Category Archives: NT IT Reviews

Adding a NAS Drive to a Windows 2016 Server

NT IT Reviews

We recently acquired 3 IceBreaker 4936 servers from DoDCFL (for free) and were looking for the best use for these bad boys.  We landed on our CCTV setup.

They are all 36-thread servers with 256GB of RAM and 216TBs of HDDs.  While the storage isn’t blazing fast by today’s standards, it is great archival storage.

Our CCTV system is Milestone, which requires the storage drives to be local.  We decided to try and set up TrueNas on the Icebreaker to allow us to greatly enhance our storage longevity.  The RAID and TrueNAS install are covered in a separate post by my excellent Miami intern (Maverick Peck), that completed that part of the process.

After TrueNas was installed we had to first setup iSCSI on the NAS.  We tried other solutions but in the end, the only one that worked with Milestone was having the drive on the recording server connect with iSCSI Initiator.

Step 1 – On the server that is connecting to the NAS, install iSCSI Initiator.  By typing iSCSI in the start bar you will get the best match of iSCSI Initiator, simply click on it.  Click the Yes button to make it a service that starts automatically in the future.

 

Step 2 – Set up the iSCSI Share you will be using on TrueNAS.  This YouTube video capture covers the process of:

  • Setting up the Zvol storage pool
  • Configuring the iSCSI Block Share
  • Enabling the TrueNAS iSCSI Service
  • Connecting the NAS Volume to iSCSI Initiator on your server
  • Finally, setting up the new disk in Disk Management

Hopefully this helps anyone else looking to setup a NAS and getting drives mapped as local drives on their server.

Cleaning Up BSOD NTFS Issue

NT IT Reviews

Occasionally a Windows system will decide to bother us with a blue screen of death.  There are a few things we can do that may (and usually does) fix the issue.

  1.  Open Powershell as an administrator and run: sfc /scannow
    • This will search for bad windows files and replace them.
  2. Now run : DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
    • This will really do the same but replace them from Microsoft services if the above command could not fix them.
  3. Lastly, run: chkdsk /r /f
    • This will do a checkdisk on your OS drive and attempt to repair the errors.  You technically could do this first, but I got the BSOD when I did it in that order, and fixed my issue when I did it in this order.
    • You will have to do a restart to allow the chkdsk to run on the OS drive.

Neo Forza 2TB MLC NVMe 1.4 PCIe SSD Review

Hard Drive Reviews

I recently purchased this SSD for my gaming rig. This has been a really good and reliable SSD. The motherboard for this rig is the MSI Mag B50 Tomahawk. This is a 2TB M.2 PCIe SSD from the company Neo Forza. I got it because it has many qualities of a good SSD. As an example, this M.2 is about 2 cents per byte. This SSD is currently 134.99 on Newegg.  It’s currently rated 4.6 out of 5 eggs on Newegg

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Many of the reviews have pointed out how it’s really fast but may not be as fast as advertised. There is also the fact that it’s MLC which means it’s cheaper and will last longer than a TLC or QLC.  It may not be as fast as an SLC but this is also very cost-efficient.  I think this SSD would be a good investment for your gaming system. It may be an upgrade to the current storage devices you use. Some of the reviews also talk about how you can use all 2TBs of this drive and it’s actually 2TBs. Here is a list with some of the specs of this SSD.

As you can see in the photo the MTBF is 2 million hours, That’s relatively 228 years now that’s a long time.  With a max sequential read of 7000MBps and a max sequential write of 6850MBps, this seems to be a pretty good drive. I would personally recommend this drive and I would suggest that you purchase this SSD for your gaming rig.

 

Note: This is part of a class project

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B650-TOMAHAWK-WIFI

https://www.newegg.com/neo-forza-2tb-nfp400/p/0D9-007T-00038?recaptcha=pass

Western Digital WD_BLACK SN770

NT IT Reviews

The WD_BLACK SN770 is a M.2 hard drive, that was made by Western Digital Corporation. The Western Digital Corporation is a company that makes computer drives, data storage, and data center systems, and cloud storage services. Their Headquarters are in San Jose of California. So the WD_BLACK SN770 is a Solid State Drive meaning it can only last for so long, how long? It’s Mean Time Between Failure last for 1.75 million hours, meaning this would last 199.7716895 years.

Now for speed and other stats, it’s read speed is 5000MBps and write speed is 4000MBps. it’s gigabyte is 500 and PCle is a Gen4 16GT/s, and can be up to 4 lanes. The 4KB Random reading is 460,000 and it’s 4KB Random writing is 800,000. and getting a WD_BLACK SN770 also comes with 3-year warranty, but this SSD does not come with a buffer and does not specify if it’s a TLC, MLC, or even a QLC. But the price isn’t that bad for a Solid State Drive, using this SSD was pretty decent, it had plenty of room and lasted for quite a while. So if you want one the link is right here Newegg.com only for $39.99.

Note: This review is for a classroom project.

Samsung SSD M.2 Hard Drive PM981a NVMe

Hard Drive Reviews

Recently, I got this hard drive and installed it into my motherboard. So far I have had no problems with it at all. The price of the Hard Drive is only $182.13 according to Newegg. If you really think about it, that is a great deal for 1 terabyte of storage. After I installed it into my motherboard, I noticed a change that was much better than the last SSD hard drive that I recently had installed in my motherboard.Specifications:

  • Size 2280 GB
  • transfer rate 2900 MB
  • MTBF 1.5 million
  • Compacity 1 TB
  • Warranty 5 year
  • Read speed 3500 MBps
  • Write speed 2900 MBps

NOTE THIS IS PART OF A CLASSROOM ASSIGNMENT

References: https://www.newegg.com/p/0D9-0009-00AH8?

