SSD for Synology DS120j

[coxhaus]

I just bought my first NAS a Synology DS120j. I am thinking I want to add a SSD. Anybody using a SSD? What would be good one not too expensive? I have not kept up. Been retired too long.

I just found a 500GB Samsung 860Evo SSD for $89. What do you think?

 

[L&LD]

SSD over HDD? Yes!

Is this for the NAS os and data? No!

If it is just for caching, Yes!

Something like the Seagate IronWolf 110 NAS SSD with 875 TB TBW is more appropriate for the NAS os and data. Part #ZA480NM10011 for the 500GB model which is about the same price as the EVO but with much better write endurance for the same cost (wait for it to go on sale).

Or, a WD equivalent such as the WD RED SA500 with a 350TBW specification.

Compare with 300TBW with the 500GB EVO which is not designed for constant usage that the NAS SSD's are.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YFGQLYK/?tag=snbforums-20

 

[MichaelCG]

What are your storage requirements? A single SSD just doesn't seem like a lot of storage space. Guessing you are more concerned about power usage and heat tolerance based on your other posts. I have a 4-bay Synology, but I used standard 4TB NAS drives and then added dual SSD cache drives. I had absolutely no need for the cache, but why not?

I ended up picking up two Inland SSDs from MicroCenter as my cache drives. The price was right, performance specs looked ok, and their lifetime isn't a huge concern at the moment. If they were my actual data storage drives, I probably would have gone with something spec'd a little higher and geared more towards NAS use.

 

[coxhaus]

I don't need much storage. I am going to store stuff for a couple years and then change out hardware. A NAS at my house will not be used much just when we store stuff. I am possibly thinking about a second one which I can copy to and turn off the power to keep it safe. I have to see how it goes.

I have a Dell I put a new 4TB drive in to create a 4TB boot drive using UEFI bios. It did not work. I think the PC is too old. I can create 2 partitions but I may pull it out to use in my NAS and skip the SSD. I want to see how loud it is and how much power it pulls.

 

[MichaelCG]

I would highly recommend using an offsite and/or online secondary backup. It will be soooo much easier to maintain and will provide back up in case of catastrophic event of the house (fire, flood, tornado, theft, etc). Using the built-in tools in DSM, you can sync your data easily to Google, Backblaze, AWS, Dropbox, etc...and you can encrypt with a unique key if privacy of your data in the cloud is a concern. I have mine sync'ing to Google Drive since I get 1TB free from Google anyways. So I have all of my pictures of my kids and such sync'd there. Google already knows waaaaaaaaay too much about me since we have so much other Google stuff, overall privacy wasn't my primary concern for this specific data set.

I am looking into possibly using BackBlaze B2 as a secondary and at that point I will do more investigation into the encryption options along with how recovery works. I have been a Carbonite customer for many years and it just worked. But leaving the Windows file server world pretty much kills that option.