When Available, Any Reason Not to Go with 8TB of Storage? (Other than price).

[Traverse]

When Apple announced the 8TB SSD option for the Mac Pro, I was reading through the forum posts here and noticed that some users were adamant that you should stick with minimal internal storage and move all media and larger files to external storage.

My #1 requirement for a new computer is more storage. Currently I use an iMac with 1TB internal SSD and a 2TB external SSD and I'd say I'm at about 70% utilization. I won't lie, most of my data is music, movies, tv shows, and some other media project files. I really don't like managing external media - remembering what is stored on what drive, issues where apps will occasionally lose the file and you have to "relocate" it and whenever I put my Mac to sleep it disconnects my drives.

The forum post above mentioned that keeping your media on your internal drive will wear it out, but I was under the impression that the write limits on modern SSDs was so high that unless you're constantly rewriting the entire contents again and again for months on end it shouldn't fail (barring any unusual hardware failure), but good backups are a part of my computing strategy.

Is there any real reason -other than price- that consolidating all files into a massive internal SSD is a bad decision?

 

[remiller]

“The forum post above mentioned that keeping your media on your internal drive will wear it out”

With respect to solid state drives, I must admit I’ve never understood or worried about that thought. I wonder if someone could explain how a solid state drive might be worn out simply by being used as intended?

 

[Glockworkorange]

When Apple announced the 8TB SSD option for the Mac Pro, I was reading through the forum posts here and noticed that some users were adamant that you should stick with minimal internal storage and move all media and larger files to external storage.

My #1 requirement for a new computer is more storage. Currently I use an iMac with 1TB internal SSD and a 2TB external SSD and I'd say I'm at about 70% utilization. I won't lie, most of my data is music, movies, tv shows, and some other media project files. I really don't like managing external media - remembering what is stored on what drive, issues where apps will occasionally lose the file and you have to "relocate" it and whenever I put my Mac to sleep it disconnects my drives.

The forum post above mentioned that keeping your media on your internal drive will wear it out, but I was under the impression that the write limits on modern SSDs was so high that unless you're constantly rewriting the entire contents again and again for months on end it shouldn't fail (barring any unusual hardware failure), but good backups are a part of my computing strategy.

Is there any real reason -other than price- that consolidating all files into a massive internal SSD is a bad decision?

I don't think you need to worry about using an SSD as intended--there are arguments for limiting your internal storage, but I don't recall that being one of them.

 

[niteflyr]

Is there any real reason -other than price- that consolidating all files into a massive internal SSD is a bad decision?

No. Always have a backup.

 

[velocityg4]

Modern SSD have massive write endurance. Your usage doesn't sound like you are writing much. Just a bunch of files sitting there.

As Apple used Sandisk NAND in the iMac Pro. Looking at Sandisk Enterprise SSD (WD Ultrastar) models have anywhere between a 550 TBW to 5,000 TBW endurance rating per 1 TB of capacity. At 8TB you could have a 4,400 TBW to 40,000 TBW write endurance. Even if they are using lower quality NAND like in the WD Black. You'd still have about a 4,500 TBW endurance ratings. Any of which goes beyond what most any user will come close to during the lifetime of their computer.

The most likely candidate I can find for Apple's SSD memory is what is used in WD Ultrastar DC SN640 (11,210 TBW at 8TB capacity). Based on throughput and capacity options of Sandisk's various SSD. Although I didn't look at every model. I couldn't find Apple's TBW or DWP/D rating for the Mac Pro or iMac Pro. Which would make life easier. I only assume Sandisk memory as that is what is in the iMac Pro in the iFixit teardown and they said the Mac Pro's memory looks the same.

The only reason not to do 8TB is the massive cost Apple charges for storage. If you are willing to pay that for convenience. Go for it.

 

[theluggage]

Is there any real reason -other than price- that consolidating all files into a massive internal SSD is a bad decision?

I think its partly psychological - Each Flash memory cell has a finite maximum number of writes in a way that a patch of spinning rust maybe doesn't, and you have to stop worrying and Trust The Math that says that the HD will probably suffer a mechanical failure before the SSD loses a significant number of cells...