SAMSUNG 870 EVO Series 2.5

Hard Drive Reviews

I have had no problem with this Samsung SSD. It has worked with my motherboard and it’s only 64.99.  Which is a good deal for what you get it is 250 GB. This is also good for the price when I put this on my computer. It was cheaper and I’ve had it for a month now and I have no problems with it. And I can tell a big difference in it from the old traditional spinny drive I had I would strongly recommend this.

Specifications

  • size 250 GB
  • transfer rate 560 MB
  • MTBF 1.5 million
  • compacity 1 TB
  • warranty 5 year
  • read speed 560 MBps
  • write speed 530 MBps

NOTE THIS IS PART OF A CLASSROOM ASSIGNMENT 

REFERENCES https://www.newegg.com/?recaptcha=pass

My Review On The SAMSUNG 980 M.2 2280 1TB

NT IT Reviews

My Review On The SAMSUNG 980 M.2 2280 1TB

Ok so, the 1TB SSD worked as intended at least. It did as told, not much wrong with it. So far, Samsung hasn’t been that bad of a company. Every time I’ve chose to go with it’s products, everything has ran rather smoothly. Rather solid SSD.

It was at the speed of spoke of and worked as told. I wasn’t surprised or shock by any outcome though, despite it working fine. Do I recommended using this SSD yourself? I’d say so, maybe it shouldn’t be your best choice, but it certainly won’t be your worst. It’s your choice to trust my word.

Here’s the perfomance.

And above this are the details.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Note:  This review is part of a classroom project.

 

Samsung 980 Review

Hard Drive Reviews

This Solid State Drive is pretty good for the cost. This SSD only costs $50.65 for 250 GB which means that each GB cost just a few cents. In addition, this SSD will work in most Motherboards you try it in. After trying this in my PC for a few weeks I can say it was worth all $50. When starting applications I noticed that they were loading a lot faster than when I wasn’t using the SSD.Specifications

  • Size: 250 GB
  • Transfer Rate: 3,500 MB/s
  • MTBF: 1.5 million hours
  • IOPS: 17,000
  • SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC: MLC
  • Read Speed: 2,900 MB/s
  • Write Speed: 1,300 MB/s
  • Warranty: 5 years

NOTE: This Review is part of a class project.

References

Newegg.com

WD_BLACK SN850X Review

Hard Drive Reviews

The WD_BLACK SN850X is the best Hard Drive that I have ever had. WD_BLACK SN850X is currently the 16th Best Seller Ranking in Internal SSDS on the market today. If you have an ASUS Prime X670-P Compatible motherboard, it is the best Hard Drive for you! It is currently listed for $99.99 on Newegg and has excellent reviews from other users, with 4.8 out of 5 eggs by all reviewers.

The specifications of the Hard Drives are impressive. The most important of the specs are:

  • Model
    • Brand Western Digital
      Series BLACK SN850X NVMe
      Model WDS100T2X0E
      Device Type Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
      Used For Consumer
  • Detail
    • Form Factor M.2 2280
      Capacity 1TB
      Interface PCI-Express 4.0 x4
  • Performance
    • Max Sequential Read Up to 7300 MBps
      Max Sequential Write Up to 6300 MBps
      4KB Random Read Up to 800,000 IOPS
      4KB Random Write-Up to 1,100,000 IOPS
      Terabytes Written (TBW) 600TB
      MTTF 1.75M Hours
      HeatSink No

Newegg ratings of this Hard Drive are where it is rated highest among Internal SSDs. With a capacity of 1TB and the Interface PCI-Express, 4.0 x4, this Hard Drive will not disappoint any avid person. It does show Form Factor is M.2, so use caution if you are attempting to use it with other Hard Drives.

While there are other faster SSD for ASUS Prime X670-P DDR5, 3xM.2 Slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, USB4 Header, and 2.5Gb Ethernet Motherboard. If you currently have a 1TB, this is your best choice for a quality upgrade. The Form Factor rating is superior to many options listed above and is the most critical number for anyone. Game on!

Note: This review is part of a classroom project

“WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 4.0 X4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) WDS100T2X0E – Newegg.com.” Www.newegg.com, www.newegg.com/western-digital-1tb-black-sn850x-nvme/p/N82E16820250243. Accessed 22 Mar. 2023.

Team Group T-FORCE CARDEA Solid State Hard Drive Review

Hard Drive Reviews

I use this solid state drive in my home PC. It does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s fast enough and it operates well.  This drive boots up fast with the Windows operating system. If you would be interested in purchasing this solid state drive I would recommend it for a home PC, but would not recommend for a business or gamer. Generally you want something higher quality for that particular use. The T-FORCE CARDEA costs $23.99.

Specifications

  • Size: 250 GB 
  • Connection Type: PCIe
  • Read speeds: 3300 MBps
  • write speeds: 1400 MBps
  • No Buffer
  • Transfer Rate: 150TB
  • MLC: Lasts longer in the long run
  • Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) : 3,000,000 hours
  • Warranty: If a product from team group’s company is damaged they will repair it.

Note:  This review is part of a classroom project.

References:  newegg.com