SATA DOMs

[danb35]

So 9.3 is out, and I have an IBM M1015 on the way. After wiring up all the drive bays in my chassis, that will leave me with two spare SATA ports. I'm thinking of getting a SATA DOM or two for the OS, and wondering what I should know about them. I'm seeing a lot of variety in price and format, and wondering how to proceed. I'd like to plug them straight into my motherboard, which seems to be how they're designed anyway. This module on eBay looks like it should do the job, but I'm not sure if I should be looking at something different. Thoughts?

 

[marbus90]

Your board has a power connector onboard for a Supermicro SATA DOM:
http://www.supermicro.nl/products/nfo/SATADOM.cfm

A bit pricey, 2.5" SSDs are probably cheaper to come by, but this would be a more compact solution.

 

[Jailer]

About the only real thing you gain over a USB stick is possible longevity.

You also get faster reads/writes which only matter during install and booting and if you're installing and booting frequently you're doing something wrong.

Having said that I did purchase a supermicro brand 16GB for my build but mostly just for the novelty of trying one out. I'm pleased with it.

 

[danb35]

Thanks for the input--sounds like there isn't much benefit then. I already have two 8 GB USB sticks; I guess I'll use them for the time being.

 

[KevinM]

Having said that I did purchase a supermicro brand 16GB for my build but mostly just for the novelty of trying one out. I'm pleased with it.

I just did the same thing for the same reason. Saw it on Newegg, figured why not.

 

[joeschmuck]

I can say with 100% certainty that the bootstrap speed between a SSD and a good quality USB Flash drive is negligible. With 9.3 and the new ZFS format you will see a lengthy time in formatting the drive and with a SSD at 120GB it actually takes a while. The item the OP listed is interesting because it is actually a fairly low cost item.

So I thought I'd use my 120GB SSD in my 9.3 system but it turns out my USB flash drive is still perfect for my system and I'm using the SSD in my test rig as I and doing a lot of playing with it.

My advice, if you wanted to get a SATA boot device, the item you listed seems cheap enough but looks for the bargain SSD as well.

 

[cyberjock]

Do note that the item is in China, so shipping will take a few weeks. ;)

I'd buy one myself just to try, but as I may not be living at this address by the time it arrives I won't risk it.

 

[danb35]

Just thought I'd post an update--I went ahead and bought two of the modules I mentioned in the OP. My chassis doesn't have room to install a 2.5" SSD, at least not without getting creative about it. They arrived a couple of weeks ago and seem to be working well. They plugged into the motherboard SATA0 and SATA1 ports, adjacent to each other, without a problem. Boot time seems to be a little faster, and updates feel quite a bit faster, though I haven't timed either to say for sure.

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, the good thing about SSDs is that you can be creative with their placement.

 

[danb35]

Agreed. In that case, though, I'm either modding my chassis or letting the SSDs hang around unsecured, and neither of those is an appealing idea. It does look, though, like that would be a cheaper way to go.

 

[joeschmuck]

Double sided foam tape works wonders to mount a SSD, however I know I wouldn't do that so I wouldn't ask someone else to do that either, but it is an option. I'd drill a pair of holes where I'd want the drive(s) to reside.

But hey, glad the DOMs work and there are no issues with them. I'm still not sure I buy into this dual boot device idea and that is has built in fail over. I'm certain it depends on how the device fails. If I had two DOMs, I'd keep one as a spare and tape it inside the case for safe keeping, but that is just me.

 

[mjt5282]

i'm very happy with the DOM i purchased for my Supermicro 10SL7-F motherboard (SSD-DM016-PHI SATA DOM) when I upgraded to 9.3 . lots of the newegg feedback is that many people purchased for Freenas, which seems to be gaining in popularity. The 16Gb modules seem out of stock, 32Gb ones are in stock. They are tiny, and the newer Supermicro motherboards handle them well.