Martin Gregorie  wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Dec 2020 21:33:07 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 16 Dec 2020 15:31:44 -0000 (UTC)
>> bob prohaska  wrote:
>>
>>> The gist is that published specs aren't necessarily a reliable guide.
>>> Eventually it'll likely get clarified, but for now, in the 2.5" 1 TB
>>> class of drives, SMR is difficult to reliably avoid.
>>
>>       At that size either you use an SSD (NVMe for preference) or you're
>> penny pinching.
>
> Price difference between HDD and SSD are fairly close. eBuyer is flogging:
> - 2.5" WD Blue 500GB SATA for ?37 (probably CMR)
> - Samsung 500GB SATA drives for ?63.00
>   or a PNY [never heard of em] 480GB SATA drive for ?40.

It's tempting to guess all three are old stock and won't be available
for long. Perhaps they'll become expensive specialty items, or simply
go away. In any case I'd like to find a storage solution with a few
features:

Adequate capacity, say quarter to one TB
Easy replacement availability
Long(ish) lifespan, several years at 24/7 operation
Power consumption at idle comparable to an idle Pi4
Performance sufficient to keep up with the Pi4
The latter two might be the most direct conflict.

As evolution plays out it may well favor SSD. For now HDDs seem to
be developing the same handicaps as SSDs. I think HDDs still win
on write cycles and power consumption. Not sure how they compare for
practical life span. Life span is a function of overprovisioning for
SSD, if SSD costs keep dropping they might win on both counts.
Last I checked SSDs were a little worse for power consumption, but
that was months ago and I don't know where the trend is going.

It's not clear where this goose chase will end... Perhaps at SSD.
Perhaps at 3.5 inch HDD.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

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