour ago, Avacado said:

I have never personally used any U.2 drives re. cost. Most of the boards that I run have adapters built in and would not require an adapter. 

Startech makes adapters >:D Honestly it is kinda silly having one but it was a good price and cheaper than getting a 4TB nvme drive at the time. Now you can get 8TB NVME u.2 drives for about 500 on ebay so not bad. 

[RelevantWing]

Good find, might have to try some in my desktop, then I can ditch the spinning rust. 

 

Ordered the Startech M2 to U2 adapter now just to find a decent priced drive.

 

PCIE SSD's can sometimes be found cheap too. Fusion IO Drives specifically. I have a 3.2TB in a plotting rig, got the drive for like $120 in 2020. Works good as a storage drive

[ozlay]

I was looking at some of the E1.L form factor ssds recently. However the adapters seem a bit odd for those.

Edited February 3, 2023 by ozlay

[SamsTechStuff]

It's a wonder I have made it on just a single SN770 1TB in my desktop for two years now. Perhaps I do need one for my desktop too 

 

On my UnRaid server I went with a Teamgroup MP34 drive (good sale last year) to act as my main cache drive - decent drive for sure but should have browsed these too. ATM I'm around ~80-100tbw a year but that will probably increase. I will have to keep these in mind!
 

 

 

[tictoc]

I have a handful of 6.4TB U.2 drives with only a few PB written that I haven't put to use yet . Right now I am running two 1TB Optane 905p ssd's in my server on a dual u.2 to PCIe x8 adapter.  There are some other dual adapters that flip the drives, so shorter length but adds some height. As long as your board supports bifurcation, it's easy to add a few more if you have empty PCIe slots.  

 

 

 

[SamsTechStuff]

59 minutes ago, tictoc said:

I have a handful of 6.4TB U.2 drives with only a few PB written that I haven't put to use yet . Right now I am running two 1TB Optane 905p ssd's in my server on a dual u.2 to PCIe x8 adapter.  There are some other dual adapters that flip the drives, so shorter length but adds some height. As long as your board supports bifurcation, it's easy to add a few more if you have empty PCIe slots.  

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, nice. That looks like a good setup there. In my case I could probably dedicate a PCIe slot for the cause, eventually my MP34 will become unhappy. I'm curious since you're running these on a PCIe card, how hot do they get under heavy write workloads? 

Edited February 3, 2023 by SamsTechStuff

[tictoc]

52 minutes ago, SamsTechStuff said:

 

 

Ah, nice. That looks like a good setup there. In my case I could probably dedicate a PCIe slot for the cause, eventually my MP34 will become unhappy.I'm curious since you're running these on a PCIe card, how hot do they get under heavy write workloads? 

 

With the integrated heat sink on the 905p temps are nothing to worry about as long as you have some air flow.  I just wrote 600GB to one of the 905p's and temps never hit 50°C.

 

Most of the enterprise grade U.2 SSD's are in metal enclosures, and as long as you have some air flow temps should never be an issue in a desktop case.

Edited February 3, 2023 by tictoc