That said - bear in mind that the SSD in a MP is tied to the T2 chip on the main board, so the data dies with the machine, and the bigger the drive the more data you stand to lose from a single failure. The practical upshot of that may be that you want an extra level of backup.

Also - that "other than price" is quite a big "but" - $2600 for 8TB SSD vs. $400 for the Pegasus module with 8TB of spinning rust (which still fits neatly inside - and just making a few aliases from the desktop/documents folder will make it 'look like' an extension to the system disc). Its your money, but keeping "music, movies, tv shows" (that you're only going to write once, and which are compressed to play back smoothly over a damp string) on expensive, super-high speed SSD is somewhat extravagant.

Maybe other internal storage options will appear that let you add cheap SATA SSD storage internally (So far, the Pegasus only comes with an 8TB spinner pre attached, but I'm sure cheaper versions will appear...)

 

[Infinite Vortex]

T2! At the end of the day your Apple supplied SSD will be encrypted via T2 whether you turn FV2 on or not. So in the case of a failure what is it do you do? Its not only about what you get when things go right but also the process you're wanting to go through when they don't.

 

[||\||]

I wonder if someone could explain how a solid state drive might be worn out simply by being used as intended?

Electronics fail for a myriad of unsuspected reasons. I wouldn’t Want 8TB of data on any one drive.

 

[bxs]

Unless you're using most of the data on the internal SSD frequently it really is a poor choice to buy a large expensive internal SSD such as what Apple charges for it.

The beauty of having a large internal storage device is that it's internal vs. being external and thus no cables and additional 'boxes' (storage enclosures with spinning disks) litter your workplace that could also make unwanted noise.

If much of your bulk data is only occasionally accessed/used it's more cost effective to let it reside on the less expensive external spinning storage space.

My personal choice is to place my bulk storage on cheap storage and if this can be done internally, such as in the new 2019 MP7,1 I'd opt for the Promise Pegasus J2i that can reasonably hold as much as 2x 16TB or some 32 TB, and configure the internal boot SSD to be around 1TB.

 

[Traverse]

Unless you're using most of the data on the internal SSD frequently it really is a poor choice to buy a large expensive internal SSD such as what Apple charges for it.

The beauty of having a large internal storage device is that it's internal vs. being external and thus no cables and additional 'boxes' (storage enclosures with spinning disks) litter your workplace that could also make unwanted noise.

If much of your bulk data is only occasionally accessed/used it's more cost effective to let it reside on the less expensive external spinning storage space.

My personal choice is to place my bulk storage on cheap storage and if this can be done internally, such as in the new 2019 MP7,1 I'd opt for the Promise Pegasus J2i that can reasonably hold as much as 2x 16TB or some 32 TB, and configure the internal boot SSD to be around 1TB.

I'd be more okay with that idea, but I'll never buy a Mac Pro. My eventual goal was a high-end iMac with 8TB of storage. I don't love have external drives mounted to the back of my iMac's stand. I have a small office area so spinning up disk drives make an audible noise which I'd like to avoid if I can help it. I just don't like having 2+ of my iMac's ports dedicated to external drives which macOS disconnects when I sleep the system despite my power settings.

 

[Infinite Vortex]

I'd be more okay with that idea, but I'll never buy a Mac Pro. My eventual goal was a high-end iMac with 8TB of storage. I don't love have external drives mounted to the back of my iMac's stand. I have a small office area so spinning up disk drives make an audible noise which I'd like to avoid if I can help it. I just don't like having 2+ of my iMac's ports dedicated to external drives which macOS disconnects when I sleep the system despite my power settings.

I don't know why you don't go with something like a Synology DS620slim, stack it with 4TB SSDs and call it a day. My Macs now come with the 512GB SSD option (I can go down to 128GB if I wanted to but find the 512GB to be my sweet spot) and the rest is handled by SSD filled NAS (12TB in fact - really Mac mini servers). I'd go with a modern NAS if I were to do a do over today.

I work on my Macs and store my stuff elsewhere. The bulk of my storage is not time sensitive so it going at 1Gbps ethernet is not an issue. And they're as silent as one can be even though there's also 16TB of 2.5" HDDs in play. A NAS makes a good central point, and private cloud service, between my two Macs. All I need then is decent wifi on top of a decent internet connection (currently have 600Mbps).