I am considering getting the WD Ultrastar DC SN640 server NVMe drive for my desktop as data. They are considerably cheaper than the TLC NVMe drives of the same size ($250 for a 3.8tb or $399 for a 7.8TB new). I think all you need to get is a m.2 to U2 adapter. I was wondering if it makes sense or if I’m missing something obvious about why people don’t buy them for consumer use. Can Windows or Linux automatically detect them easily? I know they will probably be slower than the customer versions, but I would just use it as storage and not for my apps. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
U.2 drives typically have higher power consumption and develop more heat. But we’re talking 1W vs. 5W and a few more degrees that can be managed by good airflow.
Enterprise drives are also typically more expensive than their consumer counterparts, but sounds like you found a good deal!
Lastly, and you hinted at this in our original post, they will perform differently: Firmware and cache architecture on consumer drives is typically optimized for short, bursty types of workloads. They’ll smoke an enterprise drive on loading a game, for example, but fall off a cliff after writing some hundreds of GBs or after filling a certain percentage of drive space. The enterprise drive will perform much more consistently, but likely slower for a lot of gaming / workstation type workloads.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with your plan, just be aware of these differences.