Storage Strategy | Impulse buying | StoreMI | I need therapy

[rivethead]

I'm building a new system (AMD 2600X, ASUS Prime X460 pro mobo). It's a family machine....I play some games, store digital pictures and movies on it, web browsing, etc.

My old system has a 120GB Samsung EVO 840 ssd, a 20GB Kingston ssd (my first ssd) and a 750 GB WD platter drive).

I bought a 500 GB M.2 sata drive (Crucial) and my original plan was to just use that alone....just plug it into the mobo and no cables to worry about, no drives to mount, etc.

But then, at the last second, I discovered my mobo has TWO M.2 slots. And, as an impulse buy, I bought an AData NVMe drive 256GB. I've read a lot of conflicting things about whether or not NVMe tech/speeds would really benefit me/the type of things I do on my machine. But I pulled the trigger anyway because...impulses, sexy technology, blah blah.

With my original strategy of just the 500GB sata drive, I wouldn't need the StoreMI software/tech that comes with my mobo. But now that I have two drives, I'm wondering if it would help.

So with all of these drives available to me:
250GB NVMe M.2
500GB Sata M.2
120GB Sata 2.5in
750GB platter drive
20 GB Kingston ssd (I'll probably just throw this in a closet)

And StoreMI, is there a storage strategy I should consider? Maybe some RAID configuration (I have zero experience with RAID).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, advice, or comments!

 

[seagate_surfer]

The biggest thing to keep in mind is just to make sure to backup your stuff. 3-2-1 method is the go-to. Keep 3 copies of your data, 2 locally but on different mediums, and 1 offsite in case of disaster. RAID is for if you don't want to/can't afford to deal with downtime, like if taking the system offline to replace a drive would be something that greatly inconveniences you or downtime = lost dollars.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I don't think there is any reason to consider a StoreMI setup from what you're describing. Caching has its own set of drawbacks for home usage.

What I'd do:

250GB NVMe M.2 - Bootdrive + Applications
500GB Sata M.2 - Primary storage
750GB platter drive - Backup, perhaps external

120GB Sata 2.5in - Consider an external USB 3.0 enclosure with UASP support. You'll get a killer USB drive out of that SSD.
20 GB Kingston ssd (I'll probably just throw this in a closet) - Best place for it. It's too small to be much use except as an external drive.

That's about it really.

 

[cbn]

I bought a 500 GB M.2 sata drive (Crucial) and my original plan was to just use that alone....just plug it into the mobo and no cables to worry about, no drives to mount, etc.

But then, at the last second, I discovered my mobo has TWO M.2 slots. And, as an impulse buy, I bought an AData NVMe drive 256GB. I've read a lot of conflicting things about whether or not NVMe tech/speeds would really benefit me/the type of things I do on my machine. But I pulled the trigger anyway because...impulses, sexy technology, blah blah.

With my original strategy of just the 500GB sata drive, I wouldn't need the StoreMI software/tech that comes with my mobo. But now that I have two drives, I'm wondering if it would help.

Why not use StoreMI with the 256GB NVMe drive and the 500GB M.2 SATA drive? (This will make a combined 756GB volume).

Then use the 750GB HDD for back-up.

 

[rivethead]

Thanks everyone.

The appeal of StoreMI is having a single drive letter....not having to worry about or deal with where I put stuff.

I really like the idea of using the 256 NVMe and 500GB as one drive within StoreMI and then using the 750GBHDD to back it all up in a RAID 1 configuration.

The 120GB Samsung....I'll sell on Craiglist. The Kingston.....paperweight.

 

[IntelUser2000]

120GB Sata 2.5in - Consider an external USB 3.0 enclosure with UASP support. You'll get a killer USB drive out of that SSD.

Good idea. USB drive that doesn't die on you after writing 5GB of data on it and/or having it owned only for a year. You'll likely have much better data retention too.

My big backup drive is the Intel 730 SSD with 3.5-inch enclosure modified to fit the drive. I know, I could have put an HDD in there instead and maybe its better for long term data storage. Still, using the USB 3.0 or eSATA, the data transfers are really fast. I power it up every once in a while just in case it loses data. Had it for 3 years or so, works with no problems.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Linux boot drive.