what's the actual question?
Data Hoarder
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Any downsides or pitfalls I should be aware of before I spend a grand? I know the drives are not stellar for write performance past a point. I know unraid supports trim in pools as well.
Okay, have fun?
One ZFS drive per pool, with unraid on top? Should be mostly fine. As you say these drives are terrible for writes, but they should be pretty reliable and performant for your workload.
I would do a single ZFS pool with the three drives.
Electric is 35 cents per kWh here
I would do a single ZFS pool with the three drives.
that would be ideal
So if you have 6 SAS drives running 24/7 the turnover point from this investement would be at roughly 5 years. IMO not worth it at all.