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Running a Raspberry Pi 3 as a home media server (using openmediavault).

Currently connected via USB (USB 2?) to an old Seagate 2TB HDD, but I think it’s dying (making strange noises, can't read from it properly, error messages, etc.), so it’s probably time to replace it.

Speed isn't crucial, but would like low power consumption since it's running 24/7. Do external SSDs need their own power supply these days, or can a Pi 3 supply enough power via the USB cable? (I'll do whatever is most power efficient)

Do I need to buy an external USB drive, or can I buy an internal 2.5" SATA drive and use a SATA to USB cradle/cable instead? Or doesn't it really matter?

Or might I consider buying an NVME drive (and a USB cradle/cable)? I don't suppose I'll get to see its full potential in this setting, but that's not important, and I might redeploy it in future inside the new desktop PC that I'm quite likely to buy in the next 12 months.

(I'm assuming a USB stick drive wouldn't cut the mustard because it would be waaaaay slower)

Would be grateful for any recommendations/guidance.

Thank you.

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A "USB stick drive" can be as fast as an SSD that you connect via USB. It all depends on the controller. There are cheap USB3 controllers that just fulfill the bare minimum of the USB3 standard and there are high quality USB3 controllers that max out, what is technically possible with USB3. As you plan to connect your storage via USB, it will be crucial to have a high quality USB3 controller.

Examples:

  • SanDisk sells USB Flash drives of high quality in their "Extreme PRO" series. Be aware, they also have an "Ultra" series, which also sounds "promising", but they are rather slow.

    Speed: up to 420 MB/s read and up to 380 MB/s write

  • SanDisk also offers an external SSD in their "Extreme PRO" series

    Speed: up to 2000 MB/s read/write

The sad part is: Your Raspberry Pi 3 only has USB2 ports. So you will not benefit from USB3 speeds.

If your plan is to actually use the storage in a PC in the future, then you should go with an internal drive that you temporarily connect to your Raspberry via a SATA to USB cable. Example:

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