Hmm. Let’s say I add 6 SSDs, 2TB each, for a total of 600€. In a RAID6 configuration, that gives me 8TB of storage. Compare that to a classical NAS with 2×8 TB HDDs for a total of 350€.
The HDDs will draw around 4W idle each, 8W in total. Assuming 0.3€/kWh, over a span of 5 years, that is approximately 100€. The power consumption of the SSDs will be negligible.
So, just in terms of storage, the SSD solution is around 33% more expensive over 5 years. If you include the cost of the NAS itself, the price increment is even less noticeable.
But that is neglecting the performance aspect.
Something like this can be very good for offloading large amounts of data onto a parity backed array either to be moved to a proper long term storage solution later or to be actively worked.
High resolution / bitrate footage comes to mind, where you may be offloading multiple cameras at once and need high write performance.
It’s pretty unlikely that SSDs will have price parity with spinning rust anytime soon, but the value in them has always been performance.
Yes, absolutely. Right now, SSDs are probably superior in comparison to HDDs in every category except for price (and long-term data integrity when switched off). But when you consider large parity raids and take into account the cost of electricity, even the price difference might only be small, making SSDs even more attractive.
Yes but this is a computer and not just a RAID enclosure, so while your math is correct it doesn’t really discount the utility/value. It’s like comparing a switch and an Xbox when somebody explicitly wants a handheld machine
You didn’t count the cost of size and environmental damage.
Are people really doing NAS with SSD? Not just for cache?
Yes, for purposes of noise, size, speed and power efficiency
More reliable, less power draw than HDDs, faster and far more space efficient.
Unless you are data hoarding random torrents, 6 to 12 TB is plenty.
More reliable
Heavily depends. If you want to use it as long-term cold storage you absolutely should not use SSDs, they’re losing data when left unpowered for too long. While HDDs are also not perfect in retaining data forever, they won’t fail as quickly when left on a shelf.
Good and true point, but arguably most NASs are built to be used, not to be not-used…
Well, they arguably can also be used as one big long-term storage. Not sure who’d need to save so much data for a long time, but there surely will be at least some people who do and buy the “modern solution” over old HDDs thinking they’re better in general. As the “family backup” for example, or as cold storage solution in faculties that can be quickly accessed if needed.
Read somewhere about a professor who used SSDs to “permanently” store important data on SSDs (perhaps in the comments of the article above) for a few years. Well, wasn’t that permanent…
If you live in a small place and dont have massive storage needs, it can make sense for the sake of the quietness.
I have a long-term dream to build a fanless SSD-powered NAS
Self-hosted, silent, fast - what’s not to love, aside from steep price tag?
I did, because of energy efficiency and quietness. But also I heavily compromised on the amount of space.
I was just thinking “bah ssd, that’ll be expensive” but a quick search on Amazon suggests prices have dropped quite a bit.
12Gb soldered on memory though. That’s a shame.
That’s quite the RAM for a NAS, no? I think mine has 512MB.
I was recently told that 16GB wasn’t much for ZFS…
RemindMe 10 years
You are probably right, mine is from 2013 😰
Depends on your usecase. This could very well be more than just a NAS.
Well yes but is is a NAS not a homelab right?
The ME mini features 12GB of LPDDR5-4800 memory, which means the RAM will be soldered to the mainboard and not user upgradeable.
Aaaaand I’m out.
Solderer ram is slightly more power efficient. And this is probably a laptop board.
That said, 12gb is slightly too low for my liking. Though an N200 CPU does not have much headroom to upgrade for anyway.
Solderer ram is slightly more power efficient. And this is probably a laptop board.
That may be true but I don’t really care either way.
Though an N200 CPU does not have much headroom to upgrade for anyway.
You can use at least 32GB.
not to mention there are 48 and 64gb dimms out now too that work with basically all alder lake atoms
Yeah that’s just so dumb. Also, i wouldn’t be comfortable with the OS on eMMC storage. That’s hardly known for reliability. So close and yet so far.
Just in case the only thing you’re looking for is the price, I’ll save you a click.
Beelink hasn’t announced how much the ME mini will cost or when it will be available for purcahse yet.
If it’s less than $200, it might be worth it. Doubtful though.
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Curious what pricing will be like. I use a beelink as a router rn
I hope for it to be somewhere in the $200-250 range. Everything above kinda makes it unattractive when the Flashstor 6 exists.
This would be perfect if I could fit 24th NVMe devices in this, but not looking to pay more then ~300-350 CAD in a device with no hdd/ssd
How much do you expect to pay for the 24 NVMe disks?
Probably $3.5 tops
Bout Tree fiddy?
Thanks for posting. Would like to use this for multiple reasons.
