ASK NC

Hi,
I love your you tube channel and website. Very detailed and excellent content. I am looking at the tbs 464 nas and 3* crucial p3+ 4TB nvme ssd for a home nas. But I am worried about the low TBW and the crucial’s ability to be powered on 24/7. Could you please advise. Dedicated NAS ssds are way out of my budget.
My NAS usage is primarily back up of photos, home videos, music files and documents. The other key use case is a plex server for movies, audiobooks and music. I am upgrading my home network with cat 6a and my current network supports 2.5GBE and could be upgraded to support 10GBE in future when 10gbe switches become affordable.
I have roughly 10TB of content and foresee 1 - 2 TB growth per year

Thank you for your kind words!

Regarding your question, the Crucial P3+ SSDs are consumer-grade SSDs that are not specifically designed for use in a NAS environment. As you mentioned, they have a lower TBW (Total Bytes Written) rating, which means they may not be able to handle the constant read and write operations that occur in a NAS system, especially if used for 24/7 operation.

If you plan on using the NAS primarily for backup and media streaming purposes, then the Crucial P3+ SSDs may be sufficient for your needs. However, if you are concerned about their longevity or reliability, you may want to consider using SSDs specifically designed for NAS environments, such as the Seagate IronWolf 125 or the Western Digital Red SA500.

These NAS-specific SSDs are designed to handle the constant read and write operations of a NAS system and come with higher TBW ratings than consumer-grade SSDs. Additionally, they come with features like error recovery controls, power loss protection, and temperature monitoring, which can improve their reliability and longevity.

In terms of capacity, using three 4TB SSDs will give you a total of 12TB of usable storage in RAID 5 configuration, which should be sufficient for your current needs and future growth.

Overall, while the Crucial P3+ SSDs may work for your needs, investing in NAS-specific SSDs could provide better long-term reliability and peace of mind.

When choosing NVMe for caching you need to look at reliability ratings such as DWPD/MTBF. Here are a few on the list
https://nascompares.com/answer/nvme-m-2-...dwpd-mtbf/
Caching means a lot of read and write operations, unlike regular storage situation.
You would need to look at models with 0.5DWPD and above

970 pro – 0.66DWPD

Synology SNV3400 – 0.68DWPD

Seagate FireCuda 510 – 0.7 DWPD
Seagate IronWolf 525 – 0.7 DWPD
Seagate Firecuda 530 – 0.7 DWPD
Seagate PS5 Game drive – 0.7 DWPD

Seagate FireCuda 520 -0.9 DWPD
WD Red SN700 – 1.0DWPD

I hope this helps.