Difference between "server" SSDs and regular desktop SSDs

[fuzzyreets]

Hi folks. I'm wondering what the difference is in the high priced server SSDs i see when I build servers for clients and something like the OCZ Octane SSDs. Why such a difference in price? worth it? Thanks.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The enterprise level ssd's are manufactured and configured for heavy duty professional use while consumer level ssd's are manufactured and configured for typical everyday use at home. The controllers, firmware, and memory are different. The consumer level ssd's use less expensive components to help keep prices down. That does not mean consumer level ssd's are inferior. They are simply designed and intended for use in a different environment.

For typical everyday home use or gaming an enterprise level ssd is not necessary and not worth it. A consumer would have to be doing some very demanding work to justify the cost of an enterprise level ssd.

BTW - The OCZ Octane you mentioned is no longer in production. OCZ had to reduce their offerings quite a bit due to financial problems. There are only 6 OCZ consumer oriented ssd's remaining in the ssd database I maintain:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

 

[fuzzyreets]

The enterprise level ssd's are manufactured and configured for heavy duty professional use while consumer level ssd's are manufactured and configured for typical everyday use at home. The controllers, firmware, and memory are different. The consumer level ssd's use less expensive components to help keep prices down. That does not mean consumer level ssd's are inferior. They are simply designed and intended for use in a different environment.

For typical everyday home use or gaming an enterprise level ssd is not necessary and not worth it. A consumer would have to be doing some very demanding work to justify the cost of an enterprise level ssd.

BTW - The OCZ Octane you mentioned is no longer in production. OCZ had to reduce their offerings quite a bit due to financial problems. There are only 6 OCZ consumer oriented ssd's remaining in the ssd database I maintain:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

Yeah I was thinking of starting to use consumer ssds for server drives in smaller company servers say 10users or less type servers. Thoughts on that? Probably in raid 1config.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Recently Intel, Micron which is the parent company of Crucial, and Samsung have released enterprise level solid state drives that could be considered for use in a home server or small office. Since they are supposed to be enterprise level products I don't have them listed in the ssd database I maintain. However, I do have them listed in a monster hardware review database. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/reviews/2013-pc-hardware-reviews.html

Scroll down to the data storage section and look for the enterprise ssd subsection. Follow the links to the technical reviews.

 

[Xega]

One of the biggest differences in the way the individual data cells are setup, in enterprise drive it is a single level cell (SLC), while the majority of consumer drives employ multi level cells (MLC). It is much cheaper to get the same size of storage with MLC than SLC. In fact the Samsung 840 non pro version is a triple level cells (TLC). The problem with MLC and more so with TLC is that the drive has a shorter life span because as a cell ages it will eventually lose the ability to hold a charge and stop functioning. For a MLC this is more likely then a SLC.