SSDs - How low can they go?

[oshunluvr]

I've had an 8TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD in the "Saved for later" part of my Amazon cart for at least a year now - probably longer. My server storage is 16TB platter drive with older 10 and 6TB drives as backup devices. I fantasize about having SSDs instead with the 16TB drive the backup, but I typically wait for something to fail before moving to the next level.

Commonly and almost exactly, I end up paying about $250 for the next drive. When the 16TB drive was new it was about $250, when the 10TB drive was new it was about $250...6TB, 4TB, 2TB...ad infinitium into the past.

Initially these 8TB SSDs were around $800 a piece and let's be real - $1600 for server storage is just stupid. Today I noticed the price has dropped rather sharply from 600ish to $425. Still $850 for 16TB worth - still too much - but getting closer!

I assume the advent of PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 NVME drives (I have several) that are exponentially faster than SATA drives has driven the 2.5" market down. However, there aren't that many of this capacity out there.

My fingers are crossed for a BOGO or maybe a small lotto win, lol

[claydoh]

Even NVME drives are dropping.
I very recently bought a small Silicon Power 500Gb one with Dram for my Chromebook, and it was just shy of 40 dollars.
yesterday, I see it going for 27, and the 1Tb is 41.

I'd like to replace my 4 3Tb spinners for SATA drives in my NAS box, but can't justify the cost at all.

if I get a $$$ windfall, I will build a new NAS using a mini ITX sff case, though with ssds, I think I could go smaller

[oshunluvr]

That's an awesome case!

I have a rather large a setup here so I ended up getting a 15U Rack and put my server in a 2U ITX rack case. It had 2 5.25" bays so I changed that to a 3 bay 3.5 hot swap drive rack. The mobo has 6 SATA ports so the storage is all on the 3 platters and I have one internal SSD for the OS. If I switched to SSDs I could dump 2 of the platter drives for 2 SSDs and have room for a couple more if needed. I'm not really close to capacity so I doubt I need to add more space. I have almost 5TB available. The bummer is 2x4TB SSDs costs the same or more than 1x8TB. So I'm still a ways off from an all SSD setup. Maybe next year or two tho?

The rack also holds a UPS, a photo scanner on a slide out, 24 port network switch, and printing supplies and fits nicely in a cubby with the All-in-one printer and wifi router above it.

[claydoh]

My setup is 4 3tb HDDs from 2103 apparently, in a cheap but seemingly quality open box mini tower that is designed for 3 drives max, with an SFX PSU. The i7-3770 from my old PC is in a new (!!) m-atx Chinese motherboard that has an M.2 NVME slot (??), and 4 SATA ports.
The board, PSU, and case were ~150 USD in toto, with the PSU being the most expensive part, lol.
A 20 dollar NVME for the OS, and two of the HDDs cost me 19.99/ea. The rest were parts pile or freebies from family (added to the parts pile)
Surprisingly, 3 of the 4 drives are completely identical, and the 4th is a slight variation, with a slightly different part number.

I think a decent ITX motherboard for my dream case would cost more than my entire NAS build, lol.

[oshunluvr]

I think a decent ITX motherboard for my dream case would cost more than my entire NAS build, lol.

Sounds like it! But hey - cheap is good if it's getting the job done. My older ITX mobo (Pre- I series intel) was donated to a friend with lower income than mine when I upgraded to the i3-4160 (3,1 GHz) I have now. Gigabyte H97N-Wifi. It added more SATA ports, USB 3, dual LAN, Wifi and bluetooth, and a HDMI port, all that the other one didn't have.

[claydoh]

Sounds like it! But hey - cheap is good if it's getting the job done. My older ITX mobo (Pre- I series intel) was donated to a friend with lower income than mine when I upgraded to the i3-4160 (3,1 GHz) I have now. Gigabyte H97N-Wifi. It added more SATA ports, USB 3, dual LAN, Wifi and bluetooth, and a HDMI port, all that the other one didn't have.

That is sort of what I want to do - I have the i7-9700, mobo, ram and cooler that I recently upgraded to i5-13400. It would all fit nicely into my NAS case, and be useful to someone for cheap, or free, or something.

There aren't any tiny m-atx cases all that similar in size and HDD capacity, they seem to jump up to something huge, relatively speaking.

This case is close, and a bit fugly. I don't have a handy closet or cabinet to hide it in . The SG12 is more attractive, but costs a bit more for the same exact chassis.