I'm looking for an HDD in the 2-4TB range as the data drive for a PC
(boots off SSD, but I'm not paying SSD prices for 2TB+).
What does the team think? Is there still a noticeable reduction in performance with SMR drives for general/development work, or are they
now OK?
On 25/06/2023 in message <VA.00000db2.001d75a0@me.invalid> Daniel James wrote:
I'm looking for an HDD in the 2-4TB range as the data drive for a PC
(boots off SSD, but I'm not paying SSD prices for 2TB+).
Prices have dropped enormously, you can get 4 TB for around £200 nowadays.
Cheapest 4TB HDD: £73.99 (Toshiba HDWD240UZSVA SMR)
Cheapest 4TB 2.5" SATA: £196.99 (Samsung 870 QVO)
Cheapest 4TB M.2 NVMe: £79.98x2=£159.96 (Intel 670p 2TB twice)
However, this doesn't answer my original question, which is piquing my curiosity more and more, which is whether SMR drives have got any better
-- or, rather, have they improved enough -- now that they have bigger
cache and controllers that clearly remap sectors to minimize rewriting.
Does anyone know? Anyone seen a review?
... whether SMR drives have got any better -- or, rather, have
they improved enough -- now that they have bigger cache and
controllers that clearly remap sectors to minimize rewriting.
They were, in fact, always fine for most purposes in a domestic PC.
The amount of cache around hides the issues almost all the time
because domestic PC use doesn't stress the caches.
The primary thing they're troublesome for is using in RAIDYes, though why rebuilding a RAID array can't be done in such a way that
configurations ...
After the debacle of WD selling NAS-labelled SMR drives in 2020 orMost of the manufacturers seem to do so ... if you look hard enough at
so, they now declare themselves.
Back at the time, the clear answer was "get a >4TB HDD, it'll beIf anything, it's the larger drives that seem more likely to be SMR,
CMR":
Do note that a drive that *doesn't* specify could be either SMR orIndeed. Always go by the data sheets, and try to understand what you're
CMR but is very likely to be CMR. Don't pay double just because the
shop page says CMR
Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:
On 25/06/2023 in message <VA.00000db2.001d75a0@me.invalid> Daniel James
wrote:
I'm looking for an HDD in the 2-4TB range as the data drive for a PC
(boots off SSD, but I'm not paying SSD prices for 2TB+).
Prices have dropped enormously, you can get 4 TB for around £200 nowadays.
Yes:
Cheapest 4TB HDD: £73.99 (Toshiba HDWD240UZSVA SMR)
Cheapest 4TB 2.5" SATA: £196.99 (Samsung 870 QVO)
Cheapest 4TB M.2 NVMe: £79.98x2=£159.96 (Intel 670p 2TB twice)
(if you don't have two spare M.2 slots, passive adapters to PCIe slots are a few pounds)
Prices from Scan, who are by no means the cheapest but easy to look up (they're also my go-to for business orders)
If you can't stretch to 4TB NVMe at the moment, maybe buy 2TB now and 2TB later when the drive fills up, when it will likely be cheaper still.
Theo
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