What are the differences between consumer grade SSDs and the much more expensive enterprise SSDs?

Differences are:

• Intended market/usage. Enterprise drives are meant to be on 24/7 and can usually withstand higher temperatures or other stresses. Consumer grade drives are expected to be on 8-10 hours a day or so. Lifespan and MTBF are based off these expectations.

• Features included/supported by firmware. Enterprise drives may have more intelligent wear-leveling, better error-checking, and 'smarter' firmware in general. Enterprise drives may also have a larger capacity of spare overhead to deal with failed blocks. Consumer grade drives will have a stripped down or more basic firmware.

• Component/construction. Enterprise drives will usually be made of longer-lasting flash memory, and will use different architectures that may be constructed to optimize performance in specific workloads. Consumer grade drives will be made of cheaper components.

• Warranty and support. Enterprise drives have better warranties and better support, allowing customers things like next-day replacement and advance RMA. Consumer grade drives will usually only be replaced via an RMA process where you do not have a replacement for several weeks.

• Hardware level support, QVLs. Enterprise grade drives will be tested & vetted, and will be guaranteed to work in particular platforms. Consumer grade drives will be expected to work in consumer grade computers, and are not vetted for other platforms.

In general, if: 1.) you are very comfortable with supporting your own hardware, and 2.) you have a good understanding of how to avoid data loss through redundancy/backups, then there is no real problem with using consumer grade gear.