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Cake day: August 15th, 2023

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  • Since you mentioned MLC, maybe you have some suggestions for eg used server grade disks? Would the Rpi be able to run something like the Intel datacenter SSDs eg S3700? The power loss protection is really something I would like to have, especially in a homelab scenario. Or any other notable MLCs with larger capacities? I am having trouble finding a good list sorted by max potential storage.












  • Running ZFS on consumer SSDs is absolute no go, you need datacenter-rated ones for power loss protection. Price goes brrrrt €€€€€

    I too had an idea for a ssd-only pool, but I scaled it back and only use it for VMs / DBs. Everything else is on spinning rust, 2 disks in mirror with regular snapshots and off-site backup.

    Now if you don’t care about your data, you can just spin up whatever you want in a 120€ 2TB ssd. And then cry once it starts failing under average load.

    Edit: having no power loss protection with ZFS has an enormous (negative) impact on performance and tanks your IOPS.





  • Oh okay that’s a lot of power. For reference, I just set up an old Haswell PC as a NAS, idling at 25W (can’t get to low Package C states) and usually at 28-30 running light workloads on an SSD pool. My plan was to add a 5 disk cage and at least 3 HDDs, with Raidz2 and 5 disks being the mid term goal. Absolutely unnecessary and a huge waste. I settled on less but larger disks, and in mirror I can get 12-18 TB usable space for under 500€. Less noise and power draw too.


  • Look for 5W idle consumption boards + CPU combos which go down to package C6+ state. HardwareLuxx has a spreadsheet with various builds focusing on low power. Sell half your disks, go mirror or Raidz1. Invest the difference in off-site vps and or backup. Storage on any SBC is a big pain and you will hit the sata connector / IO limits very soon.

    The small NUC form factors are also fine, but if your problem is power you can go very low with a good approach and the right parts. And you’ll make up for any new investments within the first year.