What’s the Ideal Storage Setup for High Performance Computing?

[Gabriellabrowne]

Hey everyone,

I’m currently planning a High Performance Computing (HPC) system for tasks like AI training, 3D rendering, and large-scale simulations, and I’m a bit stuck on the storage setup. Gaming PCs usually get by with a single NVMe or SATA SSD, but I know HPC workloads can really push storage to the limit.
Some things I’m wondering about:

• NVMe vs. SATA SSD: Is NVMe always worth it for HPC, or is a combination better?
• PCIe Gen 4 vs. Gen 5: Does the extra bandwidth actually make a difference for large datasets?
• RAID or not RAID: Are RAID setups necessary, or just overkill for a high-speed workstation?
• HDDs for archiving: Should I pair fast SSDs with large-capacity HDDs for older data?
• Optane / persistent memory: Anyone tried these in HPC setups — are they worth the cost?

I’d love to see real-world setups, benchmarks, and recommendations from anyone who’s built an HPC system or workstation. Screenshots of your storage layouts or performance metrics would be amazing!