HDD usage for new installation

[SecularSam]

About to set this up on an old gaming pc, and the hard drive in it is a regular HDD. I know the installation guide says that an SSD is preferred so what do I run the risk of I try to save some money and reuse the HDD?

[Dylan]

Hi @SecularSam - I am running 4x8TB HDDs in my rig and so are many other people. I think the SSD recommendation is more for performance than anything else. Just make sure you are familiar with the other guidance talked about in the compatibility guide.

Welcome aboard and good luck!

[PsychoWards]

I believe he meant as a boot drive not as the storage drives 🙂

If so, a HDD as a boot drive shouldn't be an issue, at least not with Truenas itself, but I don't believe that Hexos adds much overhead which would require an SSD to work properly.

The NVME/M.2 SSD is often recommended because it frees up 1 (or in case of a mirror 2) SATA port, which there are not many left on modern consumer grade HW and because they aren't that expensive anymore and consum less energy. The boot might take longer, but most of the OS runs in Memory anyway. So if you are fine with longer boot time, decent HDDs should be fine.

[Dylan]

4 minutes ago, PsychoWards said:

I believe he meant as a boot drive not as the storage drives 🙂

HA! Damn me and my assumptions. Good catch and thank you for clarifying!!

[SecularSam]

Thanks! Yeah I should have clarified that I was referring to the boot drive. Not sure if this MB has an m.2 slot but I will double check.