> the CPU and RAM limitations led me to traditional RAID there
IIRC there was some talk that RAID-Z lead to write amplification compared to mirrored drives, thus not good for cheaper SSDs. Haven't had time to sit down and think it through, does anyone know if thats right or wrong?
> I used 3 4 way switches from aliexpress
Did you find any that were significantly cheaper than ~100 USD?
In general I've found cheap SSDs these days have better endurances compared to cheap spinning disks anyways. https://www.servethehome.com/discussing-low-wd-red-pro-nas-h.... I think the drives I got were 1.6 PBW rated, no errors or failures yet. Beyond that, my workload isn't write heavy enough for this to be a concern of mine whether or not there is amplification. That SSDs don't count reads or active drive time in the endurance rating was more important. For the Flashstor build I did RAID4 instead of RAID5 just because I could though.
I want to say that sounds about right on price. If I didn't also have a desire for high single core performance at the same time a used/old Threadripper/Epyc build and bifurcation would probably make more sense. I also disconnected the onboard tiny "definitely going to be noisy as hell in 3 months" low quality fans from them and just rested a 140mm blowing down across the top of the 3 cards at 30% speed. Temps of the controllers and SSDs became better and it's dead silent.
IIRC there was some talk that RAID-Z lead to write amplification compared to mirrored drives, thus not good for cheaper SSDs. Haven't had time to sit down and think it through, does anyone know if thats right or wrong?
> I used 3 4 way switches from aliexpress
Did you find any that were significantly cheaper than ~100 USD?