SSD Type For Blue Iris PC?

[Cammick]

So glad to have found this site! Thanks to all who contribute.

Setting up a dedicated BI PC system for the first time.

Per IPCT hardware recommendation page, ordered this from ebay:
Dell Precision 3420 Desktop - Intel i7-6700 @ 3.4GHz 16GB RAM 1TB HDD Windows 10 Pro, DVDRW, NVIDIA Quadro K620 (can remove later if wanted). Should arrive 19NOV. Monitor, keyboard and mouse on the way. Can upgrade HDD later.

Now need to order SSD (and any connector cable, etc), but have questions. I haven’t built or owned a desktop PC for over 20 years.

I see in the manual for that PC it can accept a PCIe SSD card. Here are the two units under consideration, price is about the same:

SATA III:
Western Digital 500GB WD Blue 3D NAND Internal PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, 2.5"/7mm, Up to 560 MB/s - WDS500G2B0A

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBZ8YH

PCIe:
Crucial P2 500GB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD Up to 2400MB/s - CT500P2SSD8

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-500GB-NAND-NVMe-2400MB/dp/B086BGWNY8

It seems the PCIe is much faster?

If go with SATA III, which cable to connect in this case? I'm seeing many different types of cables available... Help!

Any advice regarding selection, performance, fit, cables or other items needed, or anything else, will be much appreciated.

 

[SouthernYankee]

The SSD is used for the windows operating system and the Blue Iris software, NOT VIDEO. I am using a 120GB samsung evo 860. I use a 4 TB wd purple drive for video storage. After an SSD the speed real does not matter, after boot just about everything is in memory.

I use the SATA III rive cables and power.

 

[concord]

If this is a SFF, then you most likely only be able to have one 3.5" drive. If you have a M.2 NVME slot on the motherboard, you may want to use it, but note that on some motherboards, using a M.2 will disable one of your SATA drive interface ports, so make sure you have enough SATA interface ports. Make it your SSD as the OS and use a regular drive (i.e. WD purple) as your BI storage.

 

[Mike A.]

For about the same price go with the PCIe. Faster and saves your SATA and drive space which is limited in most of the Dells.

 

[bp2008]

I agree, a 120 GB SSD is plenty big enough for the OS disk, Blue Iris program files, and clip database.

For an M.2 SSD, you'll probably need to buy separately the screw that holds the drive in place (hard to say if that will be preinstalled in the motherboard or not until you get the machine). Apparently for your system it should be an M2x3.5 screw, dell part number 6JPHH. If you can't find one from a site you trust, you might get away with using a more common M2x3 screw. I'm not sure because I've only installed M.2 SSDs in computers I assembled myself, and motherboards always include the appropriate screws when purchased that way.

SATA III SSDs are slower on paper, but in practice the speed difference means very little. All you strictly need to install a SATA SSD is a SATA power cable (which is attached to the power supply already) and a SATA data cable which can be had cheaply on ebay or amazon. Alternatively, the optical drive in these machines (assuming your model has one) uses the same cables so you could just disconnect it and use those cables.

Proper clean mounting of a SATA SSD requires a proprietary plastic caddy which may or may not already be in your computer case. It isn't strictly necessary though. SATA SSDs are very lightweight and have no moving parts, so you could just tape it into the hard drive cage where it won't bother anything. One neat trick I used once is to replace the slim optical drive in a dell machine with one of these

http://amzn.com/B075846MD2

which looks from the outside a lot like the original optical drive, but instead it is actually an SSD enclosure.

 

[Cammick]

Thanks much for all the detailed advice!

While I realize 120GB of SSD may do, I ordered the PCIe 500GB SSD. "For A Few Dollars More" it helps future-proof the purchase, and currently the 500GB is at the low-price break point for this particular model:
$50 / 250GB = 20 cents / GB
$60 / 500GB = 12 cents / GB
$105 / 1KGB = 10.5 cents / GB

If the screw is missing I'll "upgrade" the hole with a tap to accept the M2x3 from the hardware store (just because I can--I know it would probably screw right in without trouble...).

Regarding if using a M.2 NVME on the system board will disable one SATA drive interface port, the manual sez thusly:
------
Allows you to configure the SATA drives on board. The options are:
• SATA-0
• SATA-1
• SATA-2
• M.2 PCIe SSD-0
-------
So it seems there may be enough SATA either way, and worst case is to get a USB optical drive?

 

[bp2008]

It sounds like you can use all 3 SATA ports and the M.2 at the same time. The optical drive by default uses one of the SATA ports, but you can replace it with an SSD as noted earlier.