I have been running Qubes 4.0 for a few years on a 1TB NVME drive, and now that Qubes 4.1 has been released, I am thinking about upgrading to a 2TB NVME drive. I have some questions that I hope can be answered by this community:
Would MLC drives be preferred over TLC or QLC for Qubes use?
Which brands and models of 2TB NVME drives would be best for Qubes use?
Which NVME drives does Purism recommend for Qubes use?
Which NVME drives has Purism used for customers that ordered Librem 14 with 2TB NVME drive?
Is Purism considering reselling storage drives in their store?
I wouldn’t worry too much about performance, and instead buy for what is considered reliable over the long-term.
MLC drives are usually rated for more writes than TLC and QLC drives, but they are much more expensive. In general, I avoid QLC drives, because their long-term reliability is generally worse, so I buy TLC because they are so much cheaper than MLC, but are rated for more writes than QLC.
I generally buy from companies that make their own Flash memory (Samsung, Micron, Intel, WD or Kioxia (former Toshiba)), because you know who made the memory. There is a lot of switching of memory and memory controllers in the industry to get good reviews and then sell lower quality components to general public after that, so I stick with the reputable brands that make their own memory, but even the reputable brands have engaged in component switching.
Thank you for your detailed reply, and sorry for not responding until now. I have ordered a Samsung TLC drive and am excited about updating to QubesOS R4.1 and 2TB of space. Thank you again for your input.