Choosing the right server hard drive starts with the basics: get as much CPU and RAM as you can afford, since that part is rarely a tough call. Hard drives are trickier, because you are really choosing between size and speed. So which drive should you pick? Here is how the three types available from Vault Networks for dedicated servers compare: HDD, SSD, and SAS.
HDD: The Classic Server Hard Drive
Hard Disk Drives are the oldest storage technology still in use, and they still store far more data for far less money than Solid-State (SSD) or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives. Known by their PC interface connection, SATA, these drives spin on physical disks and have changed little over the years. Until Samsung’s announcement in late 2015, SATA drives were also the only way to get truly large hard drives, although the largest drive in the world as of this writing is now an SSD. Even so, the biggest drives are still SATA, so a workload storing a lot of cold data is usually best served by SATA. SATA drives run slower than SAS and SSD drives. The WD Velociraptor line closed some of that gap, but even a Velociraptor trails SAS and SSD. When the goal is to maximize gigabytes or terabytes of space, SATA is worth considering.
SSD: The Fast Server Hard Drive Option
Solid-State Drives are the opposite of Hard Disk Drives, since they swap spinning disks for flash storage, the same technology behind USB drives and SD cards, though built to a much higher standard. SSDs are normally sold in smaller sizes, but they read and write incredibly fast. Older SSDs raised concerns about wearing out after a finite number of read and write cycles, but those fears have eased as the technology has matured, a trend PCWorld’s endurance testing backs up. The real drawback with SSDs is cost, so they can be limiting on projects that do not need much storage or where speed is not critical.
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
Serial Attached SCSI falls between traditional hard drives and SSDs. SCSI drives spin at 15k RPM, compared to 10k for WD Velociraptors and 7.2k for traditional SATA drives. SSDs have no RPM to compare, since they have no moving parts. We ran our own comparison between traditional drives and SSDs in the past: our test used no 10k or 15k drives, but the results still make the benefits of SSD over SATA clear, and a 15k drive would land in the middle by the numbers. SAS drives also cost less than SSDs, so when you need a balance of speed and storage, SAS is worth a look.
Which Server Hard Drive Should You Choose?
There is no single best drive for every server. A large SATA drive, or SATA RAID, usually makes the most sense for a massive database that changes infrequently. An SSD fits best when data is not being collected but the application needs to run as fast as possible. WD Velociraptors or SAS drives are worth considering when some data is collected and performance still matters. Our sales team is happy to help you find the right server hard drive for your project. To learn more about our server offerings, reach out to us at (305) 735-8098 option 2 or by emailing sales@vaultnetworks.com.