Looking for a recommendation to pick NVME and HBA controller for home server with NO critical data

[vitstr]

Hello everyone!

I want to upgrade and re-install my home server based on non-server hardware.

Hardware:
1. MB MSI MPG B760I EDGE Wi-Fi
2. Intel core i5-12400
3. 2x16Gb Kingston Fury DDR5-4800
4. 2x2tb WD Red (using as a main pool rpool)
5. 1x750Gb WD Blue (using for backup as bpoll)
6. 2x4Tb WD Red Plus (I want to use new HDDs in the TrueNAS VM as zfs mirror).

My questions:

1. I want to add 2xnvme m2 (256-512GB) to use them as a main pool. I have some background, and the recommendation for ZFS is to use Nvme SSD with PLP. I may consider buying Micron 7450pro. But if my server use additional portable power station (Ecoflow) and can work without electricity should I use a cheaper consumer nvme disks without PLP? Is it safe?

2. As mentioned above, I want to pass 2x4tb to VM with TrueNAS. The recommended way is to use an HBA controller. Do you have any recommendations for an affordable HBA controller I can buy for the case? Are there any successful stories about long distances without using HBA and passing whole disks directly to TrueNAS VM?

Thank you.

 

[leesteken]

1. I want to add 2xnvme m2 (256-512GB) to use them as a main pool. I have some background, and the recommendation for ZFS is to use Nvme SSD with PLP. I may consider buying Micron 7450pro. But if my server use additional portable power station (Ecoflow) and can work without electricity should I use a cheaper consumer nvme disks without PLP? Is it safe?

Without PLP the drives cannot cache sync writes, so it's not the same. Consumer SSDs are prone to lose data on power outage, which you can indeed prevent with a UPS. You will probably not be happy with consumer drives because they will typically be slow with multiple VMs and wear out quickly (which makes them expensive to keep buying new ones).

2. As mentioned above, I want to pass 2x4tb to VM with TrueNAS. The recommended way is to use an HBA controller. Do you have any recommendations for an affordable HBA controller I can buy for the case?

No recommendation, sorry but do make sure PCIe passthrough works, both with the motherboard/CPU and the HBA controller (by searching for other peoples success stories) before buying one.