To SSD Cache or Not to SSD Cache?

[random_guy#7]

Hi All, I've been considering purchasing 2 of either the ts-831x or the ts-563 for a clustered Hyper-V setup. I would be storing VMs running an app server off it as well as an SQL server and a few Linux machines. I will be using iSCSI to access the VMs

If I go with the ts-563 I would get 8 GB of RAM, the SFP+ card, and connect at 10 Gbps. I will use 4 drives in RAID 10 (no room for 2 SSDs for SSD caching because it only has 5 bays)

If I go with the 831x I would get 2 SSDs and use them to do SSD caching with 4 standard NAS drives in RAID 10. I would also connect to the network at 10 Gbps with this NAS

I feel like the ts-563 has more processing power and depending on the quality of the hard drive I go with I may have better performance. But the real question here is how significant is the affect of SSD caching?

[QNAPJason]

hi,
For use in the VMware, Citrix, Hyper-V environment, please use QNAP x86-based NAS such as the TS-563 for better performance and support.

[random_guy#7]

Thank you Jason, I will go with the TS-563. Now one additional question. I will be doing mostly random reads and writes (SQL server VM using iSCSI). Would it be more beneficial to go with a 3 drive RAID 5 array and a 2 drive SSD array (w/ SSD Caching enabled) or just go with a 4 drive RAID 10 array?