TS-464 - Recommended M.2 NVMEs - and Heatsinks?

After 10 yrs 24/7, my TS-453 Pro just died (Intel J1900 degradation). I have just received a new TS-464 8G.

I plan to install a pair of 1TB M.2 NVME SSDs for caching.

  1. Can anyone recommend stable and reliable SSDs for this purpose (good TBW)? Knowing that the PCIe lane performance is limited on the TS-464, I guess it’s pointless going for a high performance model?

  2. Space for NVME heatsinks in the chassis looks limited. Anyone with experience…? Are they strictly necessary, what type?

I will be upgrading the RAM (it’s not soldered) to a 16 GB (2x 8GB) Crucial kit. Running QTS, with 4x 4TB Seagate Iron Wolf in Raid 10.

Thanks for any advice.

Hello,

in my TS264/TS364 i use WD Red SN700 with heatsinks “be quiet MC1”.

I use the SSD only for volumes

SSD-Cache is not a good idee

In my TS-264 i use 40 GB (8 + 32 ) and in my TS-364 i use 20 GB (4 + 16 )
40 GB (8+32) is the best idee.

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2 things. Caching is broken in QTS. Not sure if Hero is available for your NAS. There have been issues with Crucial memory lately-lots of counterfeit stuff.

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OK, thanks for the heads-up :+1: I’ll have to look into that…

If I buy Crucial RAM, I’ll buy it direct from Crucial UK. Looks like 8GB DDR4 2666 SODIMMs are very difficult to find. The 8GB stick which came with the NAS has a security sticker between it and the motherboard - so I don’t want to void the warranty :roll_eyes:

We recommend that a heat sink be installed, and you can use a flatter type/model for it. Thank you.

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Depends I originally had 2x Team Cardea Z440 2TB as cache -always low low temps with their customary graphene paper heatsinks, then swapped to 2x Micron 7450 Max 800GB for high TBW - twice these have failed due to overheating, then installed heatsinks and they sit at 55 Celsius to 60 Celsius epscecially in internal M2 Slot #2 which is more open then internal M2 slot 1!
Just purchased a QM-QNAP QM2 series, 2 x PCIe 2280 M.2 SSD slots
Gen3 x 8 , 1 x AQC113C 10GbE NBASE-T port QM2-2P10G1TB
Plan to use Micron 7450 Max in SLot 1 internal and slot 1 QM card as cache , and Cardea z440 2TB in Slot 2 Internal and slot 2 QM card to maximise PCIE efficiency Cross the fingers
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QkTcee0OfE

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Team Cardea Z440 series, Transcend 220S are good SSD’s if you find them, need the, buy them.
Now i have 2- ADATA SSD XPG GAMMIX S11 Pro, had 640TBW and a nice heat-sink, installed them in the normal SSD area, and the usage is SSD Storage, for apps and different stuff.
For cache (Qtier version, cause SSD cache wasn’t that good for my usage), bought a QM-QNAP QM2 and put 2 mundane SSD’s, a Goodram PX500 and a Team Group MP33 both 1TB as an experiment.
In the past used two Transcend 220S of 1TB with SSD cache on, but didn’t suite my needs, and upgraded to what’s above.
For heatsink you should search something like AXAGON CLR-M2L6, Thermal Grizzly M.2 SSD Cooler or the ARCTIC M2 Pro The Axagon was ok for my needs.
Be careful of the height of the heatsink.

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Yes I would use a pair of wd red sn700 for the cache in raid1 & set it for 20% when it asks how much I ran copy read write tests on 10% it performed well but better on 20% write speed where I was touching 700mb/sec raid50 8 hdds wd red pro 4tb drives on a qnap ts-873a but I get this speed too with a 10gbe nic card in the nas and a full 10gbe network in the pc router and smart multi gig switch with sfp+ sockets plus get the best out of it change to cat8 rj45 20/40 gbps speeds

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I forgot to mention I have both my nvme sn700 ssd drives heatsinked up with ek double sided units for extra cool in the system rather than just on one side.

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Most people don’t realize that few M.2’s have onboard ram. They use system ram (valuable to us NAS users) I exclusively use Samsung 980 Pro’s in my systems. See here to see the NVME’s with on on-board ram: SSD Database | TechPowerUp
As far as heat sinks go, it is system dependent. In my TVS-h1588x m.2 in slot 1 (vertical) consistently is 110 F, M.2 2 that is (horizontal) runs 110f in heavy use when the cpu fans are spinning 1300 rpm’s and above. Zooms up to 122-123 F when the fans slow down to the 800’s. QNAP heat sinks.
s.

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Any M.2 SSD faster than PCIe3 is useless because the M.2 slots are only PCIe3x1, that is just 1 PCIe Lane per M.2 SSD = 1GB per second max per M.2 SSD. Yet, this is still fast enough for 10Gb Ethernet (= 1.25GB/s)

Here is the compatiblity list with a PCIe-3 M.2 model/series from WD:

Such PCIe3 M.2 SSDs don’t need a heatsink because they get a lot less hot than PCIe4 M.2 SSDs…not to speak of PCIe5 M.2 SSDs.

QuTS hero runs great on the TS-464 with 16GB of RAM. I am running a TS-464 with 16GB and QuTS hero now for more than 3 months. And it runs seamless. But you must upgrade - as you plan - to 16GB first.

Please keep in mind that if you migrate from QTS to QuTS hero, all data will be erased because QuTS hero uses the Mercedes of the FileSystems, ZFS. And this high reliability filesystem has a complete other architecture than EXT4/LVM being used with QTS. So you need to backup all your data first, before you switch to QuTS hero. ZFS cannot read the data of QTS RAIDs or single HDDs. You have to install your QNAP system and shares from scratch for QuTS hero and its ZFS filesystem. If you are experienced with such setups or migrations, no problem, if your not used to it, you might want to stick with QTS. It’s a fine and reliable OS too.

Also, if you plan to run a Windows VM or VMs on your TS-464 with the QNAP Virualization Station app, keep in mind that with QuTS hero you can only use ≈ max. 9GB RAM for the VMs. ZFS reserves 40% of the RAM for its RAM cache (ZFS ARC). Yes, ZFS uses the super fast RAM for the writing cache (ZFS ARC), not the slower SSD cache. If you create a cache under QuTS hero with the M.2 SSDs for instance, that cache is only being used as a read-cache + for the SLOG (ZIL) which is like records in accounting but for write operation records instead of money. Having this ZFS Intention LOG (=ZIL) on SSDs (= SLOG = Separate LOG) instead of writing it to the data HDDs, this still is a good thing, but the actual writing of data goes from the RAM directly to the data HDDs (or data SSDs) not through the SLOG. If you use no HDDs and only SSDs (SATA) for you data-shares, then, you don’t need to create a ZFS cache at all because that cache is not faster than your data SSDs.

Again, please do only migrate to QuTS hero if you’re really familiar with such migrations. And do not migrate to QuTS hero if you want to run/test VMs on your TS-464. For that purpose, QTS with EXT4/LVM filesystem is better suited and as mention, a fine OS too.

Also, you can do a big favor to your TS-464 when you don’t cram it in a cabinet with little air-circulation. If you store the TS-464 in a separate small room like a storeroom, then buy an external $20 consumer fan and simply blow the air to the TS-464 and its external power supply. Even if that air is 30˚ Celsius, this still greatly cools the NAS because the components of a NAS have temperatures going up to 50 - 60˚ Celsius. In a nutshell, with such a dirt-cheap fan you can greatly contribute to the life-span of your NAS and the HDDs and SSDs. If your NAS is in a large room with plenty of space around the NAS though, such an external fan is not needed as the fans of the TS-464 do it all for you. But I wanted to mention this alleged negligibility because people often forget about this detail, a detail that can have a severe impact on the lifespan.

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:+1: Thanks.

Looking at other answers, I will almost certainly go with the WD SN700 (PCIe 3).

Reading elsewhere, I will probably only use the SSD for read caching (especially random reads) - not write. i.e. no risk of lost data.

Given the limitations of only PCIe 3 x1 speeds, it appears that I probably will not need to use a heatsink.

:+1: Thank you so much for taking the time to compile such a comprehensive response - very much appreciated :slightly_smiling_face:

Regarding NVMe SSDs, I plan to use WD Red SN700 units. Also, as I am risk-averse, I will only use them for read caching (particularly random reads) - no loss of original data if one fails…

I reckon that a single 1TB SSD should be OK - I can’t see that there is any advantage in running a RAID 1 pair for only read caching…

Yes, I already recognised the speed limitations of the PCIe 3 lanes - so no point in buying anything faster - and, at those speeds, unlikely to have problems with excessive heat. However, as a precaution, I may well use some BeQuiet! low profile heat sinks.

I have no experience of ZFS/QuTS - so I’m not going there… :wink:

Yes, I’m keeping an eye on temps - and have seen nothing to be concerned about. The NAS is on an open rack in my small home office. However, if necessary, I can always slide off the front plastic cover to improve airflow.

Regarding RAM, the NAS came with 8GB in one of the two slots. It has a warranty sticker over it and the motherboard - so there’s no way I’m going to touch that! I plan to source another 8GB stick of RAM to match. Of course, QNAP have advised me that it should be one of theirs (ridiculously expensive) and, when I asked, they would only tell me that it should be 8GB and 3200 MHz. I’m conscious that there is a lot of fake Crucial RAM about, so I plan to buy it direct from Crucial UK here:

https://uk.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct8g4sfra32a/ct26260579

That is what their upgrade tool lists for the TS-464-4G, but they have nothing for the TS-464-8G - as they are not aware that QNAP ceased to use soldered RAM on the 8G model in January 2024.

In my TS-264 i use this RAM

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In my TS-264 i use 2 SN700.

The speed is 850 Mb/s

I use my SN 700 with heatsinks

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:+1: After chatting with Crucial UK, I’ve ordered an 8GB Crucial SODIMM - CT8G4SFRA32A. They advised that I can use it in the second RAM slot - and it will work properly with the 8GB RAM already in the first RAM slot (with a warranty sticker). It should arrive tomorrow - together with a 1TB WD Red SN700 NVMe SSD.

As I said earlier, I will use this SSD only as a read cache and will keep an eye on the temps. If necessary, I will fit a low-profile BeQuiet! Heatsink.