Choosing the Right Storage for Dedicated Servers
When renting a dedicated server at ServerAstra, choosing the right storage configuration is essential. Your storage strategy directly affects performance, scalability, and cost - especially for workloads like Web-hosting, multi-site environments, VM platforms, edge services, and AI training/inference.
This article outlines the differences between HDDs, SSDs (SATA, NVMe), QLC vs TLC, and RAID setups - based on real-world data and infrastructure use cases.
Table of Contents
- HDD vs SSD for Servers
- SSD Types: QLC vs TLC
- Is NVMe Worth It?
- RAID: Software vs Hardware
- Enterprise NVMe RAID Options
- SATA SSDs vs NVMe for Cost Savings
- Workload-Based Storage Recommendations
- Final Note
Q1: Should I choose HDDs or SSDs for my server?
Short answer:
At ServerAstra we suggest to use SSDs for anything performance-sensitive. We offer HDDs only for bulk storage or backup, that's why the minimum size for HDD is 6TB.
Details:
- HDDs: Inexpensive and high-capacity. Suitable for long-term storage, logs, archives, or large media repositories.
- SSDs (SATA): Better speed, lower latency. Good for basic CMS hosting, staging environments, or backups that require some responsiveness.
- SSDs (NVMe): Much faster. Recommended for database-driven sites, high-traffic WordPress, VM hosts, and AI workloads.
| Use Case | Recommended Storage | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Basic WordPress hosting | SATA SSD | Fast enough for standard usage |
| High-traffic CMS | NVMe SSD (TLC) | Faster page loads, better concurrency |
| Multi-site or multiservers | NVMe SSD (TLC) RAID | Handles parallel I/O well |
| VM platform (e.g., Proxmox, ESXi) | NVMe SSD (TLC) | Quick VM disk access, lower latency |
| AI training / inference | NVMe SSD (TLC) or RAM disk | Very high IOPS & throughput needed |
| Cold storage / backups | HDD | Cheapest per TB |
Q2: Are all SSDs suitable for production use?
No. SSDs vary by flash type, which affects speed, durability, and consistency under load. For example, at ServerAstra we do not use QLC drives at all as they are a dangerous environment for any significant server workload due to unpredictable latency and poor endurance ratings.
NAND Types:
- 3D XPoint: Intel (R) patented technology offering low latency, high endurance and stable speed for sustained writes. Discontinued.
- SLC: Pioneered the SSDs. Mostly abandoned technology, slow, rare and usually expensive.
- MLC: Replaced SLCs quickly due to lower cost and improved read performance. Rare now.
- TLC: Ideal for production workloads—reliable and balanced.
- QLC: Cost-efficient but stalling performance under sustained writes. Best avoided for anything but home storage.
Examples:
- Intel 660p (QLC NVMe): Slows down significantly leading to 100 second latency under write-heavy loads.
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus (TLC NVMe): Consistent speed and endurance.
| Flash Type | Performance | Endurance | Cost | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QLC | Low | Low | Low | Archive-only or write-light use |
| TLC | High | Medium | Fair | General-purpose production |
| MLC | Medium-High | Medium-High | Fair | General-purpose production |
| SLC | Low | High | High | Legacy, unused nowadays |
| 3D XPoint | Medium-High | Best | High | DDR2 Memory-level performance persistent storage with SLC-level endurance |
For these reasons we avoid QLC for dedicated server workloads altogether.
Q3: Is NVMe worth the extra cost?
In most modern workloads, yes.
NVMe SSDs use PCIe instead of SATA, which drastically improves throughput and latency.
| Metric | SATA SSD | NVMe SSD (PCIe 3.0/4.0) |
|---|---|---|
| Sequential read | ~550 MB/s | ~3,500–7,000 MB/s |
| Random IOPS | ~90K | ~600K+ |
| Latency | Higher | Much lower |
NVMe makes a difference in:
- WordPress with large databases or object caching
- Virtualization platforms with multiple concurrent VMs
- AI workloads accessing large model/data files
- Edge compute startups needing fast storage and low-latency I/O
Budget NVMe drives (e.g., 660p) use QLC and behave poorly under sustained load. Choose TLC-based NVMe models (e.g., Samsung 980 Pro, WD SN850, Micron 7400) for production.
Q4: Should I use hardware or software RAID?
For SSDs and NVMe drives, software RAID is usually the better choice.
Hardware RAID:
- Common in older SATA-based systems
- Good for HDD arrays
- Requires vendor-specific tools
- Limited by controller bandwidth (e.g., PCIe x8 bottlenecks with >10 SATA SSDs)
- Is a single-point-of-failure for the whole system
Software RAID (Linux mdraid, Windows Storage Spaces, ZFS, BTRFS):
- Higher flexibility and portability
- Better suited for NVMe
- Easier recovery and monitoring
- Minimal CPU overhead (especially for RAID 0, 1)
In general for NVMe servers:
True hardware RAID is often unsupported or impractical. Use Linux mdraid or ZFS for RAID 0/1/10 in drive amounts less than or equal to 4.
Q5: Are there enterprise RAID options for NVMe?
Yes, but at the moment of writing of this article they're niche and expensive.
- GRAID SupremeRAID: Uses GPU offloading; high performance but requires specific hardware and form factor.
- HighPoint SSD7580B (PCIe x16): Supports multiple NVMe drives, but costs ~€1500+ and usually requires internal chassis rewiring.
Not recommended for general server rental unless explicitly needed for advanced workloads or multi-million IOPS setups.
Q6: Can I switch to SATA SSDs to cut costs?
You can but it won't cut costs as at the moment of this article NVMe's cost the same as SATA's and the trade-offs are not worth it.
To match one modern NVMe SSD you will need:
- 134 217 728 SATA SSDs to match queue capabilities (yes, millions)
- ~15–40 SATA SSDs in RAID 0 to match bandwidth
- ~250 SATA SSDs to match IOPS
- Still get much worse latency
Also, RAID controllers typically max out at PCIe x8, becoming a bottleneck with 10+ SATA SSDs. NVMe avoids this by generally using direct x4 lanes to the CPU.
Overall NVMe is the better solution in all cases.
Summary: What should I choose for each workload?
| Workload Type | Recommended Storage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard WordPress site | NVMe or SATA SSD (TLC) | Cost-effective for light usage |
| Multisite WP / WooCommerce | NVMe SSD (TLC) RAID 1/10 | Faster DB and object cache access |
| VM hosting (Proxmox, ESXi) | NVMe SSD (TLC) RAID 1/10 | Better disk I/O, low latency |
| AI model inference | NVMe SSD (TLC) | Fast loading of models/datasets |
| AI training | High-end NVMe or RAM disk | Throughput and write endurance needed |
| Edge server (e.g., CDN, container startup) | NVMe TLC | Improves boot times and response |
| Archive or logs | HDD or QLC SSD | For large, infrequently accessed data |
Final Note
For rented dedicated servers at ServerAstra, prioritize:
- TLC-based NVMe SSDs for production.
- Linux software RAID for flexibility and ease of management.
- Exclude QLC SSDs for operational stability.
- Add HDDs only for cold storage or large media repositories